Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up. 7-11-24 - A Lesson on Neurodiversity With Dr. Christopher Scott Wyatt

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One Leg Up. 7-11-24 - A Lesson on Neurodiversity With Dr. Christopher Scott Wyatt · OneLegUpAlex Media

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Here's your host, Alex Garret on the Alex Garrett Podcast Network. Right now
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is a very special guest. I've got doctor Christopher Scott Wyatt, who is
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an autistic self advocate, father of two neurodiverse daughters and someone with autism himself.
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He actually went out and earned a doctorate researching online education from the University
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of Minnesota. And with that, on my line right now is doctor Christopher
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Scott Whytt, Doctor why thanks for joining me. Thank you so much for
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having me in such a very pivotal month for people with disabilities. You are
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a father of two autistic daughters and I found you on plot Match and I
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thought you were such an interesting guest because you've actually developed into this cause and
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being an advocate for those with autism because your daughters are neurodivergin. So I
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want to start there. Is it more polite now to say neurodivergin versus autistic
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or is it one of the same. The neurodiversity movement includes a lot of
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other traits, so individuals with ADHD, some learning disabilities PTSD, they also
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have embraced the neurodiversity movement. So neurodiversity large would be any brain differences that
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a lot of us argue aren't necessarily deficiencies, but our differences in how we
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process the world. So someone with synesthesia who might see colors or hear sounds
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that well they read or encounter other inputs, someone like that has different wiring.
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Someone with autism has different wiring. So neurodiversity is more about all of
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those differences, as where autistic self advocacy remains largely on the the spectrum end
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of things. We focus more on the autism and the autistic experience, but
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we certainly welcome and encourage neurodiversity, including the autistic and the ADHD, the
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synesthesia, the learning disabilities. We encourage all of that to be thought of
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as different types of wiring. All right, So you have two daughters.
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Very interesting, by the way, you have two daughters who have autism.
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Tell us about that journey. It sounds like it's been a very patient journey
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and you've been a sort of stoic through it. Throughout it. How has
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that journey been to raised two out a sick daughter. Well, the official
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diagnoses do very Our oldest has the official autism diagnosis with ADHD, and the
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youngest her diagnoses keep shifting, so you know, we don't know what the
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labels will be in the end other than add definitely. She also has something
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called reactive attachment disorder, which makes it difficult for her to form social connections,
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which is also often an autistic trait. She has some other challenges as
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well. So she's young enough and her testing is still inconclusive, but we
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know she's neurodiverse. We just don't know what labels will apply. So that's
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a big part of the patients right there as a parent. As a parent,
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it has been very difficult to get the labels and the services sorted out,
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and that's true for many many families, whether it's difficulty in getting our
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public schools to do the assessments or private assessments through insurance. It can take
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a long time and a lot of trial and error to get the diagnoses settled
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down. And even even when you think you have a label, that label
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can change. Minded I was not reclassified as autistic until the age of thirty
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seven. Before that, I had other labels, so I had the ADHD
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label. They thought about OCD, they looked at other things that caused me
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difficulty, like dyslexia, and so my label did not become autism until the
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Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Mental Health Professions. The DSM was revised with
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the fourth edition in two thousand and then I was re evaluated in two thousand
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and six two thousand and seven. So the labels change. That's one thing
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I do want everyone to understand during this disabilities awareness is the label that we
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have today might change because the statistical guides that are used by our healthcare professions,
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whether it's the ICD, which is the International Classifications of Disease Jesus,
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or the DSM, which is more common in the US for mental health,
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they change. So the label that a lot of people had, which was
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Asperger's went away and became just autism. Another label people had was PDDNS,
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which was pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. That became autism. So the
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labels are less important to me because I know that in my case and in
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the case of my daughters, they keep changing. I'm so glad that we're
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talking about the hereditary nature of your daughter's evering autism, because, to be
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quite frankly, I am always irritated when they say the vaccines caused this.
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It's a hereditary condition autism, and you are I guess you'd say living proof
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because you have two dars with autism, but you yourself having it, did
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that help you adapt to fatherhood and becoming the father of two auto stick daughters.
