One of the hard conversations for students is that, it really is this hard. The work really ‘does’ have ‘that’ many steps. Am so sorry, but it really does take this long to get this done. In order for us to get it right we need to go through every step. Otherwise it isn’t finished. Thats ok if you need a break. But we do need to get it finished. I can help you with it, we can take turns or we can try something else. (But that means we need to shift our goals or outcomes).
Do you put someone in that situation in the first place where they may or may not succeed? Or do you work out where those threshold points are and work out how to get rid of them, alter them or work through them OR work around them?
The issue becomes though. I am an Occupational Therapist. I can buy different types of toys. I can move furniture around. I can design programmes. But. What happens if I need to change or edit or alter an entire system? What happens if I need to alter the entire academic programming for a student? We do that any time that we make a change to a new environment. When we recommend changing schools. When we recommend home schooling, when we recommend distance education or online learning.
When things are this complex we need to look at sustainability of the effort and resources involve to enable everyone to get through the immediate days ahead, the short term and heading towards the long term. When things are this complex how much time is involved in managing it. What is the impact for everyone. How many people in the family need support because of it and to what level.
When it is this complex how many layers need to be worked through. How many pathways are there that can be developed. How many of those pathways are sustainable in the long term?
Are any of those pathways blocked? Have any of those pathways been blocked on purpose? Are there limits to what has been offered because of the impact for others? What ramifications has that had and when did it start having that impact? Was the individual blocked from participating in certain subjects at school? Did that force their learning online at their own self-direction? How long does it take to get it back to school based content, how long does the trust of others take to get back?
Deprivation of content is very real for a lot of students whose learning profile is complex. They can be stopped from participating in some activities or all activities because of safety risks to others. In some cases resources that were available (such as a higher level of curriculum) can have been taken away because of difficulty being supported in that environment at that time in the students life. What impact does that have at that time when the student is taken away from content that they are suited to doing and put into a situation where there is insufficient resources to support them?