Hey, MisWired here. And today, well, I want to try something new. I’ve been doing some thinking, and I’ve come to some realization. Instead of focusing on my experiences, why don’t I call on my experiences in order to see how things can be fixed. And where better to start than the diagnosis and school support.
I was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 13, so I’m looking at it from a “late-ish diagnosis”/ undiagnosed point of view. I did the majority of my early learning in the US, so I can’t necessarily talk about the Kenyan education system from childhood from an ADHD perspective, but I would like to think there won’t be that much of a difference. But from my experiences, I would like to think that schools should know what to look for and give parents the proper advice. Honestly, the biggest detriment I’ve noticed with my ADHD is that I didn’t accept it early enough. So early diagnosis is honestly the best option. But once you get the diagnosis, the next thing we have to focus on is support, especially in schools. Something I’ve heard quite a bit is that learning is split 90-10, with the student doing 90% of the learning and the lecturer does the rest. But personally, when you’re dealing with students that have ADHD or any form of learning disorder, it should be a 60-30-10 split, with the student doing 60% of the work, lecturers doing 30% and parents doing 10%. Despite common thinking, parents shouldn’t take a backseat in their child’s learning experience when their child has a learning disorder. Parents should be able to get their children into a rhythm that allows them to work at their best while still taking into consideration that they may not be able to perform at the same level as a child with a neurotypical brain.
At the end of the day, the reason that a child with a learning disability ends up reluctant to try is that they become easily frustrated when they can’t seem to keep up with their classmates not realizing that they are unable to. And without realizing it, the pent up frustration from school can and will spill over into their home lives. But at the end of the day, the child needs to lean themselves as well as you needing to learn them. Forcing them into a routine that doesn’t work for them helps no one and will make your life a living hell. But at the end of the day, not every child is made the same, just the same way that no two learning disorders are the same.
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