One of the hardest things about NVLD is that challenges can show up outside the academic settings, and more often, during these times, the students receive little or no support. This is hard because, often, IEP Teams focus just on academic needs. Yes, in many cases, students love this as without the support, they have more independence, but they must also be realistic about the challenges they can face in classes such as Gym and Technology.
For example, I never learned how to open my gym locker until 9th grade and had to depend on my gym teachers, Penny and Mary , to open it up for me. While this may not sound like a big deal, it was as, during the school day, issues always arise, so there were times my locker wasn’t open until the last minute, which made things a bit stressful at times. This happened because the aides’ schedules were full of supporting others in academic classes and because I didn’t have behavior needs, they didn’t need to support me. If I had personal support as I had in academic classes, things would have been taken care of more effectively, and perhaps I could have practiced opening my locker by myself before or after class.
Another example is my teachers initially needed to keep a close eye on me and others with a similar disability as we had a high risk of being bullied given our hidden disabilities. Gym class was a perfect opportunity for bullying as we weren’t always near our teacher and were more susceptible. Fortunately, I had great peer support and was taken care of. Regretfully others did not, and it often got to the point they became afraid to go to the gym. Having a teacher’s aide or a physical therapist provide push-in services for gym classes would be very helpful for individuals with an NVLD or other gross-motor deficits to help minimize bullying. Having that extra adult in the room can make all the difference for personal safety. A physical therapist could also help the class understand the students’ challenges more so other students could have more empathy.
In terms of the technology, it was incredibly hard for me to complete projects on my own. This was because I had poor fine motor and spatial skills, so at times it seemed like I hadn’t been working on the projects. This would cause some of my classmates to be a little jealous of me since the rest of the students who weren’t working on the pace were given deadlines while I was not. Fortunately for me, my teacher knew I was doing my best and went the extra mile to help me. I think, however, that having an occupational therapist provide push-in services would have been helpful as this would allow the students like myself the opportunity to work on their fine motor skills in a regular setting and allow the teacher more time to work with other students.
Moreover, this resulted in him needing to give me much more attention, which was sometimes uncomfortable. I was aware I was the only student with a disability in the class, and some classmates hesitated to ask our teacher for help as they could see I greatly needed his assistance. Therefore, another form of support would be having a responsible upperclassman who has taken many technology courses directly support you. Given the nature of the course, having someone with a lot of background in tech classes is beneficial.
One of the reasons for receiving less support in the non-academic setting is that NVLD deficits have key differences from other learning disabilities. However, support can be provided by reviewing the student IEP to see where support is most needed. For example, in 6th grade, the shared aide for the learning disabled students for our section came to gym class to support us because reading was a strength for me. The other four students had reading in the resource room, so no aide was needed then, which freed her up to come to give us support during Gym class. This wasn’t a typical set up though reviewing our IEPS closely, this arrangement made the most sense and gave us some support outside our core academics.
Overall, I look back and think that while I loved going to non- core classes like gym and technology on my own, I know I needed more support in technology rather than a class like English and History..So when assigning support, it’s so important to balance everyone’s weaknesses, so accurate support can be given as many students face challenges that aren’t always in the traditional academic courses.
Eileen
Eileen is a Project Social Ambassador and blogger for The NVLD Project. She loves helping others understand they can achieve their goals and dreams through hard work and dedication.
