What is DYS Day?
DYS Aware Day is a worldwide movement to promote inclusiveness and understanding of those with DYS differences. It is a day to applaud effective education and opportunity for all. A celebration of neurodiversity.
Everyone has a brain that is unique to them; no two brains are quite alike. For over a million people in the UK, these differences mean they are diagnosed with a neurological condition.
Read more from The Brain Charity here
Just Teach Me
Just like everyone, children with dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia have a mixture of personal strengths and weaknesses. Effective education needs to be made available to them. Children need teachers trained and educated about neurodiversity. They need understanding.
DYS children deserve the same opportunities for effective education as their classmates.
Children with learning differences can find school really hard. The things that make their brains different from their peers, make the basics difficult to learn. DYS children sometimes need to be taught these things in a different way. A way that many teachers do not understand, or have the support to implement.
Kids want to learn. Teachers want to know how best to teach them.
Facts about Neurodiversity
- People with neurodiversity are more creative – Research has found that people who are neurodiverse — specifically those with ADHD — have more creative potential and gain greater creative achievements compared to the general population.
- Neurodiversity in the workplace is an asset – Natural differences in information processing can be seen as positive. This is something that businesses are starting to take note of.
- Technology has been positive for neurodiversity – An autistic teen developed an app called AUMI to help track his mood and anxiety levels and to help prevent burnout. While this app was specifically designed to help individuals on the spectrum, it has become popular with the wider population.
- Embracing neurodiversity encourages academic self-belief – More effort to embrace neurodiversity can help children with learning differences perform better in higher education.
- Neurodiversity organisations are working with researchers – Including the views of neurodiverse stakeholders in research can help take into account the topics that benefit all.
To find out more, read this report from Psychology In Action
Despite DYS children’s best efforts, learning can progress much slower than their peers. Leaving them open to comparison and frustration. Instead of a fun and fulfilling experience, school can become a place for anxiety and depression. Homework and homeschooling a battleground, exhausting for parents and children alike.
However, children who learn differently are gifted in ways that currently we do not value enough. They are denied the same opportunities for growth available to neurotypical children.
Yet they want and need, what every other child wants: to be accepted and included.
Over the past year, I’ve found some fantastic organisations that have really helped me to learn so much more. So let’s take the time to celebrate learning differences and all our children’s equality.
#JustTeachMe
Fay x
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