This past week a lovely 16 year old high school junior came to see me because of school anxiety. She complained of feeling panicky in some school situations, of  having little motivation to do homework and study, and that she gets fatigued easily while doing school work.  She told me that she struggles with understanding some course content, homework, tests, and worries about getting into college because of her low grades. Parental pressure on her to succeed in school is high leading to many arguments at home.

She also stated she was diagnosed with dyslexia, had been in a special school in the past which helped her to compensate to some degree but refuses to go to special classes in her high school because of two reasons: the first, many of the students in those classes have severe emotional problems, and secondly, she wants to go to “normal” classes and not feel stigmatized. Kid’s who have a learning disability (LD) are high risk for developing anxiety.

She is a girl of at least average intelligence, but her attitude and self-image has taken a beating which was easy to spot by the number of times during the session she said, “I’m not the brightest.” And yet, here she was coming for help for her anxiety and wanting to go to college. We talked about how wonderfully hopeful and positive that is in spite of her present struggles. We had good rapport and she’ll be back for weekly sessions.

On the drive home that night I thought of this girl and the effort it takes her to face school with a learning disability. I know exactly how she feels, because I struggled (and still do) with dyscalculia, a lesser-known LD that refers to a wide-range of difficulties with math. This disability negatively affected my self-image while growing up, added to my reasons for anxiety, and I hated, and I mean hated to go to school, so I can relate. While writing the chapter on learning disabilities many painful memories of my own disastrous school career surfaced, some as far back as elementary school, and once or twice while writing I had to stop and had a good cry. It’s amazing how those experiences can still pack a wallop.

When I became a mother, my youngest daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia in second grade. It was no picnic trying to get her to believe that she was smart, comforting her when she was distressed, advocating for her at school, and telling her over and over again that she could master reading though learning to do so was a nightmare for her. And as she grew, my husband and I continued to talk to her: she could master her life and be successful even with dyslexia. Now grown, my daughter is happy and successful, and loves to read! It took parental support, tutoring (from 2nd to 9th grade), and her own hard work, but she did it.

Many treatment options are available today to help children with learning challenges, but maybe the most important part of any help is to make sure that children who have the intelligence to learn, understand that they are smart, and can learn, it’s just that they process information differently. As these children struggle in school, it’s crucial for them to become aware of their strengths, both academic and non-academic, and to celebrate them.

Dyslexia or other LD’s are not destiny. And here are the names of people who prove it: Albert Einstein, Nelson Rockefeller, Galileo, Thomas Edison, Mozart, Wright Brothers, Leonardo da Vinci, John F. Kennedy, Cher, Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Jenner, Gen.Westmoreland, Tom Cruise, Charles Schwab, Danny Glover, Walt Disney, Robin Williams, Greg Louganis, Louis Pasteur, Winston Churchill, Beethoven, Robert Kennedy, Henry Ford.

Useful Information
Listed below are informational links:

Learning Disabilities Information Page: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Feb 13, 2007 ... Learning disabilities information sheet compiled by the National Institute of Neurological ... National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) ...

Helpful Links for Learning Disabilities: NIMH: Learning Disabilities. Understanding the problem, getting help.

Foreign language teacher's guide to learning disabilities.