This is my son, Sam. He was diagnosed with dyslexia when he was in the second grade. If you ask Sam what it is like having a learning disability, he will tell you in one word “FRUSTRATING!”. If you ask him what he would say to other kids who have LD he would say “NEVER GIVE UP!” It seems hopeless at times but NEVER GIVE UP!”. My son is an inspiration to me. Although I have LD, I do not have it as severely as he does. Watching him struggle through grade school and early in high school, not really having much support from friends and sometimes not even from teachers, yet he has never given up.
Unfortunately, there are going to be times that you have to fight for your rights. School testing determined that Sam was eligible for special education services. My son has an IEP, an Individualized Educational Plan, which mandates the allowance of changes to Sam’s curricula and assignments, taking his dyslexia into account. This is an example of knowing your rights in having the IEP developed in the first place, and getting teachers to follow it in the second place. You have to know your rights in seeing that teachers are following the IEP. You cannot sit back as a parent or child and assume the IEP is being followed. You must stay involved.
Through the years Sam has had some very special teachers that have really been able to embrace his problem and support him. To those teachers, “thank you”, because whether you know it or not you helped him to make it. You are responsible for helping him to not give up and soon he will be graduating from high school, and in fact – a semester ahead of schedule!
It has been quite a journey and now there will be life to look forward to after high school. It is very important that high schoolers seriously look at their options regarding plans for the future. Whether those plans include technical or trade school, a community college, a 4-year university, internship or working full-time – these plans need to be thought about and talked about with the IEP team, teachers, and parents so that when your child graduates they do not wander off course, but they have a productive plan for their life!
Here are some encouraging facts:
Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President of the United States to President Gerald Ford, had dyslexia. He said he can still remember the torment of having to get up in front of the class and try to read.
Tom Cruise, the actor, has a learning disability. He had to develop a method to memorize his lines, since reading is difficult. He memorizes his lines from his scripts by listening to a tape recorder.
NEVER GIVE UP!!
