Let me share my story:

I grew up with a disability and taught elementary special education for ten years.  When I went into teaching, I wanted my approach to teaching kids with disabilities to be different from what I saw in my training, which focused primarily on asking kids to practice doing what was difficult without considering what their internal experience was like.  

I had just finished training in a neuroplastic approach and decided to use the knowledge I’d gained about how the senses are involved with learning to create an environment where my students felt comfortable.  I didn’t know how my idea would work, but I knew I wanted my students to feel comfortable.  In addition to creating a comfortable environment, I put myself in my student’s shoes.  When a student was struggling, I looked at the lesson from my student’s perspective and asked: ‘What is this student’s experience?’  I also thought back to my own experiences in school and asked myself what had prevented me from learning. Based on those observations, I developed teaching strategies to meet the student’s needs.  

What I found was startling: Most of my students made 1-2 years of progress each school year.  Some of these students had made little to no progress in previous school years.  More than that, my students smiled and laughed more, they made friends, they seemed less anxious and parents reported that their kids were able to participate in the life of the family for the first time ever.  Parents even began reporting that their kids were exceeding what doctors had said was possible for their child.  

As excited as I was, I had no idea what was producing these changes.  Over the years, I realized it was the neuroplastic approach I developed that was producing these amazing changes.  

What was my approach?  

• • I observed my students to understand what their needs were. 
  • I responded with environmental accommodations to make them comfortable. 
  • I presented material in ways their brains could understand.  

When I realized that neuroplasticity was what was producing these changes, I knew I wanted to focus on neruoplasticity full time.

At the same time, my own disability was becoming worse.  I had more anxiety, I had trouble sleeping, I was exhausted all the time, I lost items in plain sight, I was constantly knocking things over, I had more pain and my muscles became tight and limited my range of motion.  Eventually, I decided I needed to quit teaching to take care of myself.  

After several months of self care, I saw no improvement in my symptoms.  It was then that I realized that the approach I’d developed for my students could help me, too.  I tried it for myself and it worked.  My energy improved, my pain & anxiety decreased, I didn’t lose things as often and I began sleeping better.  Then, I began seeing the need for this approach everywhere: kids with disabilities who were overwhelmed by their environments, parents who couldn’t figure out what their kids needed, highly sensitive people who found it difficult to be out in the world, people who struggled with something, but didn’t know what.

Understanding Disability teaches you the approach I used with my students and with myself.  I show to how to observe yourself and others so that you can gain insight into what the brain needs in order to function more comfortably and easily.  Through the eyes of a fictional child named Alex, I give you the ability to see what disability and other internal struggles can be like from the inside.  In addition, you’ll learn how these experiences impact our internal experiences, language development & concept acquisition as well as get some ideas about how to communicate your experience to others.  Each week, you’ll learn about a different sense and how everyday actions communicate what a person needs and you’ll have the opportunity to ask me questions in live online class sessions.  Weekly at home tasks will take you through the entire Observe & Respond process so that by the time the last class starts, you will have practiced all the skills taught in classes 1-5.  Can’t make one of the live classes?  No problem!  You will be given access to a class recording for two months from the start of the first class.

Will this class eliminate disability? No. The goal of this class is to give you information about sensory perception and the brain and to give you ideas about how to help yourself or your child.  It is not possible to make any guarantees as to the success of any approach, including this class, nor is it possible to predict how any individual will change.  All people are different and each person will respond differently to the methods taught in this course.

What might you gain from this course?  You may come away with a new understanding of yourself and your loved ones.  You may gain insight into their experiences and you may be able to implement accommodations to help yourself or your loved one live life more comfortably and easily, which could increase what’s possible for you to do.