Comment on Why does everyone here think they're autistic or ADHD? The memes all describe normal human foibles.
bstix@feddit.dk 3 days ago
I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone is somewhere on the spectrum.
The question of whether to get a diagnosis is more about handling any issues that come from it. Some people need medication, some people needs extra help with certain things and some people just needs to know about it - in order to function in the way that makes sense to them.
If you need those things to function, it will help to get a diagnosis, because it can it a lot easier to get that help, especially if it’s medical.
But, make no mistake. Everyone has something. It’s only a question of whether you need to treat it.
In a perfect world where there was no prejudice, we could be screening all school children and hand out paperwork along the grades, so you’d get an 8 in Math class and a 4 in ADHD. You know, just to get a full picture of the person.
But joking aside, there’s no reason why teaching can’t be more inclusive of these issues and just teach everyone as if they have autism and ADHD, even if they do not have a diagnosis. More often than not it’s only a matter of being allowed extra time for certain tasks or a slightly more pedagogical approach. Everyone can benefit from that, so it’s completely wrong to place diagnosed kids in special classes, when what is really needed is better educated teachers.
NotANumber@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
I think there is a lack of understanding here and it’s the same lack of understanding I see in the late diagnosed parts of the community. For some people it is a lot more disabling than others. There are many that can’t actually function fully independently. Arguably no one with a formal diagnosis should really function fully independently without some kind of support system or therapy or medication in place.
You also can’t cater to everyone in mainstream education. There is a very good reason why special education exists. This is one of those takes that suggests dismantling a system just because you haven’t experienced the reasons for its existence.
bstix@feddit.dk 3 days ago
That’s a valid point.
What I’m addressing is that after the EU mandated schools to include everyone in the same classes, things just don’t work.
It used to be one class with “normal” students and one class with *special " students, each with their own teachers. This was highly ostracizing to a lot of pupils who had a mild ADD diagnosis, and that number keeps increasing as parents become more accepting and take their kids for diagnosis.
The current strategy is include everyone in one class and then use supplemental teachers where it’s necessary. Big unsurprising shock is that it’s necessary to have a speciel teacher attached to every single class and they can’t find neither funding or qualified teachers. Surprised Pikachu!
It would be easy to say that we should go back to the old system, but that is also wrong. What they need is to educate every teacher to be able to include the “special” students.
I’m not saying there shouldn’t be a “special” class, but it should be reserved for the pupils who are further out on the spectrum.
When I was a kid myself, the special class was for kids with Downs. That hardly exists anymore, because of the option to abort after the chromosome test, and because these kids are funneled into special institutions to begin with. Kids with ADHD or autism would be in normal classes and failing because nobody recognized it as a handicap. They do now, but prior to the EU decision it was the opposite problem. The special classes were full of kids with mild diagnoses. The EU decision addressed this issue, but it wasn’t the right way, because there was no money given to update the qualifications of the teach.
Mmwhat I am suggesting is that we accept the inclusion, but also that we to ensure that all teachers are capable of handling it. We shouldn’t ostracize kids with mild diagnoses by putting then in special class or having special teachers. If we want to include them, which we should, we need to go all in on making the mainstream education include them.
NotANumber@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
While giving teachers more education on special needs is always nice to have, it’s not going to solve the need for additional staff. Pretty much all teachers already receive some baseline instructions and training related to handling students with disabilities. There are already classrooms with additional needs kids that only have a single member of staff. For more mild disabilities that’s the standard here in the UK. There are also loads of students like me who going through school needed dedicated staff even if it was in a normal mainstream classroom environment. There are sort of three levels of intervention here: exam arrangements only, additional support in class, and dedicated classrooms. All three are used for good reasons. In some cases you can have different levels of intervention for the same student in different classes depending on how much they struggle in a given academic area, that’s what I had towards the end of my schooling career.