Not only do acronyms cause confusion, but they can also cause embarrassment! Take my son, for example. He has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). I believe it’s a gift and that one day he’ll open it. But for now, it causes frustration and sometimes embarrassment.
When he started Grade 4, he was struggling to get his work completed during class time. For eight days straight, his teacher kept him in during recess to finish it. On Day 8, he complained to me. Right – there’s nothing worse than keeping a child with ADD in the classroom during recess!
I told him that I had a meeting with the teacher the following week, and that he needed to do a little advocating for himself.
I said, “Tell her that you have ADD. She’ll understand.”
He came home from school the next day, proud as punch.
“I told her Mom. I told her – clearly – that I have DNA.”
Apparently, at first she didn’t understand, as I had promised him. Confused, she told him that everyone has DNA. That was shocking news for my son. She asked him to tell her a little more about it. After hearing a list of his issues – difficulty paying attention, getting work done on time, and avoiding distractions – she finally understood.
Wouldn’t it have been easier if he told her he had ADD? Or maybe even “Attention Deficit Disorder”. It would have made for a shorter conversation, and he would have made it out for recess that day. Finally!
Another tip about acronyms – if you use them often in a lengthy report, manual, or book, add a Glossary of Terms at the end and make sure you list all those acronyms, along with what they really mean.