Learning Disabilities are a Social Construct | Trudy Poux | TEDxDeerfield 

I've been saying for a long time that the problem with the education system is that students aren't specifically shown how to learn, they're just shown the material in a specific way with the goal of hoping the students will learn. With that in mind I think the system has been flawed since day one.

I have a severe learning disability. Calling it a "social construct" is highly offensive to be like me that actually did struggle in school.

Thank you so much! Such a great experience and I hope to speak again soon!

Hello Trudy. I watched your talk just now. I am watching it because I am thinking of some creative picks for my TED Circles, which is a new initiative from TED that was a year old 10 days ago. I think your talk touched on some great points and I think this is very relevant for the world to here. My own perspective when I was listening to your talk are the following- a) a 2-time speaker on TEDx stage; b) I was a 1-time licensee for a TEDx event; c) I teach adjunct at a university; d) I take students for 1-week clinical rotations, as I am an occupational therapist by trade; e) I found out I was autistic at age 25. So, while I won't say this is a 360 view of the issue, but they are 5 different perspectives. First off... I have to say from my first 2 perspectives, you were very poised and composed on that stage. I know from my personal experience that it is not easy. So, kudos to you. As for my third perspective as an adjunct instructor at a university, I try to be a student centered instructor. I first would have to analyze how much freedom I have in modifying content and/or assignments. I then will try to understand what are the overall objectives of the course. I used these two pieces of information to come up with how I would like the course content, especially if I have room to make some changes that I think students would like without compromising the learning objectives too much. From my fourth perspective, I don't blame you for not doing too much research into this. But, I can tell you that the ball game for accommodations for students with LD is going to be very different sometimes because some accommodations that can work in the classrooms won't necessarily work in real world places. So, when that happens, it is important to have a collaborative approach between these students and their departments to co-create a list of accommodations that would work for them. For example, let's say a student gets extended time for his/her exams throughout his/her education. In the clinical environment that I am at, having extra time to complete documentations is an unrealistic accommodation, as that the supervisor would just say, "Well... you got to find a way to manage your time to get stuff done within an 8 hour day." Here is another example, let's say a student gets accommodation in form of being allowed to record lectures as long as he/she gets permission from the instructors. In the clinical environment, that is not possible, especially if the student wants real-life visual of how certain treatments should be done. After all, confidentiality of patients will come into play. Hence, this type of accommodation is extremely unlikely to be granted. From my final perspective, as someone who found out my diagnosis at age 25, I had to figure out what accommodations I need on my own. The timing was actually quite hard for me because it was 3 days before I began my year 2 of graduate school. My parents did not help me at all in this regard either. But this hardship made me motivated to find my way to succeed, even though it took me a year to find someone else in occupational therapy to have similar experiences. But my own experiences impacted me as an instructor, because I err on being very concrete in my conversations with my students when I send them emails. It also impacted me personally because I knew I had to be an advocate myself from day 1. Overall though... once again, you have done an impressive job!

Trudy! You are incredible. Love this talk.

I also have 3 learning difficulties and really do believe these disabilities can certainly be a hindrance and a terrifying experience in education But in that i also believe the only real disability we’re at is the fact we haven’t discovered our real skills academics are not my skills and that’s perfectly ok my self esteem is terrible but thats just what it is right now. I’m a 20 year old student trying to get gcse equivalents and currently am and have been for some time toying with the idea of leaving education mainly because I’ve given everything my all since i was 10 and I’ve received nothing out of it sure I’ve went from entry level 1 to level 2 English(C) but idk that’s just not good enough in my eyes. You certainly have some very real and interesting points I have autism adhd and well the learning disabilities are complicated i have technically 3 but im only diagnosed as learning disability in the mild scale

👏👏 an eye opening information

Thanks for this TedTalk, great!! Are there any community colleges for kids with learning disabilities that truly pay attention and address this situation?

Absolutely amazing.

Adhd is thinking of things then zooming back to reality then back and forth over again , i did poor with math and chemistry, long term learning such as movies and long equations are adhd worst nightmare , with adhd you will never get things right thhe first time

This deserves more likes 👍

Can we stop we this “social construct” bs. People who say that phrase deny any facts that prove them wrong they take it out of the narrative and throw it out the bucket it’s very offensive to say this about learning disabilities when I struggle everyday from when I get out of bed

Why is everything now a social construct

This is utter nonsense.