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Here’s why distance learning has worked for my teen (a thread of stuff): He can stop videos and rewatch what confused him. He can go back to online presentations to check things.
Thanks to his ADHD, he is generally very disorganized. But now all his work lives online and there are no papers to lose.
He has less anxiety issues because he’s not spending all of class waiting to be called on or worried about getting lost.
In school, he gets caught up in whatever is going on and likes to be the clown. Distance learning removes that and thus removes all the behavior troubles.
He can listen to music, flop on the floor, beatbox, pace around etc while he learns.
He can rearrange his work for the day in ways that make sense—get math done first etc—and isn’t locked into classwork corresponding to class time.
For me, this has all been eye opening. I did fine in traditional school. I was always a little bored—I’d been given a chance to skip grades twice and my parents didn’t let me—but I knew how to play the game.
I did not need help being organized or motivated. My very type A brain has always struggled to understand Callum’s, with his complete lack of executive functioning skills.
He will look like he’s totally checked out during a recorded lecture (whereas I’d be taking frantic notes), but then can spit back all the main facts to me.
Distance learning is certainly not a fit for everyone. It’s creating bigger gaps and inequities. But traditional person school is also not a fit for everyone and certainly has tons of systemic problems. It’s just so interesting to see him thrive and witness how he learns best.