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I don't know that. I don't know that my autistic traits are helpful
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or not, but it certainly has made me more aware of the difficulties I
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experienced as a student, as a and as an educator working with students.
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That has made me very aware of the things I need to advocate for on
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behalf of my daughters. It has reminded me constantly that they need to be
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judged on their abilities and their interests, not on standardized testing or whatever else
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is out there. I do think it's made me more sensitive to their needs
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and are a more passionate advocate on their behalf. But more importantly, it's
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made me aware of the fact that I need to teach them to be advocates
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for themselves because I can't always be with them. So even at they're young
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ages, it's really good for them to tell a teacher, excuse me,
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I'm having problems with whatever it is, whether it's the sound input, maybe
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it's the smells around them. Maybe there's something else going on that's affecting their
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study abilities. So giving my daughters the tools to say, excuse me,
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but I need some accommodation. I think that's the most important thing that I
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bring into it as a parent, is telling them there is nothing wrong with
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asking for help. Now. I just see you adopted your two daughters,
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So them being autistic, did that kind of inspire you to adopt them?
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No? Actually, so when we wanted to become parents, we had some
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I would say that we had some of the heartbreaking experiences that many families go
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through. My wife had two miscarriages, and we had decided to become foster
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parents. We were looking at that as a bridge. We didn't know what
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would happen. So when we became their foster parents, we were their foster
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parents for four years, and obviously we were asked when the opportunity to make
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it a permanent family. We had already been a family for many years,
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and so when the adoption cleared, it was really just formalizing something that had
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been true for four years before that. They came into our lives at the
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ages of two and three, and they are sisters, and I do think
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you're right that it reflects the genetic predisposition. They do have siblings who were
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also in the system, separate placements for various reasons. But both of the
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brothers are also on the spectrum, no question about it. That the oldest
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is autistic and has struggled as well. Are in contact with their adoptive families,
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and my daughters are in contact with their brothers, and in fact they
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are they use Facebook, Messenger and other tools to chase That is such good
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news because, as you say, to have them socializing with just their family
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is a great start, isn't it. Well, you know, and I
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think that it's really important for them to understand that, as you said,
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that genetic predisposition. I see traits in my father, in myself, I
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see traits in the greater family. And when people say, oh, well,
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you know you caused the autism in your children because you got them vaccinated,
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or you got them the COVID vaccine or whatever it is, it's we
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do our best to take care of the health of our daughters. They do,
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you know, obviously, to go to school, they get their standard
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vaccines. During COVID we made sure they got their boosters. They were autistic
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and neurodiverse from birth. I think it would be wrong to say it just
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magically happened, because as we see from their extended families, from my extended
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family, that those differences are unquestionably linked across generations, just like so many
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other things, whether it's diabetes or other traits that we know are hereditary.
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And I want my daughters to understand that there is nothing wrong with you.
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You're not broken, you're not flawed. This just happens to be who we
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are as people. We happen to be neurodiverse. And you've actually done one
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hundred and fifty national appearances, and you've been you've been a traveler talking about
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this, and you've met the blog Autistic Me. If you didn't have these
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daughters, would you be so forceful in your advocacy or would you have said,
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Okay, well I have autism. I don't need to really talk about
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it. Tell me about that dynamic as well, you talk about it yourself,
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versus okay, now I have two dollars I can talk about about as
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well. For many years I tried to not do autism related research or writing
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in academic settings, so I was fine if someone said, well, hey,
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come speak to our school about your experiences, or come speak to a
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conference that we're having. I spoke at an eighty eight conference years ago in
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Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which was a lot of fun. But I would do
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those things and never think of them as a mission. It was just like,
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Oh, if somebody's invited me to speak, they want to hear me
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for whatever reason, I'll go answer questions. This year was the first year
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where I actually published an academic article on autistic parenting and autistic self advocacy,
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and I did a presentation earlier this summer at which I talked about the fact
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that once I hadn't realized that the daughters were going to struggle, my daughters
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were going to struggle the way I struggled, and the system isn't changing.
