Phil Matthews
When I was 5 years old, I took a test to see if I was eligible for a ‘gifted’ program at an elementary school. Though I was eligible, in the process of review, my test proctor figured out there was a strong possibility I had something called Sensory Integration Disorder, a.k.a. SID. I was then made to take another test, which confirmed my proctor’s suspicions. This disorder is commonly called the “physical ADD”. It takes the lack of focus and everywhere-at-once thought-process of ADD, and puts it in a physical setting. So, though my mind is able to concentrate on one thing with ease, my body’s sensations are all over the map. My body may fixate on the way my chair feels, thus making writing a paragraph unusually difficult.
Though this was understood by my parents and I, it is a hard thing to convey with words. Consequently, when an explanation was asked of my parents by my teachers, they would simply nod their heads along with what my parents were saying, and due to lack of comprehension, would do little to help me perform well within the confines of SID. I believe that this lack of understanding, combined with a lack of time to deal with bettering poor work and the incomprehension of the young person’s mind, and therefore teaching in a non-relevant fashion, is what contributed to my failure as a student.
When I was in elementary school, my grades stayed solidly at a C level. By the time I got to Middle school, I was lucky if I got a D. When, by some miracle, High School came around, I was all but ready to give up, an attitude readily fostered in an over populated school with apathetic administration staff the doors of which were always wide open to ditchers. When my parents took notice of my attendance, they gave me several chances to rectify my behavior, but the work bored me and I felt anything I did learn I didn’t learn well and wouldn’t help me in the real world, so I slipped with ease back into old habits. My parents knew it was time for a change.
When I left that school, my GPA was 0.03. Within months of being at Denver Academy, it became a 3.2. It was the first time I said SID and my teacher knew what I was talking about, which astounded me. And, to me anyways, the most amazing part is, they knew how to handle my SID with no questions asked. It sparked an immediate turn around for my schoolwork, and when I started to slip back into old habits, my teachers had the time and dedication to make sure I reverted them. It was one of the best things that has happened to me in recent memory.