LD relationship: My 9 year old son has a severe case of speech/language dyslexia, a severe case of light sensitivity syndrome and an extra "Y" chromosome.

Burden or gift: Burden, life is filled with language and language processing.

Positive experience: My son is very artistic, imaginative, musical and compassionate to others who suffer. He sees in 3-D and in his mind can turn objects around to visualize the backs of them. His drawings are amazing. He is magical with mathematics, can do complex computations in his head, most times cannot explain it.

Negative experience: People rushing him to answer and process information. People thinking that he is "stupid" because of the slow processing.

Problem solving: He has learned that if something cannot be done the way others do it, he comes up with a different way to achieve the same result.

Compensation: His school photocopies the whiteboard illustrations for him, he uses the computer for any writing assignments, he has voice activated software for writing assignments, except spelling (haha). He has IRlien glasses that change the process of the light encoding to his brain, thereby allowing him to read grade-level text. His teachers read long assignments to him, I get books on tape for him, etc.

Advice to children: Anyone can read when the words stay still, when they aren't washed out! It takes a blooming genius to read them when they DO!

What else: I wouldn't change my LD child for the world, because then he wouldn't be the same.

                                                Martha Monkman
                                                46-year-old Accountant with LD son

 

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Describe your disability: dyslexia

Burden or gift: burden, it has taken a long time for me to figure out who i was and that i was a valuable person, even with a disability. through my sons diagnosis of dyslexia i have learned to understand myself, as i have encouraged him i have seen what i lacked when i was a kid growing up with a disability.

Positive experience: I have found that feelings and listening and the experience of knowing what its like not to be perfect has made it easy for me to touch peoples lives with understanding and kindness.

Negative experience: felling like there is something wrong with the way i think. I can go from point a to z without having all the pieces. doing this is hard to explain to people who are methodical thinkers and need to know how you got to your solution. they tend to look down on me as i can't justify to them the reasons for my solution. Most of the time i am right and that is not comfortable for others. so they shy away.

Problem solving: with emotional and worldly knowledge, not with facts and figures

Creativity: I love to paint places and love to record beautiful places for the future. regular people miss the obvious, while they are looking for the pieces i see the picture.

Compensation: when i am tired it is hardest for me. i have to slow down and sound out. I double ck, i have also found that my brain gets the information if it is said to me, so when I am writing it down i replay the tape in my head of what was said and write it one letter at a time or read it one letter at a time. slowing down helps a lot.

Advice to parents: encourage them to be anything they want to be... just surviving school is a key factor.

Advice to children: YOU ARE VALUABLE, YOU can do anything you set your mind to do, think outside the box, you have gifts others haven't even dreamed of yet!!!!!!!!!!!

What else: recording for the blind and dyslexic is the best thing for kids and teens and adults. get your books on tape, they are word for word so listen to the words being read while your reading the book. my dyslexic son has now found he loves to read.... our education system is way off the mark when it comes to teaching kids with disabilities, lets let these kids tell us how they learn and progress from there.

                                                   Donna Reed
                                                   43-year-old pharmacy technician

 

* * *

 

LD relationship: My son is Dyslexic and he has ADHD

Positive experience: My son recently wrote an essay on "What athletics have done for me" for a scholarship from the state of California for kids with disabilities and he received a big bronze medal for being a top finalist in the state... Also, he was allowed in to the four year college of his choice (a private school) even with a low SAT score.

Negative experience: He was not able to read his social studies book in the fourth grade. Me, his mom, had to read to him and read with him every night for years to make sure that his homework would be completed.

Greatest impact: My son is very interested in sports and in high school he had to keep his grades up to play. There was always a cloud hanging over his head in that area. Thank goodness he usually kept up a 3.0 g.p.a so he could play sports but there was always a fear of taking the really hard math and English classes because if he failed them, he would not be able to play sports.

Problem solving: He can build legos like a genius. He can fix a car like a professional mechanic.... Logical problems are very easy for him but the written word is very hard.

Creativity: When he was in the fifth grade the teacher wanted him to do a report on someone famous. He decided to do a story on Lucille Ball but decided to do it with a video camera instead of writing it down. He dressed with a Spanish velvet bolero, cummerbund, and a flat blat Spanish hat with the balls around the edge of the brim and introduced himself as Desi Arnez and did the whole report as her ex-husband. The teacher still shows that tape to his classes today.

Compensation: Every child should be encouraged to grow inside and outside of the classroom. He does try to pick classes with more of the hands on type of curriculum. Autobody, small engines, etc. rather than high level English and math classes.

What else: I really think that we are closer because we have spent so much time at the kitchen table every night doing school work and then later on at the computer... Next year [he] is off to college so there will never be another night at the table. I never thought that I would say this but... I think I am going to miss this.

