#spld

In primary school I was in special Ed until year six when I accidentally walked into the wrong class. They didn’t realise as a sub teacher was in.

I breezed through advanced maths problems I’d never been taught.

Of cause then all my disability was put down to not trying hard enough/laziness.

In their minds, cognitive disability and ability couldn’t exist in the same person. You were either high IQ or low IQ. Things like learning disabilities weren’t considered.

So the only explanation must be lack of effort.

Hello! Another day, another blog post. I did say that my new years resolution was to write more and at the moment as I have quite abit of free time I don’t really see why not? This post though I have wanted to write ever since I was diagnosed, and the main function is to bring awareness to young adults like myself or older adults that also might think they have a learning problem and want to get…

i’m awful at remembering school work and assignments. notebooks dont work because i can never be bothered to take them out my bag at the end of lessons. i’ve tried organisational apps, but i never remember to look at them, and my distractable mind just doesnt notice notifications. so instead, i keep a few scraps of paper in the back of my phone case (i bought a clear one just so i can see them whenever i need to), because my phone is always on me

if i have a big essay or project coming up, during the planning stages i tend to get random ideas all over the place that i dont want to forget. i’m obviously not going to root through my school bag to note them down while im in the middle of brushing my teeth, so instead i keep post-it notes pretty much everywhere, and stick the idea where i thought of it. then, when im going to write the essay, i trek around the house and collect them all into one place

taking folders out of my bags in lessons was apparently too many steps for me, so i tended to just pull out the paper and necessary textbook, and then messily shove it back into my bag at the end. now i keep a wad of paper tucked in every subject’s folder, along with the books and other notes, so i physically cant just pull out paper without taking out the whole folder. that keeps my notes in better condition than scrunched at the bottom of my bag

on a similar note, i keep a hole-punch in my bag, and another one where i work at home. this means that wherever i am, i can punch and file the relevant piece of paper there and then. otherwise i’d just throw it into my bag to do later, and once something’s in the “i’ll do it later” vortex, it never comes out. having my notes organised better stops me getting overwhelmed and shutting down so frequently

if perfectionism gets in the way of doing work, remember that it’s easier to perfect something by editing it than it is to get it perfect straight away. when im writing something important, i chant to myself “it doesn’t have to be good as long as it’s written,” which helps me over the hurdle of getting started. then once your shit version is written, go wild and attack it with a red pen to make it better. the bulk of good writing comes from this editing. this is also really good if ur prone to random tangents, because u can keep the good ones and get rid of the pretty irrelevant ones, whereas if you write it all brilliantly to start off with, you’re not going to want to cut any points out

if i have a plan/critical material/sources/whatever in one document, but im doing your actual work in another, i put one into a google doc and use word for the other. why? because the extra click in switching between two word documents is one step too many, and i somehow always fall through that space into a distraction. usually tumblr. having two easy go-betweens really helps me. some people use physical paper for one, but i only do that if i need 3 separate things (eg. essay plan, actual essay, and wider reading) all open at the same time

i cant remember my timetable for shit, so i keep a colour coded picture of one on my phone. the colour coding and block format make it easy for me to understand quickly (timetables and my brain are Not Friends), and i keep it in my “favourites” section to eliminate time scrolling. because the quicker you can get to the lesson you’ve forgotten about, the better