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Textbook Site for: Learning Disabilities and Related Disorders, Tenth Edition Janet W. Lerner, Northeastern Illinois University Frank Kline, Seattle Pacific University Additional Resources Chapter 1: Case Study: Albert Einstein Albert Einstein, who is universally recognized as a genius and whose creative and innovative ideas revolutionized modem physics, exhibited characteristics of learning disabilities both as a child and as an adult (Patten, 1973). Albert's early years were normal in terms of motor development, but a language delay was evident in his preschool years. Albert did not speak at all until he was three years old. Even after he began to use language, his search for words was laborious. Until age seven, Albert had to practice saying each sentence he intended to speak by first saying it to himself, moving his lips while doing so. Albert's behavior as a child was volatile and impulsive—even violent, at times. At age five, he became so furious that he threw a chair at his tutor, an act that so frightened her that she refused to return to teaching him. In a fit of temper, he threw a heavy bowling ball at his sister. On another occasion he tried to knock a hole in his sister's head with a gardening tool. During his childhood years, Albert showed extraordinary ability and interest in construction activities. He built intricate and colossal playing-card houses, some of them fourteen stories high. He also enjoyed playing with large jigsaw puzzles and constructing buildings from prefabricated blocks. All these activities required patience, precision, thoroughness, and facility with spatial relations. School did not go well for young Albert The school he attended until age fifteen was in Munich, Germany. This school was word oriented, requiring much oral repeating of material to be learned. Much of the teaching stressed rote learning and memorization. Although he tried to be a diligent student, these tasks proved to be very difficult for Albert. He had difficulty in all his school subjects, but especially in arithmetic and foreign languages. During an evaluation of Albert's progress, one of his teachers at this school predicted that nothing good would come of the young Einstein. At age fifteen, Albert was transferred to a different school, an event that was a turning point in his life. This new school, located near Zurich, Switzerland, was founded by Johann Pestalozzi, the Swiss educational reformer. The atmosphere of this school was relaxed and informal, and the curriculum encouraged conceptual thinking based on visual learning. Rather than teaching through memory and rote learning, the teachers used maps, diagrams, and other visual materials. Albert flourished in this school. Even in his adult years, verbal thinking and communication continued to be difficult for Einstein; expressing thoughts and ideas in words continued to be laborious. He said that he rarely thought in words. His technical writing explaining his ideas was described as awkward and redundant. Einstein thought in pictures; he had an extraordinary visual imagery that penetrated his thought processes. His style of thinking was completely different from that required in developing logical verbal formalism. When teaching was accommodated to his type of thinking and learning, Einstein's genius could flower. QUESTIONS How would you describe Albert Einstein's learning disabilities? What were Einstein's areas of weakness? Einstein attended two schools. How did each affect his learning? Submit your answers. Either print your answers out for submission or email them to your instructor. Site Map | Partners | Press Releases | Company Home | Contact Us Copyright Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms and Conditions of Use, Privacy Statement, and Trademark Information