                                                            Colleen Corbett
                                                            53-year old marketer and                                                             mother of dyslexic son

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: Dyslexia

Age diagnosed: 5

Negative experience: My kindergarten teacher said I was just stupid and too lazy to learn. One day she would not let me go to breakfast or lunch since I could not read my name and I got sick. My mom came and took me to the hospital and when school was out she went back and slapped my teacher and told her she was the only stupid person in the class. We did not have any more trouble with that teacher.

Creativity: I can rebuild a car motor and I am really good at sports.

Advice to parents: Never give up on your child.

What else: Thanks mom.

                                                            19-year-old male student

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: I CANNOT COMPREHEND WELL AND HAVE TROUBLE READING

Positive experience: I DID NOT LEARN HOW TO READ TIL 5 TH GRADE, I HAD BACKWARD LETTERS, I MANGLED MY WORDS BY SWITCHING SYLLABLES OR LETTER AROUND... LIKE: GARBAGE WAS BARGAGE AND TAVERN WAS VATERN and keychain was cheykain, WHEN I SPOKE. A AM AMBIDEXTROUS ALSO. OOPS, GUESS THAT WASN'T POSITIVE.

Negative experience: i HAD TO BE IN A SPECIAL CLASSROOM BY MYSELF SOMETIMES DURING MY GRADE SCHOOL YEARS, I ALWAYS FLET I WAS STUPID.

Problem solving: I WORK AT COMPREHENDING VERY HARD.

Creativity: I AM VERY GOOD AT BASKETBALL AND BASEBALL BECAUSE I AM AMBIDEXTROUS, BUT THE DYSLEXIA HAS MADE ME INELLIGABLE TO PLAY SPORTS ONE TIME, IT WAS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE.

Learning style: SEEING AND HANDS ON

How to test children: NOT ALONE IN A ROOM TO MAKE THEM FEEL STUPID.

Compensation: I PLAY SPORTS IN BETWEEN HOMEWORK SO I DON'T GET SO FRUSTRATED.

Advice to parents: JUST AS MINE DID, TOLD ME I WAS SMART AND TALENTED, I JUST HAD TO WORK A LITTLE HARDER IN THE READING AREA THAN MOST AND TOLD ME I WAS SPECIAL

What else: I STILL SUFFER WITH THIS AT TIMES AND WORRY ABOUT GOING AWAY TO COLLEGE AND NOT HAVING MY PARENTS SUPPORT WHEN I GET IN A MESS WITH THE READING AND COMPREHENDING AND HAVING THEM THERE TO GET ME THROUGH IT.

                                                            16-year-old male student

 

* * *

 

Burden or gift: Those were the things that initially attracted me most to [my boyfriend] - most notably his intuitiveness and his gregariousness. He has dreams of becoming an environmental lawyer and he'll need some help with the writing and some of the reading. I don't consider that a burden, though. I consider it a blessing to help someone with so much courage realize their dream!

Positive experience: I think the disability helps show how courageous he is. Even before I knew he was dyslexic, I thought he was awesome, but knowing his challenges has made me appreciate all that he is even more!

                                                       24-year old Briefings Director                                                        with dyslexic boyfriend

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: Dyslexia, ADD (no hyperactivity)

Burden or gift: I actually believe it is more of a gift than a burden. With it you can get to think differently and faster. There are many things I can do others can't. Like writing backwards, sideways, upside down, as well as reading like that. I can be ambidextrous. Artist skills are also very high, and that I like. However, I believe it can be a burden because sometimes it is really hard for me to make out what people say. If I am not concentrated or if there are too many noises around, I see people speak, but I hear something more like a mumble. Other times you might misread what is on the paper and get the wrong general idea.

Positive experience: Many times I find answers to questions rather quicker than many and I can try different approaches to a problem, though sometimes not conventional, they might give the correct answers and sometimes faster.

Negative experience: People laugh and make fun of you sometimes when they find you read wrong or can't pay attention. The bad thing is when teachers do it too. There have been several times when I was made to feel ashamed because of a great mistake I could not help.

Impact: College. Now that the material is large and more difficult I find it harder to comprehend formulas and theory. It hinders social interaction a little, for me, because you get tired of trying to understand what people are saying. Sometimes, there are too great sensory overloads as I call them, where the sounds are too loud or too many and the input is just too much. Also my general balance is off and I get dizzy and trip fairly often.

Problem solving: I can give non-linear approach to problems. Open to a variety of ideas.

Creativity: I can play in games where you write stories. It is great because I can see the whole scene with sounds, smells, colours, almost as if I was walking in there. I believe this is due to the fact that many dyslexics are able to think 3D and in pictures.

