If you can, surround yourself with positive and supportive people. They can be a partner, friend, parent group, or professional. Find someone - anyone - who is neuro-affirming and child-centred to support you and your child. Our kids need at least one person (hopefully more!) in their corner, and they need to know you’ve got their back. This is especially for neurodivergent and disabled students, who often spend their days in environments where their needs are not met and people don’t understand them. Your relationship with your child is more important than their attendance record. If you‘ve tried following the old-school advice and it didn’t feel right, or you felt conflicted about forcing your child to go to school, trust your parental instincts. Children in Canada spend approximately 200 days per year in school, missing a few will not have a significant impact on their long-term education, but may have a positive impact on their mental health. Reach out to the classroom teacher, guidance counsellor, resource teacher, or administrator - whomever may have the most helpful information for you, and will listen to you when you tell them what your child needs. Not to mention the sensory overload related to attending school: hot, loud bus rides loud, crowded hallways, classrooms, and lunch rooms flickering fluorescent lights uncomfortable chairs, among many others.īurnout can show up in many different ways, especially in children, who won’t have the neurological maturity or the language to understand or express what they are experiencing. Camouflaging or suppressing our needs for the benefit of others is not sustainable and leads to fatigue, anxiety, and burnout.įor kids who attend school September through June, this usually starts showing up after spring break, around April or May.Īfter enduring eight or so months of holding it all in, working twice as hard as their peers to meet the school’s over-generalized (and neuronormative) expectations, something’s got to give. Spending 30 hours per week in a public school system that often doesn’t meet their needs - surrounded by peers who also don’t understand them - is exhausting.įor students who mask, hiding their struggles in attempts to fit in and avoid getting in trouble at school, the consequences are often internal. This may be true for some, but for disabled and neurodivergent students, it’s likely something a bit more serious. Students who mask at school can only keep it up for so long It’s that time of year (again)Įvery spring I hear from parents and school staff that the children and students are getting “ spring fever”.
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