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The system is not getting significantly better. I had a responsibility, as a
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university instructor and as someone who can do research and get published, to not
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just go out and speak to parents and speak to community groups, but as
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someone in academia, I need to be talking to my colleagues. I need
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to be talking to other researchers. I need to be publishing in that area,
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and I resisted for a long time. So it was a real shift
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this year to say, Okay, I've got a daughter in middle school and
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a daughter in elementary school who are facing some of the same stereotypes and some
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of the same presumptions about how we learn and who we are, that I
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really shouldn't just say I want to research something else. I want to be
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something else. So it was a big shift for me to say I'm now
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going to do this. Even as an academic pursuit. It was so easy
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to say, Okay, I'll go up and I'll do the podcast where I'll
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go talk, But it's a big move to say I am now going to
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do some of this professionally. And it is It is because of the daughters.
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There's no question that Ann and Lee are why I am doing what I'm
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doing. It's certainly now why I am continuing to write and publish on autistic
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students and autistic educators. Yes, you do the podcast Perspectives on euro Diversity,
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and you have a website as well, and you're a doctor. You're
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doctor Christopher Scott White. Tell us about the PhD, and is that in
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you know where what field? Is that in the doctorate, my original goal
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was to study online spaces and how technology shapes student writing. I wanted to
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figure out how software shapes our communication. I spent twenty years in industry,
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mostly in high tech fields, even within banking. I was a IT professional,
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so I've always spent my time designing interfaces, designing software, and I
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started to wonder, well, how are people affected by the software design?
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And so my PhD was going to be how online writing tools and online writing
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supports affected students, But that slowly shifted and I started to study specifically how
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online writing and online commun indication either help or hinder disabled individuals. The first
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published research I did on it was based on a student I had who was
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disabled mobility challenge in a wheelchair, and that student commented that we were working
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on video games and she wanted to create a video game with a character like
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herself, a character that had to navigate the world from a wheelchair, and
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I had not thought about it before. So the first academic paper I really
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pursued in the field of disability studies was gaming and a disabled student who was
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saying, Hey, there's no one else in a wheelchair. No, that's
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a good point. So she created a game where the main character, the
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point of view of the player is from a wheelchair. And I continued sort
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of down that path of asking myself, how can we make writing a communication
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tools more accessible? And the autism part of that came through when I realized
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that user interfaces might not always support neurodiversity, whether it's dyslexia, dysgraphia,
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autism, adhd our. Online writing spaces and communication spaces are very colorful,
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they're busy, you know. When I was growing up, the popular spaces
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were Aol and MySpace Friendster. These were very loud, noisy places where music
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would play and videos automatically looped, and it was overwhelming for people with some
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disabilities. So I really began to think of how could we design better spaces
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for people who have differences? And that's what the PhD research was. In
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my thesis and my dissertation both it looked at how online writing spaces need to
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be adapted to be more inclusive, saying and obviously I'm going to link to
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your blog, and I'm sure you're talking about this in the nottic me blog
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as well, right I do. It started off as a class project in
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two thousand and seven and the project just kind of kept going. At first,
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I was sure no one was going to read it. I thought,
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hey, this is for class, we have to do a blog. I'll
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do a blog and it'll go away. Well that was two thousand and seven,
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and here we are in twenty twenty four and I'm the blog is still
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there. And it surprised me how there was an audience for this that has
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continued, and it reflects the need for supports and the need for a sense
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of community among those of us who try to navigate the world as best we
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can. You know, I think it's interesting. Where where can we find
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the papers that you academics academically published as well or those on your website.