Learning style: I learn best by watching coherent pictures and doing things hands-on.

Compensation: I often re-read the words I am writing several times as I go. I catch many mistakes, and have been doing it for years. When reading something that does not make sense I re-read them until they do. When speaking and I cannot find the word I explain what I try to do. I borrow people's notes when I don't have time to copy.

What else: There should be more feedback about learning differences/disabilities. People tend to be misled and have the wrong idea about them. For example they say that if you are dyslexic you should not be able to read, and that you see words backwards, and of course that is not true, and sometimes others believe it is a way of rebellion or to get a "free pass" or "easy way" to do things.

                                            20-year-old female university student

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: I have ADHD and a lot of signs for dyslexia though I have managed to come up with good strategies.

Positive experience: I am extremely good at driving my car I think, and I avoid very elegant to get into accidents because of my fast reaction. Also I am very fast to get the hang of something new - only I am a little too quick.

Negative experience: I interrupt people and when a person speaks to me I interrupt to fill up the invented gap with what I believe he is going to say - sometimes I am right but mostly I will have a very irritated response!

Greatest impact: In my job since I can make good use out of it when understanding a person and his/her situation/feelings.

Creativity: I believe I make good use of my learning disability every day just as much as I get into conflict with myself or what's happening. I feel that I live much more - I have never a dull life, I have developed a huge quantity of humor and I can be ironic with my person - this is a way of surviving I think.

Learning style: I have developed a visualization pattern strategy when hearing a number I need to remember, so I guess I use my visual sense a lot - but I also need to move my body in order to remember sometimes.

Advice to children: Be honest to yourself count to 4 before doing anything pat yourself on your shoulder when having been successful.

What else: The biggest burden is yourself and yet I would never change my personality with a phlegmatic ordinary slow person who is not so creative in every days life.

                                                        53-year-old diagnostician and                                                         mother from Sweden

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: I learned that I was dislexic by my son's diagnosis when he was 10 yrs. old.

Burden or gift: It was a gift to finally know that there was a reason why school was difficult. Why I knew the answers but it always took longer for me to answer in words. I love books, but hate the fact that I read so slowly. My son does not even try to read novels. We both have the ability to figure things out in a round about kind of way. Therefore, where some may see only one solution, we see several approaches that will lead to various solutions. It can be quite taxing.

Positive experience: I can multi-task well. When something gets to be to much. I stop and do something else when I return to the first task I can understand it better.

Negative experience: Reading aloud

Impact: The way I understand things. I tend to pay more attention to procedures. I can watch the way something is done a couple of times and pick it up.

Problem solving: I catch details quickly. I look for the bottom line.

Creativity: I do a lot of problem solving in my job and the ability to break things down into steps helps. I can actually visualize cause and effect or play the situation out in my head.

Compensation: I use spell check a lot. I have to write words down to spell them to someone. I use the thesaurus a lot. I ask my 11 year old daughter or my husband to spell things for me. I always ask someone to read over what I write.

Advice to parents: I guess my situation is a little different because my 15 year old son and I are learning to deal with this together. He and I have to battle low self worth. I try to make big deals out of the things he does well. And give him alternet approaches to problem areas.

Advice to children: You are blessed by your unique style of learning. You just have to free your mind and fly.

37-year-old IT Programmer and mother of dyslexic son

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: autism, stuttering, attention deficit disorder

Age diagnosed: 5

Burden or gift: a gift, I became Homecoming King in college and became class speaker

Positive experience: I received a standing ovation in the graduation toast

Negative experience: being teased

Learning style: seeing, hearing

Advice to children: have a positive outlook on life

Andre Robinson, 23-year-old teacher

 

* * * *

 

LD relationship: Mom and aunt. I have also had students with low and no vision who seem to be dyslexic as well – including a totally blind former student who reversed Braille letters and symbols.

Burden or gift: That student with the “dyslexia of the fingers” was also a savant. He could pick out anything on the piano! His greatest gift was a memory for dates and time. The last time I spoke to him by telephone he mentioned the date and time of the last time I’d seen him about 9 or 10 years earlier. In my class and our little art club, we used to allow him to memorize the school’s and the club’s calendar. Either I or one of the students would read the calendar to him and he’d memorize it and serve as our PDA. I’d still allow him to read aloud but I’d remind him to “flip a sign” or “flip a letter” then say the word again. The language in his reports ran like free verse poetry. It was very interesting to figure out his “wiring”.

Advice: Research, be an advocate, ask, demand, pray, read, learn, do not give up, do not make excuses.

Kathy Nichols-Lee, 47-year-old Teacher

 

* * * *

 

Describe your disability: I have Dyslexia.

Burden or gift: If I was asked that 20 years ago, I would have answered “burden”. However, now older and wiser (so to speak), I would say it has been a gift. It has given me creativity and talents that others do not have.

