Welcome, everyone, to tonight’s event! We appreciate you making time to being here.

We invited Dr. Berquist to focus on self advocacy for younger kids, Nancy Kong to focus on self advocacy for secondary school aged kids, and Toni to focus on what self advocacy looks like in the school from the teacher/counselor point of view. They are all experts in this area and have so much to offer!

When you share screen , you must also share audio.

Did you click on "share sound" when you shared the screen?

Also say "Optimize for playing video"

What about the research that says in note taking cursive is the way learning gets encoded and much less happens with typing.

Great question, Linda! We can ask that during the Q&A. Thanks so much for asking the question!

What are your thoughts about a multi-sensory technique like Sketchnoting that helps with learning and info processing? Is that something that is explicitly encouraged/taught, and if so at what age?

Where does one draw the line RE meltdowns? With my child, he tends to melt down when the schoolwork feels very difficult for him. He can do it—it’s just very difficult and a lot of effort. So he gets frustrated and overwhelmed. On a related note, how do we as parents help our 2e children build self-esteem? He gets frustrated, and then he comments negatively on his abilities. I want him to recognize and honor his hard work.

Thanks for the question, Shelly! Very important topics. I think it would be interesting to have a session on self-esteem. We’ve talked about doing a series on strengths-based, talent-focused approaches to working with our kids, and I think that would really help us learn more about helping our children develop self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-advocacy.

We will share these slides and resources links after the talk

any suggestions on ressources for kids directly?

That’s a great question, Laurence - let’s ask at the end and then maybe we can consider a blog post about that in the future.

she was so cute today. she was like “i have poor working memory, so i have all my notes printed out!”

Oops! That was menat for Yael.

Anyone else think this would make great worksheet? Or workshop for your kids?

Nancy talked to me about potentially putting together a student workshop. It would be great for my kids!

The issue of feeling stupid is pervasive in 2e kids :(

The last question is so true in our hyper-competitive Silicon Valley culture.

For those of you joining us a little late, we are hearing from Nancy Kong about self advocacy support for middle/high school students. Dr. Berquist spoke earlier about self advocacy for younger students. We will post the recording and slides to everyone who registered for the event.

I have been a university prof since 2006 and I'd be interested in helping 2e students and their parents working with their professors to find best accommodations. Would anyone be interested in such help?

What a wonderful offer! Thank you for letting us know. We at REEL have been learning more about accommodations that are available in college and it sounds like kids can get more support in college than most K-12 teachers know will be available. Thank you for your work in this area! Do you have a website, EJ?

I don't have a business :) I was just offering help as a fellow parent.

Amazing self advocacy!

This progression is so true! At the start of the year, I wrote the emails. Then my daughter would edit the emails. Now I may write something and she deletes and it says “I need to make this sound like me.”

So great to have these advocacy skills when a student is having trouble accessing communication - nonverbal communication is just as valid in some moments.

Amazing speakers, and talk. Thank you. Looking forward to getting the link and the slides with the resources.

Thanks so much, Sharon! We’re glad you made it.

Thank you very much for all.

You’re so welcome, Laurence! We’re all learning together. We were inspired by neurodivergent and 2e teens in our Living & Learning 2e blog series (www.reelpaloalto.org/living-learning-2e)

These older teens and young adults emphasize the importance of learning to self advocate, ask for help, and talk with your teachers

Please feel free to submit any questions you may have! We have about 10 more minutes for questions.

If you don’t have time to read our entire blog series (I highly recommend them), you can check out this article we wrote for 2eNews that summarizes the key themes from what the teens shared. https://www.2enews.com/voices/2e-voices-how-to-support-us/

How to help narrow/closed minded child to be more open minded?

How to maintain confidence on difficult tasks/situations? Ex. difficult homework assignment

I think we need to point out to our imperfection in a positive way to model that for our kids. Even when e are not perfect, we are trying and ... sometimes, succeeding.

What to do when the allied professional having a challenge with creating relationship with the teacher or special ed teacher? When the method they insist on are not working for the child, but there is resistance to the advice from the Ed therapist or psychologist?

thank you guys for your presentations

Yes, thank you all. So helpful!

www.reelpaloalto.org

Thank you

Thank you. This was great!

Thank you so much!