The majority of established formal school systems were designed for neurotypical children. It’s a broad statement, but one that I would expect most neurodivergent people who have been through the mainstream school system would attest to.
While I don’t think any teacher would choose to discriminate, by adhering to pre-existing systems without actively considering the different needs of neurodivergent students, children still experience needless trauma.
There are obvious examples – such as sitting in hard chairs at desks – which frequently have alternatives these days. We are fortunate to be at a school which offer many seating and learning space options to all students. But what about things that seem like rewards, which can cause anxiety and poor self-esteem in neurodivergent kids?
Should we abolish all systems? Or should we give neurodivergent children special treatment? How about neither? How about acceptance and accommodations?
The Challenge
The Pen License is a great example of unintentional discrimination. Not all schools have them, but many use these as an exciting milestone, a reward for tidiness and concentration, and a sign of progress and maturity in the school system.
For those unfamiliar with Pen Licenses, it is recognition that children have achieved a certain quality of handwriting. It allows them to start using pen, rather than pencil, in their school books.
Who Finds it Tough?
Many neurodivergent children find this phase intimidating, if not demoralising. What happens to dysgraphic children? Kids with ADHD who find the focus required for tidy formation of letters exhausting? Autistic students with complex motor skill challenges?
Potential Outcomes
Should these children:
- a) be forced to accept they are unlikely to achieve their pen license at the same time as their peers, and it’s not within their skill set?
- b) be given their pen license despite not achieving the items on the checklist the teacher has provided, as special treatment?
- c) receive their pen license after all the other children, as a reward for their effort?
These tend to be the standard outcomes for children who don’t meet the neurotypical criteria for success.
But what about actively seeking accommodations? Sometimes you will encounter brilliant, neuroinclusive teachers, who will address this before you even need to. But if they don’t? Do not hesitate to empower your child to ask for them. Or even to go into bat for your child if they don’t feel confident (or heard) doing this.
Accommodations vs Special Treatment
One approach would be to ask the teacher to give your child their pen license, whether they achieve the required milestones or not. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend this as the best approach. It can set a precedent for your child that they will just be handed things and given special treatment due to their neurodivergence. And this will not be the case in the majority of situations throughout their life.
However, teaching your child to self-advocate and seek accommodations is an absolute game-changer.
Encouraging your child to approach their teacher to say, for example, “I looked at the Pen License checklist, and I don’t think I will be able to achieve items 3 or 5 because of my dysgraphia. Can we please think up something else I can aim for for those two tick boxes?” I’m not sure I know any modern teachers who would turn this down.
Yes, they might need to confer with another teacher, or consider which other kids might also need accommodations (often teachers have a lightbulb moment once one child self-advocates), but almost all would embrace your child’s request. And those who don’t? Well, that’s where you request a meeting and push a little harder.
Examples of accommodations might mean:
- changing from “Forms all letters correctly” to “Forms the majority of letters in a legible manner”
- modifying “Works neatly between the correct lines on the page” to “Keeps lines of text separate and distinguishable from each other”.
Obviously, the accommodations you request need to be something your child is probably able to achieve, just as the majority of neurotypical children are likely to achieve the original checklist within that school year.
Don’t Make It Easy
Just as some children in the class will naturally have beautiful handwriting and be given their pen license as soon as they start being handed out, and others will have to work all year to achieve all the goals, I would suggest that modified goals shouldn’t be all immediately achievable by your neurodivergent child.
Accommodations that allow your child to excel with minimal effort have the same impact as special treatment. Giving your child attainable goals to work towards instead gives them a sense of being in the same position as their peers, and allows them to feel the same sense of achievement that their neurotypical peers do. Whatever your neurotype, everyone has the ability to work towards goals (the goals themselves being different depending on the individual child), and the same wonderful sense of pride and self-esteem boost when they achieve them.
Why take that away from your child?
When The Primary Goal Isn’t Achievable
When the end goal is not something your child could possibly aspire to (a pen license for a child who does not write, for example) suggest, or have your child suggest, a parallel goal. A Typing License, for example, when they reach a realistic target Words per Minute.
Accommodations can be modifications, or they can be substitutions.
100% Inclusion
With the right mindset, there will be very few – if any – systems and processes at school that your child will be excluded from. That sense of ongoing inclusion is not only what your child will thrive on, but what they deserve.
Neurodivergent people are not worth less than neurotypical people, and it is not their fault that so many systems have not been developed with their needs in mind.
Yet.