Negative experience: Negative experiences revolve around reading aloud to others. Whether or not they are aware of my disability, I am still uncomfortable with it.

Greatest impact: I freeze on tests. I can not spell to save my life, so it puts me in an uncomfortable place. On the “positive” side, I view things from a different angle than others. People respect what I have to say at my job, and that means a lot.

Advice to children: Hang in there, you need to find your way of learning, your own style. When you do, the whole world changes, it gets easier, better, you’ll see.

What else: Finding out that I am Learning Disabled was one of the best things that happened to me. I went most of my life thinking that I was stupid. I was very discouraged from school and dropped out at a young age. Years later when I was diagnosed, I was relieved. My life has changed since then in big ways. I grab the bull by the horns at times and keep looking forward to the next challenge

47-year-old Human Services professional

 

* * * *

 

Describe your disability: Dyslexia and Visual Processing Problems

Age diagnosed: At 10, rediagnosed at 24

Burden or gift: It affects my writing and reading skills greatly.

Positive experience: Being in a support group at the university with students with LD or ADD

Negative experience: Being teased and abused by family and friends because I could not try hard enough in school.

Creativity: Took an Art class in college. It helped me to free my mind and be extremely creative. My LD helped me, because I was able to picture paint in my mind.

Advice to children: Keep going, don’t let your dreams die.

25-year-old female Student/Library Shelving Coordinator

 

* * * *

 

Describe your disability: I have a hard time reading and writing and spelling it makes it hard to do my job sometimes

Grade completed: 12

Burden or gift: It has been both in school I almost failed senior year in high school. But it helps when looking for a job and you understand people better. And it somehow has made me a good sports player.

Negative experience: I got called stupid a lot from 1-12 grade. That hurt more than anything I have ever felt. It felt like people where standing on your heart.

Problem solving: I sometimes have to find different words to used when I am typing. I also have to write things down sometimes

Advice to children: Find something bigger than yourself to believe in. and not everybody in the world is sad messed up and cold.

22-year-old male file clerk

 

* * * *

 

Describe your disability: Dyslexia

Burden or gift: I have learned so much about my self and others

Positive experience: I know everyone has a gift to share

Negative experience: I was made fun of in school by teachers

Greatest impact: reading and writing

Learning style: Hearing seeing

Compensation: Just work harder

Advice to parents: Be kind to them and love them

Advice to children: you smart just do your best do not let anyone tell you that you are not good enough

What else: God gives the best the most to deal with

44-year-old salesman

 

* * * *

 

Describe your disability: I didn’t learn to read until 3rd grade (I read backwards).

Burden or gift: perhpas made me more persistent (I reverse letters, see?). I’m also somewhat ambidextrous. I still enjoy learning new things (now, the Irish harp, at age 77).

Negative experience: As a child I was subjected to many psychological tests. Teachers in the early grades no doubt thought I was stupid. My parents took me out of the progressive school where I was for kindergarten - 2nd grade, and put me in Punahou School, Honolulu, where apparently they diagnosed my problem and were able to correct it. But school was not a particularly happy experience for me even then. And I still consider myself a slow reader. I once got a speed reading kit but never got into it.

Problem solving: I am a persistent problem solver; I don’t give up

Creativity: I’ve written 11 books, published, 2 more as yet unpublished

Advice to parents: Pay special attention to the problem but don’t treat the child as abnormal

Advice to children: You can do anything you set your mind to

77-year-old female retired Professor
    of Japanese History and Indian History

* * *

Describe your disability: ADD (w/o hyperactivity) & Dyslexia (specifically, auditory)

Grade completed: Associates in Arts degree

Positive experience: I think my gift w/having dyslexia is my curiosity in everything.

Negative experience: there are so many… embarrassing myself by reading the sentence backwards in class, mind blurriness, etc.

Greatest impact: Relationships/friendships and in school

Creativity: I think creatively w/my heart.

Missy Baggerman, 23-year-old college student

 

* * *

Describe your disability: dyslexia moderate

Age diagnosed: 41

Burden or gift: burden because up till diagnosis [I] thought that all you have to do is work hard, perhaps in retrospect work smarter

Positive experience: insight into how and why I do things and how I can help myself

Negative experience: GP tutor who is skilled in learning [said] “we don’t have dyslexics in medicine”

Greatest impact: exam difficulties that alter career prospects

Problem solving: diagrams and pictures work

Compensation: stubborn personality

Advice to parents: live for that child, do what you can and don’t take no for an answer

Advice to children: be proud and be yourself; it won’t be easy but you are a unique and special individual

Dr. Mark Lawrence, 42-year-old
General Medical Practitioner from U.K.

