How does mental illness interfere with functioning at school?
Mental illnesses may interfere with functioning in different ways. Many of the illnesses affect a student's ability to do certain things, such as thinking or communicating with others. Often, the person themselves or the professionals working with them can describe the functional limitations that are specific to your student. Please remember that since there are a lot of different types of mental illnesses, that this is not a complete list, nor do these limitations apply to everyone who has a mental illness.
The following is a list* of some of the activities that people with psychiatric disabilities may have trouble doing:
Screening out environmental stimuli - an inability to block out sounds, sights, or odors which interfere with focusing on tasks
Ex.: A student may not be able to attend to a lecture while sitting near a loud fan or focus on studying in a high traffic area.
Possible solutions: Move student away from fan area, turn off fan during lecture, identify quiet study area for student.
Sustaining concentration - restlessness, shortened attention span, easily distracted, remembering verbal directions
Ex.: A student may have trouble focusing on one task for extended periods, difficulty reading and retaining course material, or trouble remembering instructions during an exam or a classroom exercise.
Possible solutions: Break large projects into smaller tasks, allow brief but more frequent breaks to stretch, walk around, get fresh air, refer student to a tutor to help with study skills and information retention, assign tasks one at a time, write out instructions on board.
Maintaining stamina - having energy to spend a whole day of classes on campus, combating drowsiness due to medications
Ex.: A student my not be able to carry a full-time course load, or take a lengthy exam at one sitting.
Possible solutions: Encourage part-time enrollment; segment an exam so that student can take one part in morning, another in the afternoon.
Handling time pressures and multiple tasks - managing assignments & meeting deadlines, prioritizing tasks
Ex.: A student may not know how to decide which assignments should be done first, or be able to complete assigned tasks by the due date.
Possible solutions: Break larger assignments and projects down into manageable tasks; distribute a course syllabus of the class topics, assignments, and due dates for the entire semester to help students to plan and prioritize workload.
Interacting with others - getting along, fitting in, chatting with fellow students, reading social cues
Ex.: A student may have difficulty talking to other students, getting notes or discussing assignments, participating in class, meeting students outside of class, chatting with other students at class breaks.
Possible solutions: Establish a mentor or "buddy system" relationship to introduce the student to others or to show the student " ropes".
Responding to negative feedback - understanding and interpreting criticism or poor grades, difficulty knowing what to do to improve, or how to initiate changes because of low self esteem
Ex.: A student may not seem to understand the feedback given, becomes upset when criticism is given on an assignment, or wants to withdraw from class because of a poor grade on an exam.
Possible solutions: Use a feedback loop (ask student's perspective of performance, describe both strengths and weaknesses, suggest specific ways to improve); give student the chance to read written feedback privately, and then discuss; make alternative assignments or "extra credit" options available to all students, thus giving them the opportunity to make up for a poor grade; if necessary, arrange a three-way meeting with the student and the disability services counselor to facilitate feedback.
Responding to change - coping with unexpected changes in coursework, such as changes in the assignments or exam due dates, or changes in instructors.
Ex.: A student may need to learn new routines, or feel unduly stressed when requirements or instructors change, or when new expectations are introduced midsemester.
Possible solutions: Prepare students when possible for changes that will be happening, explain any new course requirements, make a special effort to introduce any new instructors and orient the new instructor to student's needs.
*Adapted from Mancuso, L.L. (1990) Reasonable accommodations for workers with psychiatric disabilities. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, 14(2), 3-19.
http://www.bu.edu/cpr/jobschool/index.html
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