Reply to Do you consider ADHD "special needs"?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As a kid I was diagnosed with LDs. I required specialized services throughout school to help me learn. I graduated in the top 10% of my class from high school and went on to earn a PhD. That doesn’t means that I didn’t require special services to meet my needs. I used those special services to be able to attain success in school. My Mom spent a lot of time fighting for those services and providing additional supports so that I could succeed.

I was very much a special needs kid.

As an adult I was diagnosed with ADHD. It only reinforced to me how differently I see process information and respond to stimulation around me. I now understand why I get agitated in high stimulation environments and why I struggle with some regular scenarios, like in conversations where I find it hard not to interrupt and why I blurt out information. I am lucky to work in an environment where those issues have no caused me any problems and where I can make a very nice salary but I am pretty well aware that there are many environments where I would struggle. My work place has lots of open seating but they have always found a desk for me in a smaller room. They are fine with my using headphones when most people are discouraged from doing so. They have been accommodating of my quirks.

I am very much an adult with special needs.

Are my needs so great that I would be unable to function without accommodations? Probably not. Would I be in a very different place if I had not received the support I did in school or the accommodations I receive at work? Hell yeah. 100% I would have had a very different life.

There is nothing wrong with being different and knowing that you need some accommodations. [/quote]

There is so much unacknowledged privilege in this comment I don't even know where to start.

This is why it is sometimes annoying when people with mild ADHD say they are special needs.[/quote]

Privilege? Sure. We were MC and my parents worked hard to help me. My Mom spent time at the library learning what the schools were responsible for providing me and then fought for that. She spent hours doing homework with me. And she got me tutors when I needed them.

But if you think that a kid with dyslexia, dysgraphia, disnomia (sp), disnumeria (sp), and auditory discrimination was going to do just fine without specialized help and accommodations then you are crazy.

There are plenty of kids with LDs and ADHD who are bright but because they process information differently they struggle in school. But you know that. You are not in a position to say that I would be fine without accommodations or without special ed. I did well because I received services. And if you don’t think that there are not day to day issues that I deal with because of my LDs and ADHD as an adult you are crazy.

There was nothing mild about my learning issues. They are not as drastic as many of what families are dealing with here but they clearly distinguished me from my peers at school. [/quote]

You said yourself that you could function fine without interventions, but that you would not have achieved as much as you have without them.

The point is not that you didn’t need or deserve these interventions. The point is that you are portraying your situation as typical or representative of special needs kids. It’s not.

Also, there are lots of people who have special needs while young, receive treatment, and then simply are not special needs anymore. I’d put you in this category. That list of LDs is certainly special needs, but if they were well managed enough for you to get a PhD, you aren’t anymore. Sorry, you’re not. I don’t know why it would be important to you to hang on to that identity. It’s clear that as an adult, you are high achieving and self-sufficient. You do not have special needs.

The adult ADHD and accommodations at work? This is 100% your privilege. Heck, at least part of getting this accommodations is the fact that you are very well educated so your employer is more motivated to accommodate your preferred work setting. But it’s not special needs. You like to frame it that way because it got you a private office at work. But that’s just your privilege. You became accustomed to being accommodated and helped, to viewing yourself as someone deserving of special consideration, and now you work the system to get that in other ways. [/quote]

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