 

* * *

 

Grade completed: 3rd grade

Describe your disability: I learned to read when I was 58 years old and still learning

Burden or gift: A terrible burden!! Jobs I could get without reading were boring and people made fun of me and called me “stupid”.

Negative experience: Being called “stupid” and no one paying any attention to what I said, even if I were right.

Problem solving: I learn streets and locations by landmarks instead of by street signs.

Creativity: Sculptured statues in marble. It was something creative I could do that did not require reading ability.

How to test children: To evaluate the child, ask them to read for you, and cut out all the testing monkey business.

Compensation: I listen to the radio constantly – every educational program I can find. When I could not fill out a job application I told them I’d left my glasses in the car and leave to get “glasses” and find someone to fill it out for me.

Advice to children: Pay attention to your special teacher and don’t tell other children about it.

Bruno Hawse, 70-year-old retiree

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: I have trouble spelling words and writing and reading. I can read but it takes me so long and I get very frustrated and usually give up.

Grade completed: 25 hours of college

Burden or gift: Well first I had to read this question three times to understand it. But I finally got it. I feel like dyslexia has burdened me a lot but on the other hand it has helped me. I find that I have the ability to do things most people find very difficult to do. And where it is a burden is it takes me hour to write this question out and understand. But if I could do the things that are difficult to me I would be a well rounded person.

Positive experience: Installing billboards. I was the best in three States I could install more vinyl than any other contractor.

Negative experience: Sales in the billboard business.

Compensation: Sometimes I try to cover myself when I can’t perform the task.

Advice to children: Don’t give up.

John Emmert, 33-year-old billboard subcontractor

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: ADD

Age diagnosed: I was 35 or so; daughter diagnosed as ADHD in kindergarten. She was diagnosed dyslexic 2 days ago. She is 15, a 9th grader.

Burden or gift: I am highly sensitive to others’ feelings and pretty much stay HOMEbecause my intuitiveness sometimes scares people. I never learned when to use it and when not to, so since it wasn’t accepted, I just shut it off. Now my husband likes me to meet people so I can tell him more about them than their resumé. My mom says I have been drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil. I have always been extremely curious, but any research I did was fact-based, as I felt I was stupid and needed to know “facts”…. My daughter struggles and will say that the disabilities are a definite curse, but I try to teach her it is a very unique gift that those people at school may never understand.

Problem solving: I have to have fact-based information along with my instincts. I totally think the instinctive part of problem solving has saved my life many times.

Creativity: I designed 21 book covers in 3 months for a middle school publisher…. Being creative is my life, and my daughter’s as well. She would love to be a fashion designer and work in that industry.

Learning style: Touching is really important, along with visual aids… I know [my daughter] remembers parts of stories that we act out because it gives the words meaning in the physical sense.

Compensation: My daughter and I both ask a ton of questions about everything to everyone. We tend to be alike in that we are afraid to give answers because we may not have all the information to make an informed decision. So we tend to have girlfriends – or each other – whom we depend on. Example: my daughter makes certain that her friend is with her when she is shopping so she will be able to understand the numbers and money and time. I have friends in my karate class that I ask for help outside of class because I get confused after I learn a technique using my left hand, how to turn around and do it with my right.

Advice to parents: DON’T GIVE UP! It can be fascinating to watch your child learn.

Advice to children: FIGHT. Fight for what you want. Most importantly: when you need help, ask for it.

Rebecca Bretz, 42-year-old Graphic Designer/Fine Artist

 

* * *

 

Grade completed: 11TH

Describe your disability: I HAVE DYSLEXIA

Burden or gift: SOME OF BOTH

Positive experience: I AM A MASTER AT IMPOVISING

Negative experience: NOT UNDERSTANDING WHAT I AM READING SOMETIMES

Greatest impact: SPATIAL RELATIONS AND THE ABILITY TO FIX ANYTHING BY LOOKING AT THE PROBLEM, BY SIGHT

Problem solving: BECAUSE I MASTERED IMPROVISATION I SOLVE PROBLEMS MY WAY WHICH RESULTS IN A FIX AS IF I HAD READ DIRECTIONS

Most creative: BUILT A HOMEFROM FOUNDATION TO ROOF. I THOUGHT UP THE DESIGN IN MY HEAD WITH NO BLUEPRINTS, AND PROCEEDED WITH THE MEMORIZED BLUEPRINTS I HAD DESIGNED IN MY HEAD

Compensation: UNCANNY MEMORIZATION, I USE MY MEMORIZATION TO BLUEPRINT THE FIX AND REFER TO MY MIND’S BLUEPRINT AS I GO ALONG

Advice to children: LET THEM KNOW THEY HAVE STRONG POINTS WHICH OTHERS DO NOT HAVE

William Howard Joyce, 35-year-old HOMEbuilder

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: I was diagnosed in grade 12 with a language learning disability. In other words borderline Dyslexic.

