Educators frequently fail to understand the importance of providing educational supports to mitigate fatigue , or mislabel symptoms of fatigue with terms like laziness , stubbornness or a behavioural problem .
Students often fail to recognize fatigue symptoms , lack understanding of how their learning is compromised by fatigue and have limited coping strategies . As a result , they frequently cannot or do not openly name or express their fatigue .
There have been some efforts made within educational systems to address acknowledging and responding to fatigue to support student engagement and wellness ( such as options for flexible scheduling or periodic breaks ). Yet , our research team found when we interviewed junior high and high school students who are deaf or hard of hearing that none of the students we interviewed were consistently afforded such accommodations .
The cumulative effects of fatigue related to constant effort for listening and communicating can lead to poorer quality of life outcomes . ( ENVATO )
Instead , students were left to cope with increased levels of fatigue on their own .
Next research steps
As a next step towards better understanding the impact of fatigue for students with disabilities , my colleagues and I designed the Fatigue in Educational Contexts ( FEC ) survey .
The purpose of the survey is to accurately identify , describe and interpret the presence and intensity of fatigue and to inform how students ’ fatigue can be alleviated in educational contexts . Our current focus is on students who are deaf or hard of hearing , but we plan to expand our focus to all students once the survey is refined .
Most available fatigue surveys examine workplace or injury related fatigue in adult populations . A commonly used standardized survey designed for children and adolescents , the PedsQL-MFS , has significant limitations for our purposes :
- It was not developed for individuals with disabilities nor is it inclusive of the heterogeneity of the disabled student population ;
- None of the items on the survey specifically address fatigue in classrooms .
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