#special needs in education

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that languages change over time is so funny to me. we have thousands of language that work perfectly well, but no that's not good enough, we need to keep fiddling with them. no not making them better, just making them different. why? well, humans enjoy making up words and phrases. for fun. enrichment activity

[neuroticboyfriend]

once again thinking about how fucked up it is that special ed used me and other disabled children as unpaid, coerced labor. i worked enough to be making $100 a week. i was "paid" in fake money redeemable only at the school cafeteria, which i worked at, and was forced to do things that distressed me. they gave us $1 a week, if they remembered to give it to us at all.

this was while i would sometimes go the entire day without eating because i didn't have the money to buy food and the free food was not sensory safe. we also worked outside the community - grocery stores, warehouses, shoe stores security tagging items. all under the guise of job skill development, we did $100 of labor a week without ever getting paid. and we were demeaned while we did it. and we were just teens.

so no, i don't want to hear about how special education is good. not with the way me and my peers were treated and taken advantage of. death to institutionalization, in all forms.

[starry-bi-sky]

*grips your shoulders* an eight year old is not gonna act like that. put the pen down. close the laptop. stop writing for a minute. volunteer at a daycare center for a week or smth. an eight year old is typically (unless they're purposely doing it, but at that point you'll be able to tell) not going to speak in one word sentences. that is a child with a possible developmental delay and should probably get an assessment done. that is a two year old with an MLU score of 2.0 who is struggling with their present possessive verbs. look up the average heights of an eight year old because i promise they're bigger than that.

if your six year old is still doing reduplicated babbling and it's not clearly an on purpose active play decision, then they should probably (re: REALLY) undergo evaluation because one of the first signs of a developmental delay is delayed speech. children begin speaking in two word utterances as young as 18 months old. three year olds on average can hold simple conversations with adults. four year olds absoLUTELy can.

i know it's super fun to write children as being dependent and clingy to their parent for your super fluffy found family child fic but that is not a six year old that is a worryingly large two year old with a mild speech delay. you don't have to be 1:1 accurate, god knows i'm not but please at least know that children on average are capable of holding simple conversations by the time they're 4, and are usually doing the baby talk stuff to be cute or as a play thing. which isn't a bad thing but if they're talking like that unironically and ALL the time, then there is likely a problem in their development.

[vivianseda]

Thank you to Our Sensory Life

“I spent to many years thinking it was normal to be trapped like this and I was just 'lazy'.

If you relate to this, please hear me, you're not lazy. I know how bad it feels.”

Photo credit: Dani Donovan

[sodaslug]

think lot of what is forgotten about, is what a special interest can actually work like for someone and what it means.

first, what special interest can be defined as? well as we know, in the autism criteria such as "special interest" matter is not directly mentioned. though, looking at how this sort of interest manifests in general, would go under repetitive behaviour that impairs an individual to some sort of degree as a result.

autistic people may have a very strong interest in something, could be anything, in which they have a specific focus on a lot of the time, talk a lot about, know more about, which would be called a special interest.

what we forget here, is that a special interest can be very much disabling! to anyone of any degree or level of needs, however it does manifest in different ways and more severe for those with higher needs or those with higher autism support level.

for a lower needs individual, it could be that it impairs them plenty socially, could be something they steer into when communicating quite often creating troubles with talking to others or about things or they struggle to focus on something unrelated to it quite a bit, they may have the capability to consume a lot of information about it and store it ect! not one size fits all matter but seems quite common among lower needs folk by my experience and knowledge.

for someone higher needs in particular, a special interest could manifest veryyyy differently to this and it is often more severe in how it impacts their day to day functioning, it can be something that pretty often even causes the person distress and overwhelm, it could be that not engaging in it is impossible or significantly troubling to do, could be total way of communication, and could also be that actually they struggle to process and understand a lot of information about it and remember it especially with cognitive challenges often come with being higher need.

think its important to note, that special interest doesn't just mean quirky type of interest, but it really does come with some sort of impairment, even minimal, in life

[telesodalite]

Never getting over Fulcrum being a project manager...

Idk why, but something about that is so funny to me. Not just because the title of "project manager" is inherently kinda funny for a Decepticon, but also because-

1. It's vague sounding and hard to explain irl because it technically exists in multiple fields, like healthcare or manufacturing, which surely translates into canon in some way.

2. In canon, it's simultaneously a really mundane, innocuous sounding job, yet it's also a super morally awful position to reside over depending on the context. (*cough* forced colonization and cyberforming *cough*)

And 3. It solidifies the fact that behind all the surface level militaristic work we get with both the Decepticons and Autobots, there's also Cons and Bots with "normal" jobs in both factions.

Like, sure yeah we get scientists and doctors, engineers and programmers, but usually in big important or warfront positions. (For plot reasons, understandably.) But it's also really funny and interesting to think of those that worked background positions, or minor jobs.

Like an Autobot working in their equivalent of an HR department, or a Decepticon who runs one of their outpost's or starship's kitchens.

Just all the pre-war jobs that didn't just disappear with the war, but instead evolved to exist within the factions.

It's particularly funny with the Decepticons though, because it could be a super mundane job or situation, but because it's them, it has to have an air of ~e v i l~ to it, either legitimately and/or merely for the vibes, like Tarn's "performance reviews".

[gayaest]

what does (msn) mean for autism?

“Level 1 - Level 2 - Level 3” in the DSM.

(LSN) Low-Support needs, (MSN) Middle-Support needs, (HSN) High-support needs.