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I would need to they should be linked on the on the resume. I
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will check on that the papers. The first set of papers have been published
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in the proceedings of the conference is called Computers and Writing, so that just
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the most recent one was at Texas Christian University TCU and Fort Worth. The
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papers I delivered were delivered at George Mason University, so I will I will
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make sure that those are included. They do appear on the blog and in
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the about me in the upcoming paper. There's a book chapter coming out in
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the fall about teaching with teaching well autistic, and there is another Proceedings paper
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coming out about why I decided to do self ad with casine work. So
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yeah, the blog and the podcast definitely include links to those and they are
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frequent topics. People do ask why isn't there more research done by autistics about
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autism instead of a lot of people telling autistics about us. It's really important
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to me that we have blind and deaf researchers, that we have, you
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know, people of color researching their communities. That it's not right to have
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outsiders tell autistics or the neurodiverse who we are. We need to raise our
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voices and be heard from our perspective, because we tend to know what gives
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us the trouble navigating each day, and so we're better situated to say this
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should be studied or this solution should be looked at. I think it just
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gives us a different insight, just as any other community is probably better positioned
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to do some of its own research, or at least to advocate for particular
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research. I'm looking at your bio here. You completed your doctoral studies in
19:52
twenty ten at the University of Minnesota. My dad's also a go for you
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graduated from University of Minnesota. So that little commonality. I loved you.
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One of the questions are things that bothers you? Is the awareness campaigns and
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the not bothers you, but the fact that sometimes these awareness campaigns end there,
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right, Okay, so y'all honor people with als or autism on the
20:15
field that Yankee Stadium or city field, then that's it. But I just
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found out that the ALS Association went on to secure a one million dollar funding
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for uh pre know ALS research. Do you wish something like that would continue
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and help really grow the awareness and actually get research done? Is there not
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enough research going on in the autistic community. I fear that the research is
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the wrong research. Too often we look for ways to identify autism early,
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and to what I fear is look at the genetics and say, just like
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with down syndrome, how can we eliminate autism? And so that concerns me.
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When you hear someone from some of the national organizations say we want to
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eliminate autism or reduce the incidence of autism, I think that's the wrong research.
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I think the correct research would be how can we better accommodate autistic individuals?
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How can we be more inclusive in the workplaces. So the research that
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I wish we had is more on inclusion and accommodation and less on let's determine
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the cause so we can get rid of it. There is a lot of
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money being invested, and I understand that there is a focus on if you
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want to call it, cure, but there's groups out there like Defeat Autism
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now Autism Speaks. These groups sell a story that autism is a fatal illness.
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Excuse me, and I want people to understand that neurodiversity is not always
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debilitating. What's debilitating is how people react to disabilities. Oh, that is
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so powerful, and that can go for any kind of disability if you will.
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So that's a great broad ranging analysis, but I do find I'll tell
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you a story. I saw a kid on the platform, on the subway
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platform, wrestling with what looked like his aid or teacher assistant, and he
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clearly what looked like to have autism, and it crossed the way and by
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the way, the aid did a great job, you know, restraining him.
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And that does happen in the autos community. You have the kids when
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they get older, they start fighting back, and I'm sure you've seen that
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or been involved in classrooms where that happens, right, doctor Wyatt. My
22:41
youngest is prone to mood swings and she can get self injurious. This is
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something that I think the autistic self advocacy community needs to recognize. I think
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being a parent makes me very aware of the needs of my daughters that other
23:00
self advocates might not always take into consideration. I get a lot of flack
23:08
from some quarters, not all, but some because we did seek medical intervention
23:15
for both daughters. I am not someone who likes to medicate, but what
23:22
we discovered was that the mood swings in my youngest were so volatile that she
23:29
was a risk to herself and others, and so we did seek out a
23:33
child psychiatrist, and we did we did adopt a medication routine for her that
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helps level her moods. It's not an easy thing for a parent to say
23:51
that my child needs medication, but for us, it was the right thing.
