Who We Support

Joe had been diagnosed with inattentive type of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in early secondary school

years. Prior to accessing the Student Development Services (SDS) and being referred for counselling, he received no support other than prescribed attention medication. In the second year of his study, he found that he could not cope with the academic demands and took a deferral of studies. Joe missed his summer exams but returned for re-sits. It was during this period that he first sought assistance from SDS.  As a result of this approach, Joe consulted the educational psychologist on a bi-weekly basis, to discuss strategies and techniques to address the impact of his inattention on his studies.

Joe was successful in his re-sits and progressed into the third year of his study, continuing to meet regularly with his psychologist.  He spoke about how he struggled to complete work and felt unable to contribute to seminars, tutorials and especially group activities. Losing track of the date and time of the meetings, he often felt guilty of not working on the schedule. When Joe did work, he was dissatisfied with what he was doing and would dwell on this, which would further undermine his ability to concentrate. On the other hand, Joe often made verbal blunders towards his peers, which made him feel stupid and alienated from his peers. This created a cycle of low motivation for Joe and ultimately led him to believe that he couldn’t work effectively at all. Added together, Joe expected that he would show himself as incompetent to his classmates and be humiliated.

In response to his weak concentration, the psychologist coached Joe in training his executive functioning. This approach helped improve his short-term working memory, time management and prioritising. Tools such as time organizers, watches with alarms, visual organizational aids and checklists are used. Mindfulness techniques were taught to guide Joe. Further, he was invited to review, reflect and troubleshoot the problems with the psychologist on a regular basis. Gradually, Joe found himself to be punctual for lectures and group meetings, and was calmer and exercised more emotional control in front of peers.
 

By the end of the third year, Joe had re-established himself on his study and successfully progressed into the fourth year.  By the time Joe commenced his final year of study, he felt well enough to be able to end his regular counselling sessions.  The educational psychologist had great help with Joe solving his biggest problem in campus life.

If you experience similar struggles or problems, please contact us at the Student Development Services. We would like to hear from you.

Mark was recognised as having Asperger's Syndrome (a kind of ‘high functioning’ ASD) after starting his university

life.  A schedule of accommodations was provided in discussion with him, taking into account the specific difficulties he was experiencing. Mark was also referred to an educational psychologist for regular individualised support. In addition, he met with the SEN Officer every couple of weeks to review his support.

One of the main challenges experienced by Mark daily was hypersensitivity to noise and lighting; this caused him extreme discomfort and made it difficult for him to concentrate as he was unable to filter out the distractions.  Mark had developed many strategies to help him to manage this issue such as sourcing quiet locations to study and wearing earplugs in exams.  However, in some situations, these strategies were not practical. 

Mark was experiencing particular difficulties concerning the set-up of the open plan tutorial delivery for one of his courses and the associated noise levels. He stopped going to the tutorial due to the increasing anxiety and frustration caused by the noise. As attendance and submission of the tutorial solutions were counted towards the grading, it was essential to explore possible solutions to alleviate the barriers Mark was experiencing and prevent him from being disadvantaged.  In discussion with his tutor and staff within the department, it was agreed for Mark to have individualised tutorials for the remainder of the semester, helping him participate in the tutorial sessions and complete the compulsory work whilst options for longer-term solutions were discussed. 

It was ultimately agreed that a separate, quiet room for small group tutorials would be an acceptable, viable and appropriate long-term solution.  Collaboration among the SEN Officer, academic staff and Mark was essential in making these arrangements to ensure that he received appropriate support promptly, which enabled him to participate fully in his course of study.

If you have similar struggles or problems, please contact us our SEN Officer. We would like to hear from you.

Michelle was recognised as having chronic kidney disease since high school in which there is a gradual loss of

kidney function. She needed to visit the hospital every week for treatment. Michelle met with the SEN Officer at the start of the university study for specific support. With the submission of her medical reports to AIMS, a schedule of accommodations was provided in discussion with her, taking into account the specific difficulties she was experiencing.

One of the main challenges experienced by Michelle daily was her leg swelling and tiredness during the day, causing her extreme discomfort and made her difficult to concentrate for a long period.  She managed this issue by sourcing quiet locations to study and wearing earplugs in exams.  Examination accommodations such as extended time at a separate venue with frequent breaks were applied to Michelle, allowing her to have better focus.

If you have similar struggles or problems, please contact us at the Student Development Services. We would like to hear from you.

