Self-advocacy is a term my wife and I first heard from school officials two years ago, when our NLD son was in grade 2. He was forgetting his homework repeatedly. The material he was to hand in to his teacher went back and forth to school in his backpack, never seeing the light of day.
"You need to teach him to self-advocate," school officials said.
Yeah, right, we replied. How can he self-advocate when he's often overwhelmed with confusion; so dominated by anxiety; so dependent on his caregivers for so many basic organizational tasks.
But, of course, self-advocacy will ultimately be a key tool he will need to learn. How to ask for the accomodations he needs. How to recognize his limits, but also how to achieve all he is capable of.
Here's a self-advocacy resource I found online (PDF).
2 comments:
I've heard this many times also ("You need to teach him to self-advocate," school officials said.) and because I now know how big the gap is between what support is agreed on during the iprc meetings and what is actually and/or realistically accomplished in the classroom, this is a good concept to ask each classroom teacher to address because a young nvld student probably has no idea and it gets harder in grade 7 and beyond when they face many different class situations. The theories have to catch up to the practice, maybe it needs to be included in the IEP.
Self advocacy is very difficult for some people with NLD who are "unaware" of how the disorder is really affecting them. My son often would rebel against having "help" the other students did not have and did not "believe" he had any reason for it. This made "self advocacy" impossible and it was part of this disorder.
At high school just when LD students are supposed to "self advocate" more, supports are pulled away at a time when the NLD student needs them most. This is one of the top reasons high school students with NLD will have co morbid conditions such as anxiety and depression at this age.
NLD students often NEED an advocate well beyond the age that other LD students might.
My son is 21 and still has issues understanding his own disability and illnesses. This can be for many people with NLD PART of the disorder.
Trying to teach some with NLD to "self advocate" is very, very, difficult.
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