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And I understand that we don't want to medicate a way everything. I
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do think that we over medicate in some instances that you know, pills shouldn't
24:04
solve all problems. But I can't have a daughter who's throwing chairs or throwing
24:11
herself on the ground, or scratching herself, or in her case, she
24:15
even pulled out her eyebrows, her eyelashes. You can't have that. It's
24:21
not healthy for her, it's not healthy for those around her. So those
24:26
are things we can't ignore with autistic individuals. We can't ignore that there are
24:30
comorbid situations. So in the case of our daughters, we do use ADHD
24:37
medication for both, and the youngest also has some mood leveling medications, and
24:42
we do hope she outgrows that need. We do hope she learns to self
24:47
regulate. But right now, her safety and the safety of those around her
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is important to me. And to end that story, by the way,
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the person across the way, with no experience with what I would perceive to
24:59
have any experience in the autism community, says, Oh, you're doing it
25:03
wrong, You're hurting him. Meanwhile, I'm like, this is a trained
25:06
expert containing this outrage, you know, outburst if you will, I don't
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know if you want to call it a tantrum. I feel bad saying is
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have tantrums? But what would you call it exactly? Well, the proper
25:19
tournament would be a meltdown. And the key there is to reduce the triggers.
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We need to know what causes it, because I know that from my
25:29
daughter, the youngest one. She gets triggered by too much noise, too
25:33
much input. If there's too much going on around her, she will have
25:38
a meltdown and she will protest, and because she can't clearly communicate her panic
25:44
and her pain, and that is what it is. It is pain,
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severe noises, loud noises when I say severe, a sharp noise, certain
25:52
pitches, If those are triggering a meltdown in her, it is not her
25:56
throwing a fit. The meltdown is caused by too much input that at her
26:03
young age or at her cognitive level, she can't explain. Now, the
26:08
right thing to do is to figure out what the cause is. But we
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can't always in that instant determine all the causes. You know, now we
26:18
know to have noise canceling headphones, to make sure she's on medication, to
26:22
make sure that she's not involved in allowed fire. Did she underly the fourth,
26:26
because I know that was a huge that's a huge thing for people with
26:30
those sensory issues. Right, So the fireworks that she do, okay,
26:34
do you shield her from them? How did she go with that? Well,
26:37
actually she was asleep by then, so that solves that problem. We
26:41
are we're in a rural suburb of Austin, Texas, so there weren't a
26:48
big stadium, displays or anything in our neighborhood, so that worked out well.
26:55
But we did go see fireworks. We actually went down to SeaWorld,
26:59
which isn't San Antonio. We take earplugs, we have precautions for her,
27:03
We can leave if she needs. Also, the fireworks are far enough away
27:08
that we were able to sit on a grassy hill and watch them, so
27:11
they weren't weren't super loud. But we are very aware of her needs.
27:15
And our rule is always if you need to quit, if you need to
27:18
leave, if you need headphones, you tell us or at least indication.
27:23
How's their communication because obviously parents when they find that their child is not verbal
27:29
after three years or even your earlier, the panic button start to go off.
27:33
So tell us about the verbal nature of both of your daughters, And
27:36
did you have any verbal issues growing up. The oldest was verbal, but
27:45
tangled when she was three. The youngest was nonverbal when she arrived, so
27:52
she was nonverbal probably until almost the age of three or three and a half.
28:00
The language development is still delayed for the youngest. She still has language
28:07
processing issues. She does receive supports for those. The oldest also receives supports
28:15
at school for language processing. What's fascinating to me is how many of the
28:19
autistics I know, including myself, I read a lot. My daughters read,
28:26
but writing and communicating can be a challenge, especially verbal speech. So
28:30
both of them receive help and supports at school for speaking, especially with peers,
28:37
because sarcasm idioms. They really get tripped up on those, so do
28:41
I. I still get confused by someone trying to be sarcastic or thinking they're
28:47
funny when they're just not being funny. So I struggle with that. I
28:52
have always struggled with figurative language, and I know my daughters do. This
29:00
becomes a lesson for them. I tell them, Dad still struggles. You're
29:03
going to struggle. Let's learn about these sayings, Let's learn what people mean.
29:08
So those are things that we work on and I know that they will
29:11
continue to work on You know, I still work on it constantly. I
29:15
still find myself confused by what humans say versus what humans mean. Powerful.
29:22
Well, one last thing, because I know you're a consultant also, doctor
29:26
Wyatt, and I wanted to ask you this. Parents who a are nervous
29:33
to get their child diagnosed is still a very prevalent problem in twenty twenty four.
