There should be a team at the traumatic brain injury center where she was treated who can advise you on resources and programs. Discuss your concerns with this team.
Bridges 4 Kids is a non-profit parent organization providing a comprehensive system of information and referrals for parents and professionals working with children from birth through transition to adult life. The organization provides a circle of support for ALL children, with a special focus on those who have disabilities, special needs, or who are at-risk.
Author Rondalyn Varney Whitney, a pediatric occupational therapist, is the mother of Zac, a child who suffers from nonverbal learning disorder, or NLD. By definition, NLD is a neurological defect in children who are unable to recognize the nonverbal clues that make up 50 percent of communication. In Bridging the Gap, Whitney seamlessly weaves practical professional advice throughout the account of her passionate involvement with her son. She writes, “I believe that NLD, now thought to be as prevalent as dyslexia, is a difference and not a flaw.” She also warns parents and teachers that kids with NLD are likely to be misdiagnosed as lazy or defiant, so she urges readers to consider both the strengths (high intelligence and advanced verbal skills and memory) and weaknesses (low visual, spatial, and motor skills and deficits in social communication) of these kids.
Jill Lauren’s That’s Like Me! is a book about 15 students with disabilities who face challenges in school but express their creativity and talents through hobbies. In the foreword, excerpted here, children’s book illustrator Jerry Pinkney describes growing up with two personas: Jerry the gifted artist and Jerry the struggling reader.
In 1997, Congress approved the creation of a National Reading Panel (NRP) to initiate a national, comprehensive, research-based effort on alternative instructional approaches to reading instruction and to guide the development of public policy on literacy instruction (Ramírez, 2001).
Brita Miller is a board member of the Coalition for Adults with Learning Differences (CALD) and the Adult Issues Chair for the Learning Disabilities Association of California (LDA-CA). She is also a member of the California Rehabilitation Advisory Council and a member of the San Diego County Literacy Network.
