School Disability Services- What Helped? What Didn’t?
Hello All,
Let’s talk about school services. I’m a grad student currently working on my master’s degree in speech-language pathology. I also happen to have a diagnosis of severe ADHD- combined type (hyperactive and inattentive). I love learning but school has never been easy for me. Many of my teachers didn’t know how to help me and some were insistent that I needed to be in special ed classes. I hear some similar frustrations from PWS when speaking about their school experiences. As a college student, I was encouraged to look into disability services but I found that there wasn’t much they could offer me. I am about to start an internship at an elementary school in the spring and I’d like to be more supportive than the teachers I had. So, what services, if any, did you received, were they helpful, and is there anything you wish they would provide PWS at any level of education? Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
Rachel
Thanks for sharing your personal story, Rachel. Sorry to hear you didn’t get much help. I wish teachers would learn more about stuttering, as it’s mostly about language problems (apart from deaf-blind-wheelchair-ADHD spectrum), while speech is of major importance in communication, and could even influence grading, social interacting, job choice, etc. This is great material available, broschures, leaflets, movies etc, but seldomly used by teachers. Somehow they think stuttering is not a problem (which I’ve been told when I visited schools talking about stuttering), which CWS have a different story.
Stuttering doesn’t need major or expensive adjustments, but the adjustments we need are crucial. Such as time to speak, presenting for just a few friends or just the teacher, record instead of doing presentations live, and maybe use Dec 3 (International Day of People with Disabilities) to get hidden and more unknown disabilities out in the open.
National stuttering associations have a lot of great tips for teachers. 🙂
Stay safe and keep them talking
Anita