The SPAN Youth Hub

Life isn't always easy, and navigating life can be challenging when dealing with learning disabilities, ADHD, dyslexia, and more.  Understood By Us is a website with content from young adults that share life advice as they deal with their disabilities.  The site is made and updated by a small group of young adults who share advice for dealing with challenges relating to their disabilities. To quote their "Who We Are" section, "We have differences like ADHD, dyslexia, learning disabilities, anxiety, and more. Here’s our advice for how to thrive in school, work, and life."   There are   short video stories about several topics showcasing users and their unique situations, ranging from ADHD affecting your work, to reading with dyslexia. Below are a series of topics to explore, including helpful tips to go alongside them. These topics include classroom stories, life hacks, and self-motivation.  Understood by Us  really is a unique site that has a...

Virtual care is not new, but it's more common because of the pandemic. More and more healthcare providers are treating patients over voice or video chat such as Zoom or Skype. While the doctor cannot physically treat their patient, they can recommend medical advice or measures for patients who do not need immediate or emergency care. It's one of the ways doctors and nurses have adapted to the lockdowns caused by the pandemic. Here is what adolescents and young adults can do to prepare for virtual care. A good resource that we have on hand is the Adolescent Health Initiative, a website geared towards promoting good health among teens and young adults. One of their Timely Topic modules, focused on teens and virtual care, can be quoted as saying:  "A rapid increase in virtual care due to COVID-19 has drastically changed how providers interact with their patients. Adolescents and young adults need a unique approach to virtual care as they transition to more independence while ...

Virtual care or Telehealth is the way of the future. More and more doctors are moving less urgent or important meetings to online. It is convenient for the many patients they serve and have the technology. One of the many things that that will be left behind by the pandemic telehealth. Youth and young adults can start preparing today!  There is a new and upcoming webinar by Family Voices, CT KASA, Youth As Self-Advocates (YASA). CARES Act Telehealth Project: Material for Youth by Youth, they will share tools on the topic of telehealth. Join them to hear about the steps to make a successful Telehealth visit.  And how to connect with virtual mental health services. Link to register:  https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CSSaM7o6RUuGA4nRHp4zow For all the youth and young adults who tried signing on in this week's chat. We are aware of the problems with the Zoom link. We are sorry and fixed it with a new link. This week's topic was moved to next week as we talk about t...

We all come across an obstacle that slows us down. It may seem unfair to us that we have to deal with these issues at all. However, it is important to see obstacles or challenges as an opportunity to learn and grow. Overcoming obstacles builds character, and going through challenges is an important life skill to have for your future. But how do we overcome adversity? Well, this week, the group got together once again to find out the answer. This week, we are learning how to overcome adversity. Set to Go is a website focused on guiding young adults transitioning from high school to college and beyond. While the site itself is focused on academics, they have guides, tips, and more that can be used by just about anyone. On the site is a webpage, "Coping With Adversity," a post that not only defines and explains adversity itself but also gives great instructions and/or advice on how to make sure adversity doesn't stop you in your tracks. The link can be found below, under the...

Atif Deen, a board member of the Youth As Self Advocate (YASA), spoke about his experiences, challenges, and tips on speaking up for his disability. This was the first guest speaker on the SPAN Youth Chat. Deen's advice to never give up and to speak up for their concerns. Having fears and concerns about your future is normal, but the first step is finding your support team (parents, guardians, teachers, or therapists. He has fought for his right to a fair and equitable education. After facing several obstacles, and shunned after voicing concerns. He now has the accommodations that were possible with his persistence and the support of his team. The SPAN YouTube channel will feature other youth and young adults like Atif who have self-advocated for themselves.  Do you have any questions for Atif Deen? Let us know in the comment section below. If you have any youth, ages 13-26, then join us Wednesday at 3:00 - 3:30 PM for our youth chats. The link is below to register.  Auth...

Money makes the world go-round. With money, we buy food, clothes, pay rent, and all of our needs. We all learn to start managing or saving our money. Budgeting is an important life skill that will help you make the best of each dollar. Whether it's an allowance, weekly paycheck, or holiday cash gifts, as you grow up there is more money and each dollar should serve a purpose.  Everyone's budget is different, so there are few steps to make a smart budget that you can follow. The website, teenfinancialfreedom.com , has a list of ten tips for teens learning how to budget. While this list is geared towards teens, the tips can be useful for just about anyone looking to budget their money in the best way possible. Tips like creating spending categories, opening a savings account, tracking where your money goes, and other great advice to helping save your money. Another resource is "JumpStart's Reality Check," a quiz for youth and young adults to learn how to plan their f...

We all make mistakes, but it's harder to start learning from them. After making a mistake, everyone usually thinks about how did it go wrong. Yet we should be asking ourselves, how do I learn from it? The first step is to develop or build a growth mindset. The "Growth Mindset: help you grow," a YouTube video of two women who either learn from their mistake or easily forgets about it. A young artist sketching a plant would throw away each painting with a mistake. She starts to learn when she hangs up the paintings with the mistakes, so she won't repeat them. Check out the  Learning From Failure: 5 Inspiring Life Lessons website with tips to achieve success through failures. Mistakes are a learning opportunity, so we can become better and build stronger habits.  The youth from the chat had a lot of great advice to share with everyone. They spoke about using mistakes as examples to learn about what they did wrong. A youth shared a great quote, "every success in lif...