Imagine What It's Like?

Background to this DVD

This DVD is the result of the coming together of two organisations – The Daisychain Foundation and the National Parents’ & Siblings’ Alliance. 

One of the aims of the Daisychain Foundation is to encourage a national awareness and understanding of disability.  The Foundation believes that to do this we must start in our schools.   

The NPSA shares this view.  We are also aware that already, great efforts are being made to assist children with special needs.  However, we are conscious of the difficulties teachers face without a deep understanding of the needs and, more importantly, the feelings of people with disabilities.  Although there are many excellent courses and texts available which give advice and information, we believe that it is equally important for teachers to understand how people with disabilities and their families live their lives, how they feel about their situation in society and how they experience society’s response to the disability.

What this DVD tries to do

This DVD tries to help teachers in this process of understanding two conditions – Asperger Syndrome (AS) and ADHD. 

It also tries to help teachers to understand the power they have to improve the lives of people with these conditions.

The Structure of the DVD

It is divided into a section on AS and another on ADHD.  Both sections have more or less the same format.  Dr. David Carey talks about particular characteristics of the condition.  Then a person with that condition and a parent speaks about how it translates into their everyday experiences.

Does this DVD describe everyone with AS or ADHD?

The makers of this DVD are very conscious that people with these conditions, just like all students in any classroom in the country are unique individuals.  Not every person with ADHD or AS will have every characteristic described in this DVD.  Even for those who do, they are still unique human beings moulded by many other influences besides ADHD or AS.  So, having AS does not necessarily mean ending up with a Ph.D like David Jordan, who appears in our section on AS, any more than having ADHD means ending up in prison as James does in our section on ADHD. Indeed this outcome would not be representative of the majority of children with ADHD - we are aware of the many students with ADHD, like Niall in our DVD, who have benefited from the positive interventions of their teachers as well as their parents and have thus been allowed to achieve their full potential.  So, while a person with ADHD or AS may have some or all of the “standard characteristics” of ADHD or AS he or she is, nevertheless, as different to any other person with ADHD or AS as a student in any class differs from any other student in the same class. 

So, in this DVD we hope to help teachers to see each student with ADHD or AS as a unique human being who must be understood in this way.  We hear information on ADHD and AS.  We also hear stories and views from two parents and three people with AS or ADHD.  Each has a story to tell which is unique to them. 

In Short