Looking SpaceFox’s question for people who have been in special ed, it seems pretty like its a pretty negative experience. So, I’d like to know what Lemmy users have seen work well for people who need extra help in school? What haven’t you seen but think would be helpful?
Small class sizes with alternative teaching methods were absolutely invaluable to my ADHD ass before diagnosis. I was the stereotypical “Gosh he’s gifted but he’s always so lazy” ADHD kid so small class sizes (it was a group of four of us) to really focus on math kept me engaged and from falling into the ADHD death spiral.
I replied to @SpaceFox@lemmy.ml, and you can find my reply here.
Here’s the things that actually helped me:
- Teachers/authority figures making me feel heard and valued. (From ECS to Highschool graduation, I had maybe 4 teachers who really went out of their way to help)
- Fellow students who stood up/spoke up for me (I had a group of boys corner me in the washroom and start berating me and until I broke down and started crying. A boy, who I didn’t even know his name, but was accqainted with came in and stood up to the group. I will never forget what he did.)
- Friends
- people going out of their way to make me feel welcome (when it happened I didn’t know why they were being so nice to me.)
Things I think would have helped:
- Knowing that it’s okay to need help
- someone telling me the things happening are not acceptable or normal
Used to drive them to and from school for some time. No, we do not need or even get any special training. Yes, I did have from learning disabilities, trisom, trauma and those in wheelchairs I need to lift in their seat everything up to walking potatoes that needed to be physically restrained not to hurt themselves or anyone around.
From what I’ve seen is that those who have friends tend to do better, also, if the IQ difference is too much, the dumbest kids will drag down the experience of everyone else, even in small 4 kid 2 teacher groups.
Not so much special education, more special exam conditions.
I have ADHD and dysgraphia (chronically bad at handwriting). For exams I was allowed to opt into using a computer to write for my exams in high school. All of the special exam students were in a separate room from most of the students, and it was disconnected from the internet and there was a teacher watching us much more closely than the main group.
This was really good for me, and I would have done much worse if it wasn’t for this. Sure, I didn’t use it for every exam, since typing maths is slow and painful, but for the essay exams it was great.