Positive experience: Obtaining my two University degrees when I was informed by professionals that I would not succeed.

Negative experience: Being labeled slow, dumb, lazy the list goes on – way before a formal diagnosis was given.

Most creative: Learned to play the guitar, found out that I could paint. I can transpose songs into music just by hearing them once or twice – but when it comes to reading I have to read it several times in order for me to understand it. With painting – I have been told that I have a unique style with the brush, colour and technique and my paintings have been interesting.

30-year old female Elementary School Teacher working
on post-Degree Certificate Program in Special Education

 

* * *

 

Describe your disability: I cannot understand or figure out math problems

Grade completed: 4 year college degree

Burden or gift: burden because I have a hard time figuring out percentages…. tips, discounts etc.

Greatest impact: I applied to be a financial planner and the company gave me a test…. which I failed! It was like a mini SAT.

Problem solving: I have to count on my fingers and use a calculator ALWAYS.

Advice to children: I would tell the child that I have disabilities too and I have made a nice life for myself. That they should NOT be scared or feel “stupid.”

36-year-old female in Sales

* * *

 

Grade completed: MS in Environmental Health, going to Law School

Describe your disability: I have problems writing, and spelling. I used to have problems reading but a tutor took care of that.

Burden or gift: I suffered from very low self esteem. I regressed and became a quiet child in class. I skated by under the radar. I failed algebra a couple of times but was finally able to pass. Not until I joined the Army did I realize that I wasn’t stupid. And that’s when I decided to go back to school and get a degree.

Greatest impact: School, spelling. Without spell check I would be working in a fast food chain.

Advice to parents: Be happy, with the correct type of encouragement your child can succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Remember, your dyslexic child is probably smarter than you are.

Advice to children: Don’t let any one tell you that you are stupid.

John Herbig, 28-year-old Environmental Consultant

* * *

 

Grade completed: Associates Degree of the Science of Nursing (with honors)

Describe your disability: I have dyslexia. Thank goodness for spell check programs! I am still challenged by time sequencing, basic math, especially finances. The more complicated math I seem to have an uncanny ability to just look at an equation and give the correct answer, organization skills are a complete mystery to me, yet I can function at the top levels in my chosen field.

Age diagnosed: I slipped through the cracks until my first year of college, aged 17.

Burden or gift: I have learned persistence beyond the point that my “non-challenged” colleagues would have thrown in the towel. I know empathy for being different. I lived the lazy and just dumb stereotype tagged on the learning different and have become more understanding of others’ differences. I’ve learned unrestrained patience that is necessary to raise a learning different child.

Positive experience: I finally returned to college after 2 other false starts in my younger years. The third try was a charm. I graduated with honors and passed my state boards with a high score on the first try. If not for my “disability” I would have never had the persistence to go for the third try.

Negative experience: My son [who has a diagnosis of ADHD and dyslexia] works twice as hard for at least twice as long as his peers, but still his teachers will accuse him of being lazy.

Problem solving: I often hear things like, “Where did you come up with that? It just might work!”

Compensation: I am always fighting the clock… I have all my clocks and my watch set ahead. I will always check recheck and check again anything that concerns patient medications. Any dosage figuring that I do, I have rechecked by a coworker… EVERY TIME. Number reversals leading to overdrafts have cost me a fortune before I starting asking for help with my checkbook. I now also try to keep an extra few dollars in the account to help offset any potential errors.

Advice to parents: Don’t despair and don’t ever give up. Learning Disabilities are really just DIFFERENCES. Help your child to understand the difference he has and then CELEBRATE THEIR DIFFERENCES!

Mary Beth Friedle, 38-year-old Registered Nurse

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LD relationship: My 15-year-old son has a learning disability

Age diagnosed: FINALLY diagnosed at age 12

Positive experience: My son’s learning disability has been a gift for me, to help me realize different methods of learning and to see things through his eyes – it must be so hard in a world based on reading!

Negative experience: Seeing my son teased by a coach for his poorly legible spelling, also by friends

How to test children: Public education needs to be adjusted for these kids – they are able to diagnose but are not consistent with programs provided. For example, offering a remedial math class, but expecting higher level math for science…. Through his IEP (individual education plan), my son is eligible for a different environment for test taking, but the social pressure is not conducive to using this opportunity.

Compensation: His strength is in speaking and sports – and wants to be a lawyer.

What else: As a parent, I found I had to really dig deep to see what this meant for me. I struggled/didn’t apply myself in school and felt my parents were always trying to “fix me.”

