For our 2nd Celebrating Our Differences presentation, we learned all about autism. If you don’t know what Autism is, it is a lifelong developmental condition affecting how people perceive the world, interact socially, and communicate. It is a "spectrum" because it presents differently in everyone, with varied strengths and challenges. Key characteristics include persistent differences in communication, social interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors. It is not an illness, It is a form of neurodivergence, meaning the brain functions differently. The presenter was an 8th grade boy named AJ. AJ attends The Wolf school in Providence, Rhode island. The school focuses on helping students who struggle in traditional public school environments due to learning differences, such as language processing issues or sensory regulation challenges. As I mentioned before, Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning there are many different ways that autism can affect each individual. There are many different ways people with autism need support. Support can range from helping individuals with social cues and can range to individuals needing a lot of support including needing talking devices and other care.                               

 The Presentation

Hello Glover families!  If you didn't know, we are The Glover Gazette, the school newspaper! We let you know what your kids do all day. To start off as our very first article we will write about the Celebrating our Differences event. A woman named Heather came to talk about her experience with dyslexia. She told us about how most people with dyslexia get mistaken for people with a slower learning process. She also talked about how hard it is to pass certain tests, like the S.A.T's  because you're timed and it takes people with dyslexia longer to read . It was a very cool and interesting experience! She also talked about things in our community that help people with disabilities like : dyslexia, hearing loss and even people who are differently abled.

                                          -Welby   

The stations      

                             In  addition to a presentation, we also went to stations. The stations showed us what life could be like with a disability! The stations were: 1 sitting in chairs, with another person, and having to follow directions, but they were said very, very fast and we thought up solutions, like repeating the directions slower, or doing the steps as the directions  were said. 2 We filled out forms about how we like to learn, and what type of learning process we like and what learning environments are best for us. 3 We tried to read a story about a dog, but it was typed wrong! The reason was because it was supposed to be like reading with dyslexia! It was really frustrating. I see why people with dyslexia don’t want to read or write. It was interesting learning about all different types of disabilities. 

-Eva