Ashley has a number of eye conditions which result in her having extremely limited vision of both eyes.  She contacted the Student Development Services (SDS) at the beginning of her first semester, and it was clear that, in addition to the provision of a range of support and accommodations, Ashley would also benefit from the provision of assistive technology in order to enable her to access all elements of her studies.

Although the advisory staff within SDS are skilled and trained in the use and application of a very broad range of assistive technologies and software, there are occasions when even more specialised knowledge and expertise are required.  Consequently, SDS worked with The Hong Kong Society for the Blind (HKSB, 香港盲人輔導會), and referred Ashley to them for a detailed assessment of need.  This also allowed her to trial equipment which is not available at SDS.

Ashley met with HKSB staff in October and they were able to let her try out a range of equipment which had practical benefits for her studies. These included a digital voice recorder to record lectures, a laptop with Windows and MS Office and a ZoomText magnifier, optical magnifier and monocular telescope.  The equipment enabled users to enlarge and adjust text size and utilise text to speech functions, which also minimised the need for human support and enabled users to maximise their capacity for independent learning.

Ashley had settled into her studies and made effective use of the equipment.  On completion of her degree, most of the equipment will be returned to SDS so that it may be used by other students in future.

If you have similar struggles or problems, please contact us at the Student Development Services. We would like to hear from you.

Peter had been diagnosed with depression and social anxiety by a psychiatrist at high school. Prior to accessing the Student Development Services (SDS), he received no support other than prescribed anti-depressant medication. Peter was provided with the support of a counsellor, who met with him on a weekly basis, to discuss strategies and techniques to address the impact of his depression and anxiety on his studies.

During the counselling sessions, Peter spoke about how he struggled to concentrate, arrive on time, and complete tasks. He felt unable to contribute to seminars, tutorials and especially group activities. This made him feel stupid and out of his depth. He also felt fear of participating in group projects and presentations as he might show himself as incompetent in front of his classmates and be humiliated. Although he could make friends and socialise with them, he felt his enjoyment was always spoiled because he would feel guilty that he was not working hard enough.  When Peter did work, he felt dissatisfied with what he was doing and would dwell on this, which further undermined his concentration. This created a cycle of low motivation for Peter, ultimately leading to a belief that he could not work effectively at all.

In response to these issues, the counsellor took an initial focus on helping Peter get his sense of purpose back by asking basic questions, such as ‘Why this subject?’, ‘What interests you in it?’, ‘Why is it important to get a degree?’. These questions were related to Peter’s situation considering the fact that inertia is a symptom of depression that makes people feel unmotivated. Good study habits were built around =the REVIEW – PLAN – PREPARE cycle. Reviewing his work each day helped Peter see that he was achieving things. Planning helped him know what he had to do next and how he should get the thing done. Preparation helped him understand that he could manage his anxiety about tutorials, seminars and group projects by clarifying the learning objectives, main themes and key readings for his subject. In addition, the counsellor introduced Peter to the Pomodoro Technique to improve his concentration. This approach helped alleviate the effects of anti-depressants on his short-term memory. For Peter himself, it is important to take frequent breaks and break tasks into smaller, manageable parts. The counsellor also helped Peter determine how he could enhance his approach to group work by using ‘ice-breakers’ such as  ‘I notice that you did X, that was really good, can you tell me about it? ’.

By the end of the first year Peter had re-established himself on his study and successfully progressed into the second year. By the time Peter commenced his third year of study, he felt well enough to be able to end his regular counselling sessions. 

If you have similar struggles or problems, please contact us at the Student Development Services. We would like to hear from you.

Daniel was a final year student when dyslexia was first recognised.  Without support in place, he found the study consistently challenging and had failed examinations every year. He had specific difficulties with memory and speed of processing information.

He found the fast pace of lectures hard to grasp and reported major difficulties in maintaining concentration. His slow speed of handwriting and difficulty writing legibly impeded his ability to take effective notes in lectures. Consequently, he had difficulties recalling what the lecturers had said.

As lectures often include references to visual information such as graphs, Daniel was given special approval for having an in-class audio recording. By replaying the lectures in his own time, he could process the content by stopping and starting the recording as required.

Daniel was also provided with PowerPoint presentations in advance of lectures which enabled him to produce a print-out of the slides during the lectures.  This reduced the amount of information he had to write as he could annotate the slides. In his final exams, he was not penalised for poor spelling, grammar, punctuation or structure in exam scripts and was given 25% extra time.

If you have similar struggles or problems, please contact us at the Student Development Services. We would like to hear from you.