Read on Twitter
With relatively minor encouragement, Mati is independently taking notes in his biology class. It's about cellular respiration. He is doing GREAT and is genuinely interested in the topic (he checked out a few biology books from the library and read them).
A few thoughts:
A few thoughts:
1) This is not where we were before the pandemic. He was interested, but he pretty much sat in front of the zoom and needed help with everything related to transitions and *approaches* to learning. The actual learning was fine but he did not have the *skills*.
2) It doesn't look like anybody taught him studying skills & strategies in school previously.
Kids w. learning disabilities, speech disabilities and/or autistic kids need help figuring out learning strategies that work for neurodiverse minds. @bogiperson 's research is abt this.
Kids w. learning disabilities, speech disabilities and/or autistic kids need help figuring out learning strategies that work for neurodiverse minds. @bogiperson 's research is abt this.
3) we suspect there might be two reasons nobody taught him learning strategies in school. First, we keep seeing educators who simply refuse to believe that our kid is capable of learning (because of his learning speech disability).
During transition to middle school a few years ago, we were outright told that he should be placed in a more restrictive environment because "he has consistently tested in the 1% percentile in standardized school district tests." We fought and eventually won.
Weird, the fact that they have not adapted our kid's tests appropriately (as IEP mandates) for him to succeed meant, for some of them, that he was incapable of learning.
When we won, he worked with a teacher who believed in him and worked hard to adapt his tests. He succeeded.
When we won, he worked with a teacher who believed in him and worked hard to adapt his tests. He succeeded.
The second reason is, simply, that neurotypicals, even trained professionals, are not as a rule that great in figuring out how to adapt the material and teach learning strategies to neurodiverse and disabled kid (wonderful exceptions exist, but overall this has been our exper).
I am sorry to say that just as it's hard for us neurodiverse people to figure out neurotypical people, this is also true in reverse. I wish schools would adopt and teach strategies that we neurodiverse people develop for ourselves. Plus, it's important to understand anxiety.
During the pandemic, the kid had access to his two neurodiverse parents who helped him figure out how to study. He also sees us studying/working. We also all have anxiety and try to learn and put into practice (with varying success) anti-anxiety strategies.
Kid is still taking biology notes with great interest and determination, but he needs to transition to PE.... I am wrapping up for now :)
Thank you for reading!
Thank you for reading!
