Committing Hubris and Teacher Disposition

I follow a lot of educators. Having critters that are truly unique and challenging means keeping abreast of educational trends & regulations locally and nationwide. This means I have lots of knowledge about education and NO, ZERO, ZIPPO experience.  I know, as a parent, we are the most important teachers our children will have.  As true as that statement is, I will NEVER know what it is to juggle educating my child along with 30+ other unique kiddos across all subject matter or educate >150 kiddos across a single subject matter, all while managing meeting standards, curriculum, growth, enrichment, supports, and all those other words that seem mainstream, but have a much deeper and specific meaning in the educational world.  So, I know that I am about to talk about something where my experience is only the breadth of the laser pinpoint that I am afforded as a parent of two children being educated. It is not that of an administrator or teacher in any way, shape or form, so forgive my hubris and if you are an educator, maybe read the post on perspective before you judge my perspective too harshly. As I've said to The Critter numerous times, perspective is like a cube, you cannot see a different perspective except as it is described to you by the person on the other side of the cube and you certainly cannot experience it.

This image was shared via Twitter by an educator in our district attending the annual leadership training where I am sure all the attendees heads were overfull of information each day. I, in my laser-width world of perspective, get to only think about THIS image and under context only of MY kids.

As you can see, it is very simplistic and only diagrams academic press levels with personal warmth levels.  If you google "Teacher Disposition", you will find MANY images of different traits postulating ideas on what makes a teacher great.  I'm not doing that here; that is a topic for peeps with far broader experience in education than mine.  This image did make me wonder, however, if there is a "type" based on these two traits that is preferred by each of my critters.  The Critter tends to take an immediate like or dislike to others and while this has improved as he has matured, this image made me wonder if there was a correlation across those experiences and these traits and if so, could that affinity then be correlated to his personal strengths and weaknesses? 

The answer was a resounding YES!!  The Critter is not easy to get to know - his anxiety makes him hide who he is and mistrust. His high IQ has led to him not valuing others as a resource for valued information. His dysgraphia has led him to believe that people in authority cannot help him and that he, himself is useless.  This is all improving, but is fairly accurate historically.  So, what number type above leads to the most effective teaching for him?  NUMBER 1!!!!  Demanding a lot and supporting a lot emotionally as well.  Hard to do with a kiddo who's cognition is several grades above and adaptive behavior(self care rating) is several grades below...  A NUMBER 2 will lead to meltdowns as when he has a problem with the work(frequent due to dysgraphia), he will NOT be able to overcome the thought that the educator does not care and is not capable of helping him which forces engagement by a trusted adult to help solve those problems over and over throughout the year.  NUMBER 3 creeps him out - too touchy feely, too interested in him without the intent of academics.  NUMBER 4 he will simply ignore as he can wait them out and do what is EASY (and that sure as double hockey sticks is NOT schooling).  

Now, Younger Critter....different profile and has had more success "schooling".  His anxiety is almost always secondary to the ADHD.  Manage the ADHD and you have low academic anxiety.  Younger Critter's preference is NUMBER 3.  He does not like to stretch himself academically - at all!  NUMBER 1 would be survivable, but NUMBER 2 and NUMBER 4 mean tears.

This is horrible.  Even with my hubris-filled perspective, there is something just wrong about breaking down teachers to a single number based on two traits.  I'm sure there's value in it as it has clarified a few things that work and don't work for my two critters, but it just. feels. so. icky!!  Every teacher the boys have had has are valuable to us - although some were the value of knowing what doesn't work Most gave us the values of growth, flexibility, social interaction, amazing coping and scaffolding ideas....I could go on and on.

I hope this image has been as intriguing for you as it has been for me, but then again, I overthink EVERYTHING (one of MY superpowers!), so maybe I should hope it's just a little less thought-provoking for you than for me.  😝

Person-Centered Profile Example

I edited the Person-Centered Profile for 8th grade this year.  Remember to always get your kiddo's input in what should be there when possible.  The image is hard to copy, so added a Google Drive link to the Word document, too.

I used the links at the end to create a person-centered profile for The Critter.  After 3 days, he's been hanging tough, but this might help his team.

http://factoregon.org/person-centered-plan-samples/ … https://www.additudemag.com/download/adhd-student-teacher-introduction-letter/ …

HELP! My alphabet is all mixed up!

This is not a post on dyslexia, which is often misinterpreted as mixed up letters, although if dyslexia is in your mix of alphabet letters that follow you or your family around, maybe you'll still find something valuable here.

I will often say "and whatever other alphabet letters follow him around" about The Critter or Younger Critter.  These alphabet letters are, of course, the jargon we sped'ers must know and embrace to help our kiddos.  Ours go something like this:  HG/GAD/ASD/ADHD/LD-WE/SPD/mTBI in no particular order. (There's a list of these at the bottom with some interesting links) That is a looooong string of letters for any kiddo to be carrying around, let alone understand, accept and leverage in a world that can, at times, barely be accepting of even ONE of those.  Some may say, well really the ASD encompasses all of that...and I might agree if you're reading the DSM-V or any other textbook, but that's not where we live.  We live in a world that still forgets that not all ASD peeps are non-verbal and that even while we are (finally) starting to assume that SPD is a big hurdle for ASD peeps, we forget that HG peeps are also more likely than not to have SPD.  Oh, and do NOT get me started on trying to accurately diagnose all of these alphabet letters when there are no medical diagnostic tests for them!  THAT is a completely different post that may never be written and only the march of time and medical progress will sort out.

