Growing up, my parents never kept me from being involved in the community and at school as they were strong believers that inclusion needs to occur in all settings. Through this experience I had a great group of peer and adult support and was never a target for bullying. Yet it still brought challenges as on occasion as the resource room teachers didn’t quite understand why I was getting the extra attention from peers and teachers.
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One of the hardest things about overcoming an NVLD is that you have significant weaknesses and unique strengths so you need to figure out how to manage the two. Due to this you should remember when making some decisions about your IEP it is okay to say no at times. While having too many services and taking less challenging courses may seem beneficial, it can do more harm than good. Since it can negatively impact your self-esteem as you are reminded of your disability too much and you can feel you can’t achieve as much as your peers.
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In my previous piece I wrote about my biggest disappointments growing up in the small town of Ogdensburg. That was while inclusion was so important, there were always pieces missing. This is because they generally went for partial inclusion rather than full inclusion.
For example during my high school years we had C courses which were the least challenging and just for resource room students for English and Social studies. They included support of a resource room teacher, teacher’s aide, and sometimes a speech therapist. Due to these classes being limited to resource room students these students weren’t full inclusion students and for some students this was a mistake.
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One of my biggest disappointments growing up in the small town of Ogdensburg was that while inclusion was so important, there were always pieces missing. Inclusion is so much more than just putting us with regular peers; it is giving us equal opportunities to achieve our full potential and to connect with others.
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While forming relationships with your teachers is especially important for an NVLD student, or any learning disability for that matter, it is equally as important for these students to have a relationship with a coach. As a coach and athlete, the relationship in many cases is more casual and you can have more heart to heart conversations about what you’re going through. The level of attention you receive is also so greater as your coaches have less teammates than teachers have students. Read More
Growing up, I would occasionally become confused about why it was so important to my parents for me to be so connected socially with others as those with similar challenges seemed okay just doing the journey by themselves. Now in adulthood, I understand it completely as having significant personal connections makes the journey easier and is a major self-esteem booster. Read More
One of the things I have learned growing up with an NVLD is that it is important to take regular education courses and to be part of activities with neurotypical students. While we struggle to learn the proper interaction in social situations, we can do fairly well learning through experiences with the proper role models. Yes, it requires extra work on your end. In the end, it can make a tremendous difference. Read More
One of the biggest challenges of growing up with an NVLD can be understanding the need for speech therapy and the importance of developing a great relationship with your speech therapist. Regretfully, there continues to be a stigma about being in speech therapy especially for teenagers. Often your needs are much different than others so you feel out of place. Truthfully, your speech therapist is the one that helps you enjoy your school day better as communication and social skills are necessary to be able to effectively connect with others. Read More
It’s no secret that I am a tremendous supporter for inclusion in sports. Many of my life long friends are former teammates and my biggest supporter is my former coach. For this coming school year, I strongly believe it is extremely important that more individuals with an NVLD or similar disability get involved in sports especially in the fall season as it’s an everyday activity especially at the secondary level. Since the hybrid model that kids are following in schools has really limited opportunities for social interactions, being part of sports teams leads to great social growth. Read More
As discussed in the previous piece, during high school I tended to be too rude and stubborn toward others which made me a difficult person to be around at times. Eventually, it changed to being too sweet and kind which in itself brought the same amount of challenges as being too rude, and at times it was worse. Read More