Living With An Invisible Disability

1
Living With An Invisible Disability

• By Belinda

2
My Disability

• Strengths
• Visual reasoning
• General knowledge
• This supports
• Helps long term memory be more efficient
• Problem solving
• Interpersonal skills

• Weaknesses
• Auditory processing
• Cognitive efficiency
• Working memory
• Processing speed
• Affects
• Auditory perception and efficiency
• Encoding and decoding (spelling and reading)
• Attention and concentration

3
Analogy My Cell Phone

• It is very staticy when receive information and
  sometimes when I send it.
• Because my reception isnt very good, this
  effects whether or not Im getting the proper
  message.

4
My Disability

• Academically
• Cant spel
• Always loose marks for Grammar
• By the time I read a paragraph, I forgot what it
  is that I read.
• Not able to do math problems because my visual
  memory is low. So Im not able to remember a
  sequence of visual information.

5
My Disability contd

• Socially
• Forget birthdays
• Forget names
• Called Huxley
• Stigma

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My Disability contd

• Health- co-morbid problems
• Migraines
• Tendonitis
• Fear of misdiagnoses because I dont feel that
  Im explaining myself properly. (glasses when I
  was a kid)
• Upset stomach with anxiety
• Speech impediment

7
In elementary school

• At first I was deemed lazy
• Some teachers thought it would be in my best
  interest to yell at me. YUCK
• Finally my grade 3 teacher flagged me
• I was identified and assessed
• Dyslexic with speech impediment
• Sent to resource 2 hours each day
• Speech therapy
• Remediation in reading and writing
• Resource support continued until grade 6

8
In middle and high school

• By grade 7 I was affected by the stigma of a
  learning disability.
• Decided I wasnt going to be identified.
• Continued without support from the school.
• How I survived as an honour student
• Spent 4-5 hours a night reading and doing
  homework.
• Mom edited all my work.
• Hid my LD and suffered socially
• Finally gave up and quit high school

9
My return to education

• Returned as a mature student 13 years later
• Wow Canadore
• Was reassessed, and received
• A new perception of my strengths and weaknesses
• Appropriate accommodation including technology
• Transfer to Nipissing
• Continued with support with Disability Services
• Receptive, helpful, go-out-of-their-way teachers.
• Negative views of education now became positive.

10
Strategies I use now

• Self Advocate
• Know my learning style
• Testing accommodations
• Lighter Course Load
• Adaptive Tools and Technology
• Kurzweil, Inspiration, Dragons, digital recorder,
  lap top, pocket PC, speaking dictionary

11
Self-Advocacy

• My experience with self-advocacy
• Being shy never got me anywhere in life.
• Its a great way to start conversations with your
  professors.
• If Im vocal about my struggles, others may be
  able to help (library).
• I won the Marc Chenier Award.

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Advice for Teachers

• Remediation was valuable, however
• Missed regular classroom learning.
• There was a stigma attached to being pulled out
  of class.
• The extra work that I required finally got the
  better of me in high school.
• Be patient
• Be creative with teaching strategies
• Accommodation would have helped