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Article Excerpt
Abstract. This study examined children's presentations of the "LD experience" as expressed in online messages on a public website designed for children with learning and attention problems. Earlier research has demonstrated that children view the Internet as a social medium that enables communication and promotes personal relationships. In the current study, we assumed that students with LD would treat this specially designed website as a "safe environment," enabling them to present their self-identities as children with LD and to share the personal meaning of their challenges. By studying their online messages, we sought to develop a deeper understanding of the children's thoughts, feelings and attitudes, as well as the ways they present themselves online. Theme analysis was performed on 4,903 e-mails sent from 164 self-identified LD participants ages 9-18. Six major themes emerged: (a) LD identity presentation; (b) disclosure of academic difficulties; (c-d) disclosure of emotional problems and social distress; (e) requests for help; and (f) description of positive aspects of LD. Results demonstrated the potential the study of online messaging has for understanding the LD experience. Implications for practice, considerations regarding future studies, and study limitations are discussed.
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In the 1999 surreal film comedy Being John Malkovich, a man accidentally finds a passageway, or "portal," into the mind of actor John Malkovich. Anyone entering this portal sees and experiences the world as Mr. Malkovich. As researchers, we can only fantasize about how such a portal into the mind of a child with learning disabilities (LD) would enhance our knowledge and understanding of the "LD experience." Although such a possibility is merely fantasy, the entry of the Internet into the lives of children may provide a window from which to view the "inner life" of children with LD. Thus, the establishment of virtual, but authentic communities, where children exchange electronic communications on topics of personal significance and interest in what they consider to be a comfortable and "safe" environment presents researchers with a new and rich data source for understanding the "insiders' perspective." Indeed, these virtual communities may be the closest thing we have to a portal into the minds of children with LD.
The current descriptive study examined children's presentations of the "LD experience" as expressed in their online messages written on a pre-existing public website designed for children with learning and attention problems (see p. 257 for website description). (1,2) We assumed that students with LD would treat the Internet as a "safe environment," allowing them to present and share the personal meaning of their LD. By studying their online messages, we sought to develop a deeper understanding of their thoughts, feelings, and attitudes--both positive and negative--as well as the ways in which they present themselves online. Thus, their messages were used as a portal to view the hopes, fears, needs, joys, as well as difficulties and frustrations of children with LD. Our research utilized a "child-centered" approach, viewing children as active agents in the virtual environment, establishing their personal and social identities, exhibiting their strengths and struggling with their difficulties. This research also sought to explore children's descriptions of their difficulties and abilities relative to those described in the research literature.
In the first part of this article we present a survey of the literature and the conceptual underpinnings for studying people's (including those with LD) self-expression, self-perception, and self-presentation on the Internet. We believe such a theoretical review is necessary considering the promise virtual environments hold for clarifying inner experiences and the limited research in this area to date.
Existent life stories of adults with LD (McNulty, 2003; Rodis, Garrod, & Boscardin, 2001; Wambsgan, 1990) provide insight into distressed experiences, but do so from a retrospective point of view. Studies investigating the LD experience from the child's "insider perspective" are quite limited (MacArthur, 2003). Additionally, while these studies (e.g., Albinger, 1995; Guterman, 1995; Reid & Button, 1995) have shed light on the insider's view, they included a small number of children, and employed interview, discussion, and writing prompts initiated by adults. In contrast, the present study investigated the serf-initiated communications of a relatively large number of children with learning difficulties in a virtual, but nonetheless authentic environment.
One study (Ferri, 2000) did use an electronic-mail discussion group to study the experiences of women living with LD. However, this study focused on adults and, therefore, was not representative of children's voices. To date, we have not been able to find published studies that have used the Internet to explore the emotional and social experiences of children with LD as they unfolded in "real time" through serf-generated electronic communication.
DIFFICULTIES OF STUDENTS WITH LD
While acknowledging the heterogeneity and individual differences of children with LD, the academic, social, and emotional difficulties of this population have been well documented (e.g., Bryan, Burstein, & Ergul, 2004; Kavale & Forness, 1995; Kavale & Mostert, 2004; Swanson, Harris, & Graham, 2003; Swanson, Hoskyn, & Lee, 1999; Swanson & Keogh, 1990; Vaughn, Elbaum, Schumm, & Hughes, 1998). Many students with LD experience and report academic difficulties in such areas as reading, writing, speaking, listening, math, organization, and memory (e.g., Stone & May, 2002). Additionally, research indicates that children with LD are often socially rejected by their peers, and have difficulties establishing and maintaining friendships (Wiener, 2002, 2004; Wiener & Schneider, 2002). Furthermore, children with LD are at greater risk for experiencing loneliness, low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression than nondisabled peers (Margalit, 1994; Margalit & A-Yagon, 2002).
It is important to note that not all students with LD experience this range of difficulties. Indeed studies have documented a resilient group of individuals who succeed in coping with their challenges (e.g., Margalit, 2003). Our research and interest in resilience and empowering approaches for students with LD directed our attention to the possibilities of the Internet as an environment that may enhance resilience and help students with LD to cope with their distress by openly sharing their identities and concerns. Without discounting theoretical approaches that consider LD a social construct--locating learning and learning problems in the context of human relations and activity (Dudley-Marling, 2004; Reid & Valle, 2004)--we consider students with LD as active individuals who struggle with their difficulties. In order to empower their efforts, we explore their self-perception and interpersonal experiences, searching for a clear identification of their differentiated needs for help, support and understanding,
The Internet as a Safe Environment for Interpersonal Communication
The entry of the Internet into the lives of children presents a new opportunity for them to disclose their inner lives, and for researchers to gain a deeper understanding of children's self-perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. Computers and the Internet have prompted many changes in the lives of students with and without disabilities, comparable to, and even beyond, the impact of television (Cole et al., 2004). Thus, the Internet is a social medium for many children, enabling communication and prompting the formation of personal relationships. Therefore, it may be considered influential in transforming the social life of youngsters and affecting their communication and self-expression (Kraut et al., 2002).
