Looking for other parents of LD

Are you homeschooling? Your post is a little unclear. If you’re homeschooling, consider posting to the homeschooling board on this site if you haven’t already done so. Also do a web search under home schools and homeschooling. Most areas have active homeschool organizations that you could join or visit.

If you’re homeschooling, there are growing numbers of people joining you. With very little effort, you should be able to find other families out there that you could join for outings and programs and maybe even set up a schedule to get together regularly.

You could also schedule her for after school and Saturday classes at your local Y or arts center. Ballet classes, karate, tennis or swimming anything that would provide her with contact with other children. Joining a swim team at the Y could give her a similar sense of community as can a school and a group of friends beside.

I have the similur problem. I have a 10 yr old daughter also. She has a difficult time making friends. She is in our public school system and has never seem to be able to adjust socially. We have tried unsuccessfully to help her. In talking with the school counsler, I found some of the encouragement we were offering was actually adding stress to her life. Thru the counslor I learned she felt she’d let us down (when she wan’t able to complete a task we agreed upon).

One of the best things I think we do was seek counseling. We meet together a couple times a month. Part of the session is with the family the other is just her and the counselor. Slowly, very slowly, she is finding the courage to develop some friends. My understanding is part of this is due to her ld’s (dylexia & add) and some is her personality.

The best advice given me was to ensure she knows she is LOVED unconditionally! We have always done this but we let the counslor work on the encouragement with her and we just LOVE her.

Hope this help to let you know you are not alone!

I thank you for your reply. I am not “homeschooling” exactly. She is getting her educational needs met by a educational therapist at a learning center.
Are you homeschooling an LD child ? There is not a lot of support where I live for people homeschooling as I live in a fairly small community.
I thank you for your ideas.
:o)

Margaret thank you for your support. It is nice to meet someone going through something similar to us. My daughter has always been behind socially and the few friends she does have she tends to “smother”.
I have thought about counselling but at the moment we are letting her adjust to her new learning environment for a while before making any other changes in her life.
Does your child have syblings ? Mine is the eldest of three.

My daughter, Alyssa, is the oldest. She has a sister 1.5 yrs younger (non-ld). They have a great relationaship, fortunatly. This is helpful in someways.

The one friend she is very close to lives goes to a different school (same district). She is the only one she want to play with or invite over. So I can relate very well to your comment about smothering.

Alyssa is going into middle school next year and I am very nervous because she feels she has no “friends”. We are in a great school district and they work with us very well. We are starting to set up meetings where her counslor next year, teachers this year and my husband and I can meet to set up plans for transitioning to the middle school. The school has not yet put her in, classified her as special Ed, they have made modification in the class to aid her. I am nervous about what is going to happen next year. She has a very difficult time writting and has a first grade spelling level.

One thing my husband and I are doing to help her socially is to make sure we go to school district activities. Soccer games are being played right now. I have found children from her class are often attend.

I am in the process of trying find a support group in my area where we might also find resources. I you would like to email my email is [email protected]

Put her back in school. Our son is now 16 and we knew there were problems with him in Kindergarten though the school never tested him until 4th grade after we had him independently tested. He is ADD and has dyslexia, an auditory learner. Besides his IEP at school which we considered below the help he needed, we paid for private tutoring two days a week for five years. These kids already have so many strikes against them, you really don’t want them to lose the social aspect of their lives. Many just have trouble making and keeping friends because of their “Learning Differences” - remember they are not disabled, they just learn differently. I have gone back to school and am getting a second masters degree in LD/BD - I was a high school guidance counselor. I think you need to really look at the emotional side of this. Make demands of your school district that they give her the services your child is entitled to. You will be your child’s best advocate. There are so many wonderful books out there - go to the web site for the Council for Exceptional Children and roam around. They were a great help to me. Also there is a web site by Charles Schwabb - yes he was LD as a child, and it has all sorts of resources to look at in dealing with dislexia. I will keep you in my prayers, but don’t forget that your child’s self-esteem is of the utmost importance towards their success in school. My son was flunking 4th grade - last year (9th grade) he made the “A” honor roll, he was totally mainstreamed, with just a resource period for help. Miracles do happen - he will always struggle with his reading, but he has learned how to compensate for his disabilities with excellent tutoring.

Thank you for your input. I appreciate your views and advice.
The whole reason we took our child out of school ( temporarily ) is because of the emotional side of the situation. She was physically ill from nightmares and stress due to what she was going through at school. I will share a little more info. with you regarding our situation. My daughter has been in a french immersion program since pre-school. She has struggled for the last two years or so. We have “maxed out” all available resources in our school system. We felt the only option left to us was to take drastic measures and take her out of the school system temporarily. This, we feel has been the best thing we could have done for her. She is a changed child. She has expressed to us how much better she feels about herself etc. This move was made after at least two years of much research, soul searching etc. She will be placed back in an english program in the fall in a new school where she will be in a whole new social setting. She does still have contact with her friends from her old school and I arrange for social times for her as often as possible.
I agree with you when you say that she has a “learning difference” not “disabled”. My daughter is an extremely gifted person, much like her father who is also dyslexic and absolutely brilliant. I wouldn’t want to have it otherwise. I celebrate the people they are.
Thank you for the web site info. I will check it out.

We are currently trying to decide whether or not to leave my son in a spanish immersion program. I am looking for articles and research to help us make an informed decision.