45-year-old Medical Transcriptionist

 

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LD relationship: I tutor kids & adults with learning disabilities, primarily dyslexia

Burden or gift: For the students I see, dyslexia is mostly a burden. While they can most definitely acquire skills to help them read and spell well, it takes a lot of work. They frequently struggle both with schoolwork and with embarrassment at their difficulties.

Positive experience: The BEST – a bright young lady who is now an honor student and planning to be both an author and an attorney specializing in special education law.

Negative experience: The saddest – for now: A charming teen-aged male, son of a long-time friend, who, in spite of tutoring, still struggles mightily in school and has decided that there’s no help because he’s just stupid… & he isn’t stupid.

Advice to parents: DON’T WAIT! Learn all you can about the disability and get help for your child now!

Advice to children: There’s nothing WRONG with you. Everyone is different from everyone else and that’s what makes people interesting.

Melinda Gillette, Educational Therapist

 

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Describe your disability: ADD/Dysgraphia

Age diagnosed: 40

Most creative: I wrote Overload. My creativity was charged by music as I was writing and my memories – difficult to feel – again came alive. The sensitivities that usually coexist with ADD/LD can be very difficult and painful to live with – dealing with the over-amplification of stimuli, noise, touch, etc. – but the same sensitivities can enhance one’s response to the beauty that is in this world whether manifested in music or nature.

How best learn: I’m pretty visual, but music does touch my memory receptors

Compensation: I stay far away from math! More positively, I need to take my time at learning, not feel pressured.

Advice to children: That he/she is very smart, special, and creative. That there is much to learn about LD that will help her and can give her more alternatives to deal with it.

What else: That creativity can be enhanced by LD. Creativity can be the “gifted” response to the disorder, as one responds to the sounds and sights in a positive, artistic way.

 David Miller, 55-year-old consultant/educator/writer with PhD; author of Overload, Attention Deficit Disorder
and the Addictive Brain

 

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Describe your disability: perceptive communicative conundrum of symptoms including Aspergers autism

Age diagnosed: 7

Burden or gift: mostly hard; I can’t physically write well, but I love to speak, act and tell stories

Positive experience: Dyslexia allows me to multi-task, to see things from a different perspective and to understand the kids in my classes who struggle.

Greatest impact: I may not graduate with my class because it takes me longer to do things that normal kids do

Problem solving: I don’t memorize methods, I have to reason things out outloud; teachers don’t always like that

Most Creative: worked on a play about the U.S. takeover of Hawaian Islands. I love be very creative

What else: I want to be a teacher. I don’t know if I can make it, but it’s what I’ve always wanted to do. High school is hard, but my mom and some of my teachers are very encouraging. Doing things on my own is even harder. Remembering my goal is important and asking for help even more important. Trying not to become frustrated at my disability is also hard, just like growing up.

16-year-old male high school sophomore

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LD relationship: My son was “officially” diagnosed at age 8 but his LD was evident at age 3-4.

Burden or gift: I think a mixed bag but my son would probably say a burden.

Positive experience: It has taught him compassion and he is more tolerant and accepting.

Negative experience: Low self-esteem. My son is 17 years old. He dropped out of school for 6 months and is now attending an alternative high school for “at risk kids.” For the first time in his life he actually ENJOYS school. The kids say (with tongue in cheek) it’s the school where being weird is cool. Everyone is accepted – the pregnant teen, the recovering druggie, the kid who can’t read.

Most creative: In spite of severe learning disabilities (Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, Auditory Processing Deficit and ADHD) my son writes movie scripts. He also loves to tell jokes and is very witty and popular.

How to test children: ALL children should be tested before school to get a baseline on their individual learning style. Children should progress through each subject as needed. (In math a child might be doing 4th grade work but only reading at a 1st grade level.) When a child masters a subject the child should be required to help teach a child who is still learning that specific subject.

Kim Moccia
mother and professional assistive
technology resource specialist

 

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LD relationship: My brother suffers from dyslexia accompanied by other learning disabilities such as obsessive compulsive disorder.

Burden or gift: My brother having a learning disability has been truly an inspiration and gift to me. It has taught me to appreciate the talents I have. It has also made me a more patient person.

Positive experience: I like to read with my brother. If he has to read a book for school (he’s 11) I will read it with him.

Negative experience: HE gets frustrated really easily and crys a lot. Also because of his combination of disabilities he feels he can’t do things as well as boys his age.

Problem solving: He solves his problems much differently. Usually he will draw it out.

Most creative: He works on his outdoor train set with my dad.

How best learn: He has to see it and visualize it.

Advice to parents: It takes a while to adjust to the stress but it soon becomes like a normal daily routine.

