Arrowsmith - "A little bit about my experience with learning difficulties"

In Term 1 this year a 4 year journey to bring the Arrowsmith program to Tasmania finally came to fruition.  This program utilises the neuroplasticity of the brain, through various activities to strengthen and rewire cognitive areas of the brain and may help people with learning difficulties overcome these deficiencies. Often learning difficulties lead to young people unable to engage with mainstream schooling, something we experience frequently through our mentoring programs. We commenced a pilot program, generously funded by Prescare to work with 10 young people that would not normally have access to such a life changing program.

One of our participants shares her experiences with learning difficulties and the programs help in this area with us.

A little bit about my experience with learning difficulties

School and social activities were always a struggle for me growing up. Since I started primary school instructions given by the teacher were hard to follow and I’d often get in trouble for not “listening” to the instruction. This affected me mentally because I had a desire to perform well like other students did and often was scared to ask for help. Throughout school I had trouble keeping up with work and conversations with peers. Leaving me feeling isolated because I’d always be suffering under a schoolwork load just trying not to fail and I often had to sacrifice some grades and classes because I could not handle them all. A learning disorder or disability affects a lot of areas and for people like me it has affected our self-worth and the way we are treated in society especially being undiagnosed. Being undiagnosed at school means you don’t get the same benefits that diagnosed kids do and only receive allowances, or extra help when diagnosed.

How Arrowsmith has helped me

Starting Arrowsmith has already been impactful, doing it with kids with similar cognitive issues has been a good experience I think for all of us. Because I have been through school, it is comforting to them that you can struggle with this at any age and when I finish a task, I can help others. So far it has affected my processing speed and typing ability. Every time I get past an activity, I get a little faster at it. My mum says I have become a lot more relaxed at home and better at making decisions (it is still a working progress). I am hoping to get to the stage where I can focus and do something for more than ten minutes and be able to think of something and then do it.

The program has now had another young person join, funded through their NDIS support. If you would like to know more about this program please contact Lisa-Marie at arrowsmith@teenchallengetasmania.org