A Bright Idea From the Community
A recent, viral Twitter thread by Jana O'Connor offers valuable insight for teachers and parents of kids with executive function disorders, such as ADHD.
In the thread, Jana talks about short-term memory and long-term memory in kids with executive dysfunction. A type of short-term memory called Nonverbal Working Memory (NVWM) is primarily visual and aids in predicting what the future will look like. People with executive dysfunction frequently present with an impairment in this type of memory.
Jana found out from her practitioner that this is the reason it’s so hard for her child with ADHD to get started on a task; he can’t picture it and work backwards from that image like neurotypical people can. A task that might seem simple to many of us (in Jana’s example, making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich) can feel insurmountable to a child who is unable to visualize the final product.
Altogether too often, people who don’t have special needs struggle to empathize with those who do have them, and those who have them lack the vocabulary to really explain what exactly they find so difficult about things that the rest of the population takes for granted. As somebody who has executive issues myself, this is a lesson I wish I had learned at an earlier age.
It's always really encouraging and uplifting to see people in the special needs community workshopping and communicating their strategies, theories, and philosophies of education. That collegial atmosphere of common effort is something that I'm really glad to be able to observe and comment on. It does my heart good to see people thinking hard and sharing their observations about people with special needs — and what we can do in our own small ways to support them and improve their education.
Marc Gottlieb
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