ADHD is the short-form for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

It basically means that it is very hard for people with ADHD to focus and complete a task on time and they don’t like to sit still, move around quite a lot.

And Learning Disability has a couple of types.

A person with Learning Disability (LD) can’t spell very well, can’ t read very well, can’t write very well.

My name is Asharao Joshi and I’m currently a student in the Department of Special Education in SNDT Women’s University.

And I am a person living with Learning Disabilities and ADHD.

I was tested when I was younger, I think I was in the fourth or fifth grade and I was said to have all three, to have Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dysgraphia, as well as ADHD.

I was bullied a lot when I was younger and one of the teachers in school, she wasn't the nicest to me, she didn’t really care about the fact that I had a Learning Disability and didn’t want to, in my mind, improve or help me overcome or help me with my studies.

I find it very hard to focus on tasks given to me, even if it’s there in front of me.

It’s very hard for me to focus and I can’t sit still for an extended period of time.

Even in classes sometimes when I know I’m getting a bit restless I usually go to the washroom even though it’s not needed because I need that much walking, because I cannot sit still for longer periods of time.

Hi, what’s up? What are you doing?
Hi, I’m writing the micro-teach lesson for…
Do you need some help?
Um, not right now but I can give you the lesson later and you can read it and tell me if it’s good.
Yeah, there might be some mistakes (together).

It’s a lot better now because I was in remedial classes for four years when I was in school.

So that helped a lot to get over the, not get over, but improve the disability for me and helped me with strategies to overcome it.

It’s, its very good now in college because all of my classmates and teachers help a lot. But there are certain things with the spellings in … either making a PPT or writing an
exam, for example. It’s very hard for me to put my thoughts into words and organize them correctly so it’s hard for me to write a paper as well, but for that as well I was given extra time and I was allowed to have a writer but I opted against it.

It wasn’t actually that bad because my friends were very open and understanding towards the situation.

They always have been from when I’ve ever made friends.

Also, because they never thought of me having problems intellectually being a problem in the friendship.

They would just be like ‘Okay we’ll help you if you need any help with it.

Same thing with my sister and my family. They’re very helpful towards…if I need any help, especially when it comes to my studies.

Having a Learning Disability doesn’t make a child any different, they just need a little more help. And if you’re willing to provide that, if you can provide that for the child please do because, like I said, there’s nothing wrong with them, they just need help.

And sometimes, socially it’s not, when somebody finds out that you have a Learning Disability they very easily label a person as stupid and ‘you don’t understand it, you can’t study’ that’s not true.

They can study very well, possibly even better than neurotypical people.

So, they just need a little help.

Just provide that help to the children and they’ll do very well.