Page 38 - SEN106 SEN Magazine May-June 2020

I no longer believe our traditional methods of measuring learning truly capture all that is going on offering it. However, she got bored easily and was a good judge of character, finding some professionals almost as irritating as I did! Shifting labels We found a great special school which she started attending aged four. Overnight, “developmental delay” was re-labelled as “learning disability” and at one point, a teacher referred to her as having profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), which floored me. I wasn’t prepared for a label that would fix her disability to a position on a continuum. I wasn’t perhaps prepared for a diagnosis of her learning disability and, by virtue of that, her learning potential. She has since then been reclassified as “severely learning disabled” and I’m old and wise enough to know that this is probably accurate while, at the same time, it isn’t. The label is given due to her inability to verbalise with words, or visibly process information at a level anywhere near what is usually expected for her age. It doesn’t however, grasp her keen sense of investigating (nosiness), her brilliant sense of humour or her cunning and strategic planning skills that enable her to get whatever she wants the majority of the time. She is quick witted, funny, well-liked and has a well-developed sense of self and, dare I say it, a good attitude. She is empathetic to others who are upset, “reads” people and situations accurately and is at times a wise soul and older than her years. Changing my worldview Being Lucy’s parent has affected my own outlook and also my vocation. I am a museum professional and work in a sector focussed on learning about things, but I have time and again questioned the methods employed to both deliver and assess this. My experience has lead me to develop work with special needs students and teachers to utilise museums in different ways, unlocking not only the potential within the learners but also within the museums’ collections and staff. I now speak nationally at conferences on this topic and wrote a “toolkit” for the museum sector on engaging with those with SEN and disabilities, which is being used as a blueprint for other sectors, such as archives. All of this however, has come from my own learning, through raising Lucy and our shared experiences. It has emerged as I have re-evaluated what learning really is. I no longer believe that our traditional methods of measuring learning truly capture all that is going on. I have a postgraduate degree, but Lucy has taught me more about being human and the importance of life than any qualification ever could. It is difficult to put it into words, but I feel that she has a deeper understanding of why we are here. Lucy is unbridled by needing to learn or use words that others understand in order to communicate with them. This does not mean she doesn’t understand what I or others are saying to her. She grasps the meaning of life and is “in the moment” more fully than most of us. The phrases we use as euphemisms for intelligence and discovery – such as “bright spark”, “lightbulb moment” and “flash of inspiration” – are themselves illuminating. Perhaps it was indeed a sign that Lucy started out for me as a spark of brilliance on that ultrasound monitor; because of her skills at shining a light on the true meaning of life, she is and will continue to be my teacher and my guide as we travel through it together. ■ She gets what she wants most of the time. ■ She grasps the meaning of life. SEN 106 senmagazine.co.uk 38 Learning disability