My working story with ADD/LD
I want to start off this pilot blog by telling my employment story. I am a grown woman with LD/ADD and my ability to communicate effectively with my non disabled colleagues in the workplace, has been a real challenge for me. I’ve had the pleasure of working as a substitute teacher in two local area public school systems to my home, and while overall successful, I had many challenges being an effective communicator with my non disabled colleagues. One example is when I was working with a student on the Autism spectrum, who while walking down the hallway one day, bit me. I had put my hand gently on his shoulder because I was worried he might run away, and instead of being calm after the bite I screamed in pain. I’ve learned since that the best way to handle unwanted behavior is to redirect the situation, because aknowledging it only makes things worse. Children like these are often unable to really internalize emotions and the corresponding emotion to a specific behavior. So what I w