Making Progress by 15-year-old Alex Lowery
Written on 9th Sep 2022 by Alex Lowery
In today’s article, I’m actually going to be sharing one of the first pieces of writing I wrote. When I was homeschooled, I had a special needs statement and yearly reports of the progress I had made. My mum would usually write them but when I got to 15, I actually felt I wanted to write my own. I had become more self-aware by this age than I had previously been and did acknowledge my disability. However, I would often be in denial about the extent it affected me. I thought it might be fun to look back at this old report. I’ve decided to make as few changes to it as possible. I’m not even going to change the grammar because it will feel more organic if I leave it and everyone can see if my writing style has changed. I don’t remember for sure but I think my mum might have proofread the report at the time but there are definitely still some spelling mistakes I made there.
I recently started a program called the Learning Breakthrough Program. What you’re meant to do is to stand on a board and to focus on a ball and keep hitting the ball every time it comes towards you. It is however not quite as simple as that, there are a certain amount of activities you have to follow but I’m not going to go through the details so I will just say how well it has helped me. It has helped me a lot. I am readings a lot better now, I am finding I can now read better with reading taking a lot less effort. I do still make a few mistakes when I’m reading, but I have noticed an overall improvement. My writing has improved a lot. In my last report you were told I could write interesting stories but would make a lot of mistakes in terms of spelling, grammar and punctuation. I can now write a lot better and can see a big difference in my writing when I read old pieces of work that I have written. I keep discovering new things about what you’re supposed to do in writing.
I now have a blog which I regularly post on, my mum doesn’t check my spellings any more. I find I can write what I want to write and am able to look in the spell checker and change it to the correct word. I keep finding out new words all the time, I feel I am learning so much. I have recently found out that if you want to write something that is happy you put a capital D next to the word. I know you would only do that on a computer or in a forum. Maths I am now doing a lot better at maths now. I still do make a lot of careless mistakes in my maths, but most of the time I’m just not thinking because my mind can get distracted onto other things. Anyway I still wouldn’t exactly say I’m an expert at maths but he I’m getting better. I find it more difficult to do maths in real life situations.
Social Activities
I still do a number of Social activities including Drama workshop (Fuse), St John’s Ambulance, Sunday school, Trips, British Museum, Natural History Museum, Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, Harrods War Memorial, Chester Zoo, Knowsley Safari Park, Cinderella on Ice, Blist Hill Museum Victorian lesson in Greenfield Valley, Cartoon making workshop, Pembroke Castle, New Quay honey farm, Tropiquaria Caws Cenarth Cheese Farm, Pembroke chocolate farm and Home-ed group.
I am now in the English and History class, I enjoy learning about World War 1 I visit the library every few weeks. Vaulting – Gymnastics on a horse St. John’s Ambulance – I have been awarded the David Blythen Memorial award for working the hardest this year. I have recently become very interested in the computer. I keep figuring out new stuff about the computer. As I’ve already told you I have got a blog now and I posts on stuff which I finds interesting. I will normally post about stuff like a new Audio book which I have just got which I really like. Here is a post from my blog:
THURSDAY, AUGUST 06, 2009
In about January this year I did a blog post about the Christmas Carol Banquet that we did. I was the Ghost of Christmas yet to come, I edited the picture and I painted myself to make me look more ghost like. Believe it or not, I didn’t paint the whole face. I just added painted eyes and nose and and mouth to it, it was quite a bleard photo so the face already looked that colour. I also painted over its cloak to make it look better. Do you like it? Because I quite like it but I know its scary.
Medieval history
I enjoy learning about the Kings and Queens of England, I am I feel I am learning well at home, I am really interested in really interested in the history of the Middle East. We have visited lots of castles, we recently visited Pembroke castle, we learnt that Henry V11 was born there, I like the fact that I can look at something that has been around for that amount of time. I want to carry on learning history and geography at home. I like researching stuff and then write it down, I am doing a photography topic this term, I am going to learn the history and science of photography. I could probably do with bringing maths more into everyday life, I have been going shopping on my own, but I will normally be given enough money to but what I want. I feel I am ready to start learning how to work out money better.
Life Skills
I have started walking to Holywell town on my own, Donna used to walk behind me but now she has let me walk ahead and has met me in Tesco’s. I can read better, I still find it hard to read a book to myself, my mum or Annette will read my work to me, I can read comments on the internet, if I want to know something I look it up on the internet to find information. I don’t think reading is the most important thing, so long as I can read sign’s and stuff. I have been trying to learn French this last year but I find it too difficult and will now give it up.
I have a number of followers on my U-tube account, I have been able to talk about autism using my web cam, I have posted video responses to other peoples comments on various aspects of autism and Asperger Syndrome.
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