explaining Learning isabilities

My daughter was diagnosed with an SLD when she was beginning second grade. The lady who did the eval said we were going to find out how you learn and why some parts of school are hard for you.

After the diagnosis, it was suggested that we begin OT and LMB tutoring. I told my daughter that her brain worked differently, she learned differently than others and we were going to find a tutor who taught the way her brain worked. I told her that the OT was for people who had trouble writing.
B/c she was successful in LMB and OT early on, she has not really experienced failure in the classroom.

We have since explained that the way her brain decodes words differently than other people and that the way her brain works makes her have to work harder than everyone else to perform the same amount of work. It’s not fair, it stinks, but it is reality.

We now use the word dyslexia and/or LD interchangeably. I do explain to her that a learning “disability” has NOT disabled her as she has become a successful student with a lot of hard work. It is a word, however, that we use to help provide services to help her not to work so hard in school.

This explanation has worked for us. She is currently in 4th grade and a happy child who loves school. Hope this helps.Sjk wrote:
>
> I am taking a college class and one of our assignments has
> asked us to discuss -how we would explain learning
> disabilities to a child who might have a learning
> disability. Can someone give me ideas? My biggest concern
> is that I would give too much ambiguous info and that I would
> cause the child to feel different or “stupid” how could it be
> explained in a constructive way without setting limitations?

We all have some things we do better than others. We have our strong points and our weak points.

I have a 4th grade son with LD and I have explained a lot of the way that Leah did, he learns different, brain works different, and he has to work harder. I tell him his IQ is where it is suppose to be that he is as smart as kids his age, his IQ says so, that is used when he says he is stupid. The thing that
worked the best with him not feeling bad about having LD and doing resource is I told him of all the famous people who had LD, his eyes shined and he smiled so he sees it is possible to be successful. I got the list of people out of a book, I believe it included Albert Einstien, some presidents, actors, etc.

I have also explained to my child in the same way but I added that she has hit roadblocks or challenges already academically.That is a benefit …Some children do not struggle until college and can not handle it.Where she has learned to overcome challenges and strive ..she has the tools,stamina, and drive to contiue.She realizes that some children academics comes easy and at some point will need assistance.The question is how will they cope or handle it at a later age.She has already been there.

The words “learning disability” describe a person who is smart but learns things in a different way. They might have trouble with one thing, like math, and do better at something else, like reading…or it might be opposite. Some people w/LD have trouble in more than one area. These words describe many, many different possible learning styles.

It’s written for children to explain learning differences; be careful with the explanation that you’re smart but learn differently…some school systems use the label LD for kids who are slow learners, PDD, NVLD, ADHD….they use it as a generic term for kids to access special ed. services so the explaination may have to be different, depending on the disability.

We first told my son his brain was wired to learn reading differently, but then he worried he had a brain disease. So now we say ” smart kids who learn differently”. It inherently made sense to him that teaching reading the same to everyone wouldn’t work for everyone.

I also was able to make an analogy the other day because my son can do computational math quickly in his head and didn’t understand why everyone couldn’t. I told him that the way he sees numbers and knows the answer is the way some kids see letters and know the words. Back to the “everyone has different abilities ” idea.