Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

We had the pleasure of hearing from a speaker who helps with BCEdAcess in one of our lessons where she shared her unique perspective on how school systems deal with learning disabilities and lack of accessibility. One thing that stuck out to me was how certain diagnoses can be unwanted from parents, and as a teacher there is a level of nuance to approaching the topic of learning disability. I would expect parents to always want to know or learn of any tools, and distinctions that allow the provisioning of those tools, that could help their child succeed. I don’t believe if she hadn’t brought it up that I would have been careful or aware that this could potentially be an issue. I understand the idea of labeling a student in front of other students, peer perspectives can mean a lot to young students but the resistance from the parent was not something I would have considered. She was able to give me a better scope of the field of support that is available and what the common attitudes can be towards students, and some of the challenges parents face. I was also expecting that in high school a lot of the students would have already been diagnosed, with a learning disability, but as she pointed out that some students find out very late into their adult life that their difficulties had a name and are common. This was a welcome reminder that I may be able to help facilitate students towards the tools and resources to better enhance their metacognition.