The internet enables new forms of communication, extending the boundaries of time and space, freeing individuals from the constraints of geography, and possibly the isolation brought on by disability or poor social skills during typical face-to-face interactions. Further, the Internet allows people to join groups on the basis of common interests without dependence on the accurate expression and interpretation of the social cues required during face-to-face interactions (Kraut et al., 1998). At the same time, it is unclear whether the Internet, in some instances, is causing people to become socially isolated and to be cut off from face-to-face social relations, as they are able to communicate with anonymous strangers through a "socially impoverished" medium (Turkle, 1996). Recent surveys of studies exploring the effects of the Internet (Bargh & McKenna, 2004) have shown that, at present, no clear social impact can be generalized and that people's individual goals, as well as their unique personalities, interact dynamically with the distinctive characteristics of the Internet.
Surveys of studies (Bargh & McKenna, 2004; McKenna, Green, & Gleason 2002) reveal that (a) people are better able to express their "true selves" (those aspects of themselves that they feel are important, but that they are usually unable or not ready to present in public) to their partners over the Internet than during face-to-face communication; and (b) when Internet partners like each other, they tend (more than during face-to-face interactions) to project qualities of their ideal friends onto each other. According to McKenna et al. (2002), people who are lonely or socially anxious are especially able to find their "true selves" on line, which leads to the formation of close and meaningful online relationships that appear to be durable and stable over time. These results are important for students with LD, since studies of their social experiences have revealed that, as a group, they report higher levels of loneliness (Margalit, 1994; Margalit & Al-Yagon, 2002) as well as social skill deficits (Wiener, 2002, 2004; Wiener & Schneider, 2002) than their nondisabled peers.
The relative anonymity of the Internet may contribute to the formation of close relationships and trust by reducing the risks inherent in self-disclosure. Further, because self-disclosure contributes to a sense of intimacy, making self-disclosure easier should facilitate relationship formation. In this regard, Internet communication resembles the "strangers on a train" phenomenon described by Rubin (1975), whereby intimate details of one's "self" may be disclosed to a stranger even more so than to one's friends or family. The intimacy developed on the Internet may serve to increase the rate of interpersonal trust (Bargh & McKenna, 2004). Overall, the evidence suggests that, rather than being a personally and socially isolating maladaptive activity, communicating with others over the Internet not only helps to maintain close ties with one's family and friends, but also, if the individual is so inclined, to facilitate the formation of close and meaningful new relationships within what is felt to be a relatively safe environment. In order to increase an understanding of this process, we now present the theoretical basis of self-disclosure.
Self-Disclosure and Self-Identity
Self-disclosure is the act of revealing personal information to others (Archer, 1980). Usually, the behavior of self-disclosure is associated with close relationships and friendships. However, Internet-based behavior can be characterized as fostering high levels of trust, leading to increased self-disclosure even among people who are not initially in close personal relationships with each other.
Several explanations have been offered for this phenomenon. Some researchers have suggested that computer-mediated communication (CMC), because of its reduced social cues, may lead to a reduction in social constraints (Joinson, 2001). However, this interpretation is not without criticism. Joinson (2001) has stressed that the anonymity of online interactions allows the individual to express his or her "true mind," or "authentic self," unfettered by concerns of self-presentation (e.g., physical appearance, nonverbal communication deficits) and the outcomes of face-to-face self-disclosure. People disclose more information about themselves during CMC compared to face-to-face communication. This is not necessarily due to any de-individuation experience (loss of internal, self-regulated control over behavior resulting from anonymity and reduced private self-awareness [Bargh, 2002]), but may be due to the interaction between anonymity (i.e., reduced public self-awareness) and heightened private self-awareness. Thus, it is possible that the environment in which people engage in CMC encourages private self-focus. Since CMC is often undertaken in a quiet room as a solitary activity, it may foster the development of an introspective and/or reflective state of mind.
A further explanation may be that the computer acts as a "mirror" that reflects back to the communicants themselves, leading to private self-focusing. While emotions are usually expressed face-to-face (e.g., we smile in response to a smile), an electronic text-based communication sent in private may lead to heightened self-awareness by focusing the user on his or her inner feelings rather than reacting to another person face-to-face. The ability to communicate within a virtual environment without the need for face-to-face interaction may be particularly liberating and have compensatory value for children with LD who have difficulties in face-to-face nonverbal communication (Axelrod, 1982; Dimitrovsky, Spector, Levy-Schiff, & Vakil, 1998; Nabuzoka & Smith, 1995; Sisterhen & Gerber, 1989). Alternatively, it is not known whether the writing difficulties of children with LD might interfere with the spontaneous disclosure of their "selves"--their thoughts, feelings, and attitudes.
Research indicates that our selves are portrayed by both physical and psychological features (Harter, 1998). Therefore, the anonymous nature of online interactions may provide the...
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