I suppose this post is more about our need to "sort" even a single critter into each separate bucket of alphabet letters.  Oh, The Critter told a joke to the class after the teacher told him not to, that must be behavioral.  Oh, The Critter wasn't able to work in class today, that must be behavioral.  Oh, The Critter wasn't able to do warm-ups in PE today, that must be behavioral. Every time I get a call, email, text on something The Critter or Younger Critter wasn't able to do, I feel like I need to know WHY and not just why like neurotypical parents know why, but the specific trigger and what we missed in the framework of supports/accommodations/rewards/consequences/etc. that could have presented it.  I find myself putting on my kaleidoscope viewer of all these alphabet letters jumbled together and trying desperately to twist and turn the event and perspectives in my mind so that it can be seen through a single color in that kaleidoscope, a single set of alphabet letters and then placed in a neat little bucket in the row of buckets. Despite those efforts and time spent on those efforts(less time now than in the past), life simply doesn't work that way. Not only does life not work that way, it doesn't work that way for ANYONE - not even those without these fun letters following them around.  I can't for a minute say that The Critter told that joke because he is a typical 7th grader or because the asynchronous development from the HG makes him socially awkward or because when the teacher said NO, his ADHD prevented that information from getting to his brain and stopping him.  I can't say that his inability to do work in a class was the anxiety or the dysgraphia or that he didn't see value in the work because the HG makes so much grade level work excruciatingly boring. I can't say that he couldn't do warm-ups in PE because they made his vestibular and proprioceptive senses go bonkers...Even if I TALK TALK TALK to The Critter to help me twist and turn that kaleidoscope to just the right set of alphabet letters(which he loves about as much as any 7th grader), I often simply end up admitting defeat at determining exactly WHY and even whether a behavior is common or not among boys his age. I admit defeat and concede the win to his letters.  However, admitting defeat in one battle can often allow us to focus on the areas that really matter. So finally, after all of that searching through the kaleidoscope, I put it down and simply go back to knowing that behavior is communication.

Once the kaleidoscope is down, I can see The Critter just as he is far better.  While we may all know that you must love the person in front of you, not the person you want them to be, it is so HARD as a parent, let alone when all those damn, bouncy alphabet letters keep moving around between you and them.  I am simultaneously advocate, therapist, parent and ally. Once I see The Critter just as he is, those incidents of misbehavior can be handled better.  I can advocate for tweaking accommodations.  I can parent through rewards and consequences. I can listen to him rage about why doing the work, doing warm-ups and not telling the jokes are so hard as his ally and then hug him. I can ask him for ways he can overcome these hurdles and advise him and teach him as his therapist. Hopefully, after all those hats get cycled through, I can help him put down his own kaleidoscope of his alphabet letters and teach him to love and embrace who he is, in all its intensity, magnificence and magic, so he may one day share it instead of hide it.  It will be a long road, but it certainly will not be boring.

Here's the list of acronyms mentioned and maybe a few more for good measure:
HG - Highly Gifted
PG - Profoundly Gifted
GAD - Generalized Anxiety Disorder(social/situational/everything causes anxiety)
ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder (a constellation disorder)
ADHD- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity(maybe) Disorder
LD-WE - Learning Disability of Written Expression (in our case Working Memory subtype of dysgraphia, which is a LOT more than just handwriting) www.handwriting-solutions.com
SPD - Sensory Processing Disorder (at LEAST 8 senses and peeps can be hyper or hypo responsive and then either be seeking or avoiding for each one) www.sensory-processing-disorder.com is a great starting point and This is Gabriel is a great kid's book
  vestibular sense - sense of balance and motion
  proprioceptive sense - sense of where you are in space and relational to other objects
  interoceptive sense - sense of internal body needs - hunger, too hot, too cold, need to pee or poop
DSM-V - Diagnostic Schedule of Medicine release 5 https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201305/the-nimh-withdraws-support-dsm-5
VPD - Visual Processing Disorder (diagnosed by a developmental optometrist) www.covd.org
APD - Auditory Processing Disorder (diagnosed by a developmental audiologist)
mTBI - minor Traumatic Brain Injury aka at least a concussion (TWO of these are in The Critter's past, one far more severe than the other and not handled well at the time - preceded the need to go searching for alphabet letters) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3208826/
PCS - Post Concussive Syndrome (lasting effects of multiple areas of behavior and cognition after a concussion even if no impact is seen via MRI)
PANS - Pediatric Acute-onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome
PANDAS - Same as PANS but specifically related to Strep infections   http://www.pandasnetwork.org/understanding-pandaspans/what-is-pans/

Dr. Selz looks at what I have been calling the alphabet as a pie chart.  Here's his great post on this:
http://shutdownlearner.com/whats-in-your-childs-pie-chart/