the second for sure. once a year there’d be that teacher who’d try to connect and it always went the same way. they’d assume i was feeling insecure about my ability and statements like “i hate touching this paper” or “grades are meaningless nonsense” were part of that. they needle me until i said fine and did a weeks worth of class material in one sitting. then they go “oh see this is amazing you’d be a straight A student if you applied yourself”. meanwhile my stress level is at an 11 from all the tactile sensery hell. and from that point on i’d just ditch their class.
my son is in a great communication and interaction program with dedicated space inside the school. lots of sensory adaptive tools and quiet areas. theres awareness that some of the kids just dont care about being praised, but making the content contextually relavent and assuming they have the self awareness to decide does work. though praise definitely works with my son. had a lot of really interesting discussions with his teacher. i may very well have had a wildy different experiance if that space had existed 30 years ago. at the time all that i wanted was to do self paced remote classes where i could submit everything via computer. which by highschool was an option. but at that time the only goal was me in a gen-ed classroom with my behavior adjusted to make everyone else around me comfotable. allowing me to do what would work for me was seen as failure by everyone making decisions.
for the tactile part specifically. e-readers, stone paper for writing and terraslate if i need printed materials. have significantly improved my life.
the second for sure. once a year there’d be that teacher who’d try to connect and it always went the same way. they’d assume i was feeling insecure about my ability and statements like “i hate touching this paper” or “grades are meaningless nonsense” were part of that. they needle me until i said fine and did a weeks worth of class material in one sitting. then they go “oh see this is amazing you’d be a straight A student if you applied yourself”. meanwhile my stress level is at an 11 from all the tactile sensery hell. and from that point on i’d just ditch their class.
If you were a teacher and were trying to get the best outcomes for kids like you, what would you do?
my son is in a great communication and interaction program with dedicated space inside the school. lots of sensory adaptive tools and quiet areas. theres awareness that some of the kids just dont care about being praised, but making the content contextually relavent and assuming they have the self awareness to decide does work. though praise definitely works with my son. had a lot of really interesting discussions with his teacher. i may very well have had a wildy different experiance if that space had existed 30 years ago. at the time all that i wanted was to do self paced remote classes where i could submit everything via computer. which by highschool was an option. but at that time the only goal was me in a gen-ed classroom with my behavior adjusted to make everyone else around me comfotable. allowing me to do what would work for me was seen as failure by everyone making decisions.
for the tactile part specifically. e-readers, stone paper for writing and terraslate if i need printed materials. have significantly improved my life.