29:37
And do you do you have people that you consult that are even afraid
29:42
to get their kid tested? Like, how far does your consultation go?
29:47
Well, I mostly work with on site training for like schools or employers.
29:52
I don't do I don't work with individuals per se. I would refer them
29:56
to coaches, so I know autism coaches and career culture coaches that I refer
30:02
people to who are young adults for younger people. Under the law, the
30:11
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ensures that parents can ask a school for an evaluation
30:18
for learning disabilities and special needs, no out of pocket to the parent,
30:22
and the school district does have to evaluate that child and then they have to
30:26
reevaluate every three years. The most important thing you can do then, if
30:30
you have a child in kindergarten through even twelfth grade, and you suspect a
30:34
problem, you need to insist that the school do the assessment in a timely
30:40
manner, from the moment you request the assessment until the school responds. The
30:45
timeline is typically thirty to forty five days, but you need to be on
30:51
that as a parent. You need to be aware that you have those rights
30:55
and that you can pursue those So if you go to if you go to
31:00
the Department of Education website the US Department of Education, you can look at
31:06
your rights for those assessments. There are similar programs in Canada, in the
31:12
United Kingdom, limited in Australia, but they do have testing assessments as well
31:18
mandated. It's a struggle in most of the world sadly, but here in
31:25
the United States with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other legislation, parents
31:32
do have the right in every single state to request an assessment. The problem
31:36
is, especially after COVID, schools don't have enough school psychiatrist, school psychologists,
31:44
and assessment professionals. So even if the school does agree in a timely
31:48
fashion, yes we're going to get your child assessed, you may not get
31:52
the results within a few weeks or even a few months. Our youngest,
31:56
her last assessment was more than a year ago and we still don't have the
32:00
full report. Oh well, is there any way we can help you fight
32:07
to get that rapport? I mean, is anything the podcast listeners can do?
32:10
No? You know? And thankfully the good thing is that she does
32:14
have a five zero four plan. She does have a special education plan.
32:17
Her school is providing the support. Does she have a one to one I
32:21
went to a school for people disability, so I know the language, the
32:23
lingo, right, So does she ever one to one era or something like
32:27
that? She did in Pennsylvania, she does not in Texas. In Texas,
32:30
she is checked on throughout the day in her regular class, and she's
32:34
pulled out occasionally to work with the social worker and the therapist. And our
32:38
oldest is the same way. She goes for a school for the gifted and
32:45
talented. So she's very she's very good at math and science, and she's
32:49
above grade level, but they still pull her out for language development. So
32:52
they do pull her out to work with the speech therapist. So I want
32:57
to be good. I want to make you cry, but to ask you
33:00
what's it like to see your older daughter supporting your younger sister during her melt.
33:05
Does I mean that's some warm you up a little it right, get
33:08
you a little emotional. They are typical sisters. They will pick on each
33:14
other and abuse each other, but don't you dare pick on one of them?
33:17
Right. They will call each other names, that will push and shove
33:21
and tease each other, but when push comes to shove from someone else,
33:25
they will intervene. They are very protective of each other. They are very
33:30
supportive of each other. If one of them gets something, they the oldest
33:36
is very good about saying, okay, you know, if I give Lee
33:39
something, she's very good about saying, can we get another one free?
33:43
In so she's very good about that. She's very good about saying, let's
33:46
make sure that my sister has what I have. And I really I'm really
33:53
glad that they're supporting each other in that way that they that they tell each
33:58
other how to support themselves. That's very good. The thing that they're most
34:04
recently doing is they're starting to help more in the yard. So they actually
34:08
were sort of competing out there to see who could learn to push the lawnmower
34:14
and I like to see that. I like to see them work together and
34:16
talk through their struggles and offer ideas to each other's. I think that's the
34:24
sign that we've done something right as parents, that the girls are eager to
34:28
help each other and eager to help their friends. Well, doctor Scott Wyatt,
34:34
I am so thankful you joining my show today. And one last thing,
34:37
it is twenty twenty four. As I mentioned, so on the other
34:40
side, when you see even adults give your kids that dirty look, I
34:46
mean, does that still happen? And does that still bother the hell out
34:49
of you? It does. And we've talked on the podcast. I've had
34:55
the girls even as guests, talking about how the school experience is not always
35:00
positive and you have those teachers who are not in tune with the needs of
35:07
all children. When the youngest was set at the wiggle table for being too
35:13
fidgety, that bothers me. That's who she is, her ADHD, her
35:16
rad, her neurodiversity, you know, whatever it is. She moves around,
35:22
She's always in motion. That's what she is and that's how she learns.
