A Parent’s Journey Through Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dysgraphia

A you may know, my children were both diagnosed with learning disabilities at young ages. Ava in third grade, which is the national average, with Dyslexia and Dyscalculia. Both are learning disabilities; dyslexia, an auditory processing disorder expressed in reading, writing, phonics, executive function and more. Dyscalculia is a math processing disorder; understanding numeral values, mathematic concepts and multi-step operations were especially tough for Ava. Ryker was diagnosed with Dyslexia and dysgraphia in second grade. Dysgraphia is a processing disorder with difficulties in writing and written expression, including letter formation, word boundaries, directionality and more. I was devastated, my world felt like it was crashing down. I felt the strains and fear-how in the world am I going to be able to help BOTH of my kids? Where do I go for help? How can we afford this? What do I do next? No one ever talks about the depression, isolation, fear and doubt that parents feel when children are diagnosed learning/developmental issues. It can be a dark, lonely and isolating place-but please DO NOT let it be!!!!! Sometimes well-meaning friends and family say the wrong thing or lack the empathy to understand how learning disabilities affect families, it hurts-I know.

It has been a 7 year journey with my daughter and 5 with Ryker. It has not always been a smooth path with easy footing, sometimes it felt like climbing Mt. Everest with flip-flops. It wasn’t fun; there’s been tears, slamming doors, yelling, screaming-all of it. I’d be lying if I said this journey was easy. I’d be lying if I said we are done. The journey is lifelong, the struggle and the ugly head of fear and frustration rear from time to time, but we put one foot in front of the other EVERYDAY. We work on reading, writing and math EVERYDAY. We build skills gradually EVERYDAY. We support each other EVERYDAY. We keep trying EVERYDAY. We love each other EVERYDAY through the pain. If something isn’t working, we try something new. We celebrate small victories EVERYDAY. We stay positive. We celebrate milestones; reading at grade-level, finishing a novel, writing a paragraph independently, finishing multi-paragraph essays, mastering math concepts, the beauty in legible penmanship. I WOULDN’T change one thing about the journey with my children because they have given me so many gifts. They humbled me; they gave me the gifts of empathy, compassion, patience, love, support, never-quit attitude, determination and tenacity to fight for them.

A parents’ journey through learning disabilities is long and hard and worth every ounce of energy I have put in to see my children bloom. And bloom they have. I’m so proud of you Ava and Ryker-even if you never read this. Contact me today www.mylearningfarm.com