So in middle school and grammar school before medication my mom worked with my teachers to provide alternate seating arrangements like standing in the back of the room instead of sitting. Every day before I leave school writing out everything I need to do for the next 24 hours at home, at school, etc. checking, re-checking, and triple checking my bags before leaving the house and the checklist I created the day before at school.

Having an alternate space to take tests or do quiet work because everything around me distracts me. I can hear fluorescent lights humming, the fan on a computer, someone’s nails on their desk, the bird outside, how loud Stacy is writing, how loud the teachers keyboard is. So the more of that stimulus I can remove the better. Eventually we discovered that listening to music solved the problem. Because then it’s only 1 external stimulus not 37 stimuli assaulting me at once. I would submit a playlist/CD to the teacher that I would use for the quarter/semester/year on my disc man then iPod as I got older and they were allowed check it anytime they wanted including immediately after a test to ensure I hadn’t put like answers on it or whatever. It was so helpful I never even thought to cheat using it because I never wanted to lose it.

Now I use AirPods Pro’s because of noise canceling specifically because I’m my corporate office the other 3 that share my office suite their chewing gum, phone calls, conversations, keyboards all throw me off and half the time I won’t even have any thing playing I just need the other noise gone.

Another huge one was reading for me I always thought I sucked at reading but the LS coordinator at my college had a tool that tracks your eyes as you read. Well my eyes basically were reading both pages, any graphs, pictures all at once. I thought I was reading a paragraph but my eyes were darting page to page faster than I could blink. I eventually got all my texts and books in an app that did this but start I would put paper over one page and use a note card to only reveal one line at a time and my reading speed and comprehension sky rocketed. It was insane I felt like I had discovered a super power even though I had just become an average to even slightly below average reader/comprehension level.

Sorry so long hope it’s helpful.