35:27
So for a teacher to say you need to sit still, you need
35:30
to sit this way, is so old fashioned and so out of touch with
35:34
reality. We now know so much more even about ADHD than we knew thirty
35:38
years ago. We know so much more about dyslexia and dysgraphia. We know
35:45
so much more about all these things that I am always stunned that schools do
35:51
not yet accommodate well for all of the students. Accommodating students is it's that
36:00
such a simple thing too. You listen to the parent, you listen to
36:02
the child, figure out their needs. It really bothers me that we still
36:07
need to go through paperwork to get simple services legally, when the right thing
36:14
to do is for every teacher to just think about, Gee, this student
36:17
looks like he or she can't see the board, Well, just ask and
36:22
move the student first. Yes, eventually get the paperwork and the eye exam
36:24
and those things. But if if we pay attention, if we listen and
36:30
observe, we can do so much as teachers without all the paperwork, without
36:35
all the official forms and the official meetings. Sometimes all we have to do
36:38
is listen. And so it does bother me when I hear that my daughter
36:43
was moved because she couldn't sit still, or that they didn't notice that my
36:46
oldest she slipped and fell at school, and no one seemed to notice that
36:52
she had broken her wrist. This bothers me. How can schools be so
36:58
detached from what's going on but it still happens. Obviously, we've dealt with
37:02
it as parents where they, like I said, they didn't even notice that
37:06
the oldest had broken her wrist. It was up to us to get her
37:08
to an emergency room after school and on the next day. These are problems
37:14
for parents, and we need to remind teachers please pay attention to every child.
37:20
But you know, teachers always say, well, I've got thirty students
37:22
or I've got whatever I understand I do. I have one hundred and seventy
37:27
students some semesters, but my job is to listen as closely as I can
37:31
to each and every one of them, so they don't have to go and
37:34
get official paperwork and come to me with a letter saying, Okay, doctor
37:37
Wyatt, this student needs this accommodation. I try to just listen. I
37:43
tell my students email me or sit down with me, come to my office
37:45
hours, tell me what you need. I don't care why you need an
37:49
accommodation. I don't care you know about the paperwork. Just tell me what
37:53
you need from me so you can succeed. And that's so key and so
37:59
Looking at twenty twenty four, I look back and say, wow, my
38:01
girls are still encountering people who say, oh, you have autism, Oh
38:05
you poor thing. Oh you have ADHD. I'm so sorry. Okay,
38:10
you know they have ADHD. They both have ADHD, and we will help
38:15
them learn around it. It's not a it's not a terminal condition. It's
38:20
not it's not fatal to my knowledge, So I wish instead we said,
38:25
wow, you have ADHD, so that means you have extra energy. You'll
38:29
let's figure out how harm is it. Doctor Scott Wyatt, thank you so
38:34
much, and we'll come back to you before the semester starts. Tell us
38:37
your your next coming incoming class. Where do you teach? So I teach
38:42
at Texas A and M University and College station. Well there you go.
38:45
We'll follow the doctor Wide's journey added to Aggie Nation in coming up in August.
38:51
I'd love to have you back on before semester starts. Well, thank
38:53
you so much. This has been a real honor and I hope we stay
38:57
in touch and do some cross interviews and discuss what this is like, because
39:01
I think it's so important for everyone to understand that disability is created by how
39:06
other people treat us. Well. On that note, doctor Christopher Scott Whatt,
39:13
Professor at Texas A and M joins the Alex Garratt Podcast Network. Thanks
39:15
for joining me, Doctor WHITTT, thank you