5th class

In our class today, we talked about the social problems that people with LD may encounter and how others can help them dealing with them. What I learned in the lecture is really, somehow, odd to me in the beginning, because how can someone be unable to distinguish a smiling face and a tearing face. After getting more information, I began to understand that although it sounds so ridiculous to me, it is happening to some others, and I have taken for granted such an important skill that people with LD may need pay tremendous effort to gain.

The reasons why social problems of people with LD are that social interaction is unavoidable in one's life, and social skills cannot be satisfactorily accommodated by technology or other help. When one person cannot pick up social cues, process them correctly and react to it appropriately, they are very likely to offense others and embarrass themselves. It is such a terrible feeling that you don't know the rule or cannot follow the rules. I had a lot of experience when just arriving America. For example, I don't know how to use the driving lane of a bank. I saw people drove through it, finished their business there, and drove away, but I don't know how exactly it works. But I felt embarrassed to ask because it seemed to be a common sense that everybody at my age should know. I don't want to be regarded as the silly one. Therefore, I just decided to try it out by myself. When I stopped in the lane, it took me a while to figure out how to call the bank teller in the window. However, when I tried to tell her that what I wanted to do with my account, she kept saying that she could not hear me. She repeated herself several time, and give me sone kind of instruction. But, affected by the mediocre communication technology and the pressure of being regarded an idiot, I could not understand her words. After a few minute, I just drove away while trying to hide my face from her.

I am not sure how similar it is to the experience of people with LD. They may experience something much worse. They may encounter with these situations hundreds of times everyday. And they may even don't understand why people make fun of them or shy away from them, which could be much more devastating. Again, just as I feel in other class sections, how lucky we are that we can function normally in our life. Compared with people with LD, there is little reason for us to complain about the hardship in life. It is really nice to know that there are programs and teachers (such as Lisa) that provide customized instruction for these individuals and they can be very helpful. When it comes to adulthood, it ties back to our discussion about self-advocacy. Individuals with limited social skills should let people who they trust and spend much time with know about their problems so that they can have the mirro to check and analyze their performance.