LD Successful Students

This is really good. I am going to print it all out.

We are getting to this stage with my son. We are having a meeting with him and his teacher on Monday to make goals to improve his organization, for example. His teacher said that it is time for him to be accountable (he is in fifth grade) rather than she and I talking about what he needs to do.

We have come so far when his teacher’s biggest concern is his organizational skills!!!

It struck me that these are all characteristics of successful people, LD or not.

Beth

I too am going to print this one out.

I chuckled reading it, not just because I can see a lot of the characteristics present or emerging in my son, but because one point resonated in particular. That is the point that the successful person with LDs is aware of their specific LDs but compartmentalizes it—isn’t defeated by it, sees it as one aspect, a challenge among strengths. The other night, my son said, “You know mom, sometimes I think you worry way too much about my LD. You should relax about it.”

Wisdom from the mouth of a babe!

Dyslexia and LDs run in my family. I have a cousin who was told to go to a vocational high school because he’d never handle a regular one. Last year his salary was $250 000. I’m not saying that’s the be all, just that it looks darn good on him after all his early struggles. He is a super salesman and business consultant, specializing in developing management and training programs for companies wanting to diversify or grow to the next level. My dyslexic brother, after a much more arduous path of several failed businesses, is now a successful builder and furniture manufactuer. I too (nonverbal LD) have had a pretty successful career—not always easy and with some mis-steps along the way but overall with grounds for pride.

Like you Beth, my son is dyslexic, nonverbal LD and like you I’ve done lots of nontraditional programs—a little behind you though. Right now we are trying to do a mix of PACE, Neuronet, and some Visualizing & Verbalizing. My son informed me he just despises being taken out of school, hates missing English, so we’ve stopped withdrawing him for the last hour of the day. We fit in 15 minutes sessions, before school, after school, and 15-30 after supper. (He gets little homework.)

Sometimes I worry I’m not doing the programs intensively enough (hence his comment I think) but a more relaxed approach fits now, for him (an emerging teen) and me, since I’m overloaded at work.

I have also informed the teachers that I am going to take a less proactive role. He forgot his agenda book twice this week and was threatened with another detention. (He had two the first week of school for forgetting to pack completed homework in his backpack.) Increasingly he has got to manage his own homework.

He also got, for him, a bad mark of 60% on a recent science test because he got cocky—said, nah, I don’t need to study; I got 95% on the multiple choice review quiz; I don’t need to review the written answer practice test. His conclusion? I need to study more for science next time.

Right now accountability is the key issue as adolescence looms. Given his resiliency (brushing off the 60 as the result of one bad decision, resolving to work harder next time) I think he is well on the way. It’s hard to get more hands off, but it’s sure important to do so when the time comes and the readiness is there.

Janl