17-year-old female high school student

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DLD relationship: My daughter has learning differences

Burden or gift: A burden and a gift – although the gifts are harder to recognize. A burden just because everything is harder for my daughter than my son (who is her twin.) The gifts are that she relies on her common sense to get her through. She is also very athletic and very artistic.

Problem solving: My daughter always has a little bit different perspective on how to solve a problem. She thinks of ways around an issue that I never think about. She was volunteering at a hospital for children over the summer but she had to remember her social security number to sign in with each time. She has short term memory problems and cannot memorize very well. She worried about how to deal with this for several weeks. One day I came HOMEand she had come up with the solution AND implemented it. She had to wear a smock to work in each week. She took a piece of cloth and a marker and wrote her social security number on the cloth. She then sewed the material with the number upside down on the inside of her smock so she could just turn up the hem and the number was there. Problem solved!

Advice to children: Work hard – dig deep. It’s all worth it in the end.

What else: There have been so many frustrating moments learning how to deal with my daughter. She has displayed more courage and determination than you see in most adults.

47-year-old mother and Lotus Notes Administrator

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Describe your disability: I am waiting for the results from testing that I took. I showed signs of dyslexia as a child and even as an adult.

Burden or gift: I have dropped out of three schools in the last three years, because of fears with school.

Positive experience: I have been achieving higher grades this semester, just knowing that I have been tested and will have result soon makes me happy. I guess the fear that I am not stupid is finally dissolving and knowing that I am different feels great.

Greatest impact: Being a college student, watching my peers understand information, read a chapter in an hour, or write a paper in an hour and wish that I was like that.

Compensation: I have learned to memorize instead of understanding information for years.

Advice to children: That you are smart.

What else: I wish that someone would have helped me in the past and not allowed me to just keep on failing.

23-year-old female college sophomore

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Describe your disability: dyslexic, dysgraphic…annomic… and was not identified until age 30

Burden or gift: Both…greatly impacted early life and such… very limited career opportunities… great deal of shame… but I have made a career out of it since getting training and education

Positive experience: Once diagnosed, was able to turn my life around… started college and earned a masters degree… have become a national expert in adults with LD (especially low-income adults)

Problem solving: The real issue was I was not able to solve problems… until I learned how to address the impact of the LD and to agree that it was OK to use other methods to address issues.

Creativity: The most creative thing is perhaps surviving and living on through great despair… but I have developed conferences, national centers on LD and special events. The most fun I had was staging a competition between stock brokers using a simulated stock market software program (this was early 80’s before this was all the rage) … made lots of money for my agency and it was a social hit as well.

Advice to children: DON’T BE ASHAMED and LEARN ALL YOU CAN… and learn to ask for what you need.

 Adult Male with LD and Professional in Learning Disabilities Field

 

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Describe your disability: Dyslexia

Age diagnosed: As an adult

Burden or gift: Both. My sons are also dyslexic. For one of them it is a terrible burden and school has been very frustrating but on the other hand he is a terrific artist, thinks very creatively and is way ahead of the world on figuring out how to deal with problems.

Positive experience: Dyslexia allows me to multi-task, to see things from a different perspective and to understand the kids in my classes who struggle.

Greatest impact: Relationships to other people who are threatened by the ability to think very fast and be very intuitive. In the educational world, there are a lot of people who believe that repetition and practice makes perfect. It does not when you are dyslexic.

Problem solving: By making connections across different areas that others don’t think about and by being able to imagine what it would look like in action and make it actually test in my head instead of needing physical models on pilot projects. I can “see” how it will work out.

Creativity: Raise two gifted, dyslexic boys. If I weren’t the same, I would never have been able to deal with these two…. Being creative, flexible, willing to experiment, able to dream up alternatives and see different approaches has kept us sane in an insane school system that highly penalizes gifted dyslexic kids. They just can’t be crammed into the mold as hard as the schools try to do that.

How best learn: Multi-sensory approach but I intake huge amounts of information by hearing in order to have the data to process.

Compensation: All the time. Computers that can write and spell are wonderful. Voice dictation and voice messaging are great helps. I wouldn’t think about adding 2+2 without a calculator and I structure my work so that others do most of the paper work while I do the thinking and verbal parts.

Advice to parents: You are the expert on your child, don’t let a teacher try to snow you and tell you that the child needs to slow down and repeat, or that he isn’t trying, or that if they would just work harder, they could do it. It is a case of work smarter, not harder.

Advice to children: Listen to the Gift of Dyslexia on CD. It will give them hope and help them know that they are not alone and not weird.

What else: Kids that face the double gift of being highly intellectually gifted and also dyslexic have a terrible time with the frustration that arises from being very smart and knowing the answers but being unable to show it in ways that the school or their classmates affirm.

45-year-old Teacher and Mother of dyslexic sons

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