Are Learning Disabilities Real?

I can't tell you how many times I've been asked this question.  There is an underlying assumption that, because you can't always "see" a learning disability that they must be fake.  Really, the child is just lazy.  This is often true in a case like ours where Ryan's vocabulary is above grade level.  When speech and reading are so closely linked, it is hard to imagine that one can have an above grade level vocabulary, yet a drastically below grade level reading performance.  However, that is our reality.  Here is a wonderful article to help people understand the challenges someone might go through DAILY with a reading disability.  Please enjoy and feel free to pass along!

Hello Lovelies!  I did not quit.  Although, the thought did occur to me since it’s been so long since I've last posted.  June 7^th???  Holy smokes time flies.  Well, as life does, we've been thrown with a few curve balls and they certainly threw me for a loop.  I had an interesting conversation with the Special Education Officer for my District School Board last month.  She had absolutely NO interest in discussing the Arrowsmith program.  I was flabbergasted!  I really need to remember that just because I am enthusiastic about something and can totally see the logic and the utility, does not mean that everyone will share my vision.  In any case, unfortunately, she was quite misinformed and the conversation was not quite the place to educate her.  However, the statement she made, that “we cannot have individual programs for every student” just blew me away.  Why not?  Isn't that the very essence of an IEP?  Isn't that what Special Education has struggled towards for years?  Isn't one of the goals of education, particularly special education, to break out of the mold of one standard and allow children to develop and learn with the tools necessary for their growth and education?  So I was very disheartened to hear this attitude coming from someone on my board of education.  No wonder my struggles for Ryan have been so many and old ideas so hard to break away from.  I suppose this person could have meant commercialized programs.  We cannot bring in a commercialized program to meet every student’s needs.  I suppose I understand that.  However, we do use commercialized programs everyday within the schools and school board.  Here is where I face a lack of understanding because Arrowsmith individualizes itself, to meet the student’s needs.  Not every student has to go through the same programs or activities.  It all depends on where they are.  At the end of the day…isn't THAT what Special Education is supposed to be all about?  Meeting students where they are, right now, and giving them what they need to go beyond what they've been told they can do.  To do more than show students shortcuts to cope.  How about giving them tools to learn?