My Way!

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

Category - Kids

First News has been running a campaign for a year called My Way! It’s about getting people to understand that everybody learns in their own way. For some people school is easy but, for others, it might be harder. The important thing we want everybody to understand is that the way you learn has nothing to do with how smart you are.  Around six children in each class have learning challenges but that doesn’t mean that they won’t be fantastically successful in whatever they choose to do. As My Way! champion, Hank Zipzer author Henry Winkler says: “Every child has brilliance inside them. Their job is to dig it out and give it to the world.”

This year, 2011, is the National Year of Communication. The Hello campaign is aiming to help people understand how important it is for children and young people to develop good communication skills. Penn School in Buckinghamshire is a secondary school for students with communication difficulties. As part of the My Way! and Hello campaigns students from Penn school write about what it is like to have a communication disability. Each month a different student tells their story.

Here is Alysia’s story.

My name is Alysia. I have autism and a speech and language difficulty.

Now I am 19 I can cope with problems or crises and I sometimes organise things! My favourite things are singing, learning about American History and about the Tudors, and listening to classical music.

Some things that I find hard are writing in an exam and being in the dark – seeing things that haunt me at night, which makes me frightened. If I get frightened I always take a deep breath to help me cope with problems and fears.

My autism makes me shy, a bit naïve and not very organised. When I was young I was a bit angry about things. In my old school, I was struggling and found things difficult and I got annoyed with not knowing about the lessons. Also, I didn’t like the assembly much because it was crowded. I often sat alone outside the assembly.

I now go to Penn School. It’s quieter and it’s better than my last school because there are no loud people.

Now I’m in post 16, I go to Reading College every Friday to get ready for September when I start college. Sometimes, at the weekends, I go out shopping in Maidenhead with my boyfriend, Jake, just to buy things and gossip about Reading College. Things will change because I will leave Penn School in the summer. I will meet new people and have different lessons. I’m hoping to sing and do new performing arts. In the future I hope I will be able to live with one of my friends and I would love to sing on stage and also get married and have children

one day!