I was in special ed my entire life, as well as discovering (others) I was autistic was very early on (Kindergarten). I’ve always needed extra support specific to my autism, more than LSN autistics need (which is not to say they do not need support — all autistics need some type of support, this is just to help others know how much).

MSN, means that I need substantial help in my day-to-day life to be able to stay alive and functioning. I need a daily caregiver, someone to help me bathe, clothe, food, clean, etc. I wasn’t able to work, go to school myself without some type of accommodations and help from an “aid” or caregiver. I would never have been able to live alone even if I wasn’t physically disabled, because I was always mentally disabled (Autistic).

I just happen to have become physically disabled as well. My old therapist said that Autistic individuals have a higher chance of developing auto-immune disorders and disabilities due to the way the brain and body are connected and work. Especially if that coincides with severe and ongoing trauma, which causes the nervous system to “break down” and immune system to become, well… less immune.

I hope this makes sense, I spent like, 45 minutes writing this to make sure it sounded right.

[spooksforsammy]

The topics of special education, sped students etc are complex. Especially when get into what should be called.

Yes. Call me what Am. Am disabled am autistic. But also no problem called special needs or sped. Because am that.

So many say drop sped and special needs all together. Because the students don’t like. But what about the one do like? Me and some people personally knew liked and were okay with sped + special needs. Sometimes prefer that term.

Don’t be afraid say disabled. Or autistic. Or whatever. But the goal should be call students what they prefer, which could be special needs or sped.

Sometimes to get what need. Have call self sped or special needs. So naturally have no problem. The problem is forcing lable onto others. Especially if have shown discomfort or dislike to that term. Similar to low/ high functioning.

[eddies-disability-swag-blog]

Hello! Autistic (art) teacher of Autistic+ADHD kid here!

So I have an AuDHD 6th grader (so like 9-10 years old) and his classmates infantilize him a fucking lot. His current monitor is also really annoying, she stops him from doing vocal stimming and chewing things, which are extremely fucking harmless. Like, I’m grateful that she stops him from taking things from other people, that she reminds him to continue with work and that she keeps him from running away, but I would be even more greatful if she only did those things.

My student is definitely HSN, with limited speech (speaking in short concise statements, normally single word statements), a fixation with use of his iPad (probably bc ADHD, I do that too to a lesser extent), and, as I mentioned, a tendency to take things that don’t belong to him and to run away. He also is literate, he writes quite a bit.

Anyways, how do I get his classmates to stop infantilizing, condescending, dehumanizing and barking condescending orders to him?

Would I even be able to make it so the monitor lets him be autistic in peace?

Should I stop worrying about it?

Like, I’m his art teacher, I see him two days a week for an hour each. What the fuck am I gonna achieve?

I don’t know what to do. And I know that if I research this or ask questions to other teachers I’m gonna get advice on how to “deal with” the autistic kid, because that’s what they always do because deep down they know they hate us and only see us as an issue to fix rather than fully fledged human beings that deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and not talked to like a fucking dog.

Am I projecting?

I might be projecting.

I just don’t want him to go through a worse version of what I went though. Like, I could at least talk and my stims were small and I didn’t run away as much and I still got infantilized a lot by my peers and teachers. I can’t imagine what he goes through in the daily.

Bloody hell.

[heretherebedork]

How to piss me off even if I like you: call my work with my struggling and highest support needs student babysitting. He might not be learning academically but that doesn't mean we're not teaching him or working on skills and he deserves equal educational time devoted to him as every other student in this classroom. It might look different but that doesn't remove the need. We might not be able to do everything he needs but that doesn't mean we stop trying, damnit.

(I am an aide and mostly his one to one and it drives me bad how many teachers and social workers in particular will refer to the work with him as just babysitting. Especially social workers, frankly. Because they do it the most often. )

[edwinisms]

see I can’t accept charles’ comic background and socioeconomic status as canon for the show because if I did that would mean the whole group would be a bunch of rich kids and that’s a horrifying concept

[woodlaflababab]

My passion: psychology

My assignment: is about psychology and specifically an aspect of psychology I'm very very passionate about

My godamn brain: "Aang found safety and respite from his lowest point at the foot of a volcanic mountain, the same mountain where he met Roku for the first time, you know, his past iteration who was arguably also gay for the firelord and was killed by a volcano thanks to said firelord. I'm just saying, there's something to be said about the fact that Zuko and Aang are actively rewriting the story of Roku and Sozin and Aang is awoken from his lowest point in the hands of the fire his predecessor died in, as both he and Zuko are in the land they avoided, marking where his and Zuko's story is now beginning literally from the ashes of their past lives."

[catcherinwhitebread]

the sudden hatred for college and reading and any kind of critical thinking speaks volumes about the future of our society

[self-spaghettification]

at some request!!

THE VIRAVOS PRESENTATION.

featuring: @pinkmasquerade @thrandilf @bycaprinae @sarasade @disregardcanon @an-actual-attack-helicopter @sooper-nook @phoenixthethief @namespara @i-do-not-know-what-to-call-this @ccreatureculture here on tumblr & @maddiethesaltbender and @azurespiderqueen on discord

it is also on comment mode so if anyone has suggestions. it is ever evolving

[rowsandrowsofnothing]

Nobody can ever tell me that stricter gun laws aren’t necessary. I just had to sit through a lockdown holding the hands of two of my special needs students and tell them that I would make sure they were safe.

I had to tell one of them to cry quieter because I didn’t know whether or not it was a drill.

Fuck off with your 2nd amendment bullshit.