Reply to S/O How Hard Do You Think It Is To Get Academic Accommodations?

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "S/O How Hard Do You Think It Is To Get Academic Accommodations? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In the Wooten special needs publicity thread there are a lot of folks that seem concerned that there are kids who get extra time and accommodations in order to get a "leg up" on their peers.  I'll admit that this is a concern I share.  So, how easy do you think it is?  Are there specialists who are known for being soft sells, you think?  Can money buy a diagnosis? [/quote]

I'm an adult but I have learning disabilities and in the late 80's and early 90's, was given both extended time on tests and was allowed to take tests in a separate location.

I actually never ever wanted/needed either option and only used them when I was forced to (to take my SAT's). Here's why:

1.  By the time a test came around, I didn't need to think long and hard to recall the answers. I either knew the material or didn't. My handwriting may have been messy because my fine motor skills suck, but it was legible for any teacher to read. So extended time was useless for me.

2. Initially, I thought having a separate location would mean a quiet room all alone by myself, maybe with a teacher there too. But no - a separate location meant all the other kids who couldn't behave were also in that room, constantly throwing things, yelling, getting in fights, shoving chairs (sometimes into the back of my chair), and generally distracting me. Also, being away from my class during a test meant that if a kid in my class found a test question that had two possible right answers and the teacher agreed and said "You're right, I'll accept either B OR D as an answer," I missed out on that information and might genuinely think the answer was C, not having the same advantage everyone else in the class had to be given that freebie of an answer.

(Also, the teacher who manned the resource room in my high school was a kind woman whose kindness extended a little too far. She GAVE ME ANSWERS TO TESTS. It really pissed me off because I may have sucked at school, but was honest about it. I took pride in my work even if I knew it was terrible. One time she gave me so many answers to a test that I wrote "Sheila Cohen" in place of my name, because all the work on the test was HER work, not mine.)

3. Everyone knows only the stupid kids take the test elsewhere. For a kid who isn't popular, the LAST thing they want is yet another reason to be made fun of. Even if a separate location HAD been helpful, I'd have sucked it up and suffered just to avoid being told to have fun in the retard room. I'm sure they call it something else now, but I'm also sure kids still get the point across - you're leaving because you're stupid.

I fought and lost the battle to take my SAT's in the gym with the rest of my grade. My nerves were already frayed from the stress of that test, and I actually had to ask to be excused to go sit outside and breathe because of how rowdy the kids in the "separate location" were behaving. When my mother picked me up she took one look at my face, drove me home in silence, and then told me to take my Walkman and go walk it off (1993). That's how tightly wound I was after the test.

So please don't think there's any advantage to being given a separate location (extended time, I'll give you that one). [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics