Learning Curves by Reji Mathew
ADVANCE for Occupational Therapy Practitioners, 11/2008

How do patients learn? This question is often overlooked in medical rehabilitation, yet persons with chronic and progressive disabilities face enormous learning challenges. They must not only integrate a flood of new information, but also negotiate the challenges of layered learning: relearning, unlearning or adapting what they already know in order to re-establish their lives.
/…/ The remarkable story of Ken Kunken, Esq., offers insight into the complex journey of layered learning for persons with disabilities. Kunken, now 58, suffered a spinal cord injury (SCI) during a college football game in 1970. He has lived with quadriplegia for 38 years. He currently serves as a deputy bureau chief for the Nassau County district attorney’s office in New York, supervising 26 assistant district attorneys. /full article/