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Alison M

Alison had a brain injury as a child.

Written quote: Alison M

My name is Alison. I am 37. I had a brain injury at the age of 4. This left me with profound weakness down my left-hand side and impaired speech.

School was a noisy and frightening experience. No allowance was made for my impairments and I received no proper educational support. I thought I wasn’t good at anything.

I now have a BA degree in Social Sciences from Glasgow Caledonian University. I was enabled to achieve this because I had a personalised learning support plan and access to a learning support tutor.

Support provided at university:

• I had a dictaphone on which I could record lessons to play back later.
• I was allowed to do presentations on a one-to-one basis, which alleviated much of my anxieties. Eventually I began doing presentations in front of the class. This raised my moods when I felt I had done good work.
• I was allowed extra time when handing in work. This was particularly important as I found it very hard to manage my time and structure everything I had to do. This allowed me to put more structure in my thought processes.
• I was allowed to sit my exams in a separate room which helped limit my confusion and enabled me to think more clearly.
• The university also provided a learning support tutor, Frank Montgomery who was more like a counsellor to me. He listened to my anxieties and fears and I think encouraged me to be positive and think about what I had achieved and not to be so hard on myself.

These extra structures took the pressures off learning and communication from me and allowed me to cope with university.