My Best Tip for Living with Disabilities
Along with their significant difficulties, these kids also have terrific strengths. Finding ways to support and recognize those strengths is critical to their self-esteem, social status and success.
Why I Care About Disabilities - My Story
I panicked when my son, then 9, was diagnosed with learning disabilities. Could he learn? Go to college? I struggled to get him help, as he struggled to learn to read and do math, science, history (tough), foreign language (not a chance). Now 24, he starts graduate school in architecture this fall.
About My Blog
Our goal for the new Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities® blog is to provide information and support for parents, by parents (and experts), to help with the tremendous effort required to raise our kids to be happy, well-adjusted, successful adults. We plan to include posts contributed by a wide variety of people -- including learning disabilities experts and advocates, as well as the wisdom of parents who have made this journey ahead of us and can offer comfort and reassurance, as well as practical advice.
What's Great About My Blog
The Smart Kids with LD blog will continue to include the advice, stories, and hard-won experience of parents who have lived through the process of raising kids with learning disabilities and ADHD, in addition to providing guidance, suggestions, and the opinions (sometimes provocative) of LD and ADHD advocates and experts.
Topics to be covered soon include: how to address the achievement gap between students with LD and their peers; our current emphasis on testing, and how to ease kids' anxiety; the impact of learning disabilities on spouses; a clinical psychologist's perspective on homework; and a reading expert's thoughts on teaching spelling--and why spell check isn't the answer!
Advice
- This list of things I wish I'd known can be found on the Smart Kids with LD website:
- Trust yourself, if you believe something is wrong
- Trust your child -- he is smart, although he struggles in school
- Get your child tested
- Don't be flummoxed by the ups and downs of standardized test scores
- Become an expert -- an accurate diagnosis is the key to getting the right help
- Prepare for action
- Nurture his interests
- Give them credit (these kids are not lazy)
- Get real -- good grades in school don't equate with intelligence
- Buoy them with praise. There is nothing they can't achieve!
