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 By Kaycee Nilson June 22, 2006 This column is inspired by Amanda Baker’s story of what it is like to learn with Dyslexia. So I thought that I would share with you the other side of the story of what it is to be the mother of a child that has problems. My oldest son, who is 10 almost 11, has several problems. He has AD/HD, ODD, and Dyslexia. Needless to say he is two grades behind where he should be in his learning abilities. But he goes to a school that specializes in children with learning and discipline problems. Before the child entered the school that we fought so hard to get him into, he was failing miserably. This will be his third year at this school and he has accelerated in math. But his reading, writing and language skills are not where they need to be yet. It’s hard to see him struggle with his reading, and handwriting. He gets so frustrated that he throws things across the room. Sometimes he will stop after throwing one thing, but to see him throw 5 or 6 things is difficult. He goes into these blind outright rages and then he is always sorry when he calms down, but during the frustration driven rage, everyone gets on edge. Then he will calm down and then try again. One day he had to write a paper and he ended up writing the paper over and over about 4 times before it was legible enough to read his thoughts. I know that I have had to slow him down because his thoughts race and as they race, his hand races too. I keep telling him he has the perfect handwriting to be a doctor. Like Amanda, he has to read aloud in order to keep his place and also to grasp the idea of what he is reading, so I normally have him read to me. His teachers understand this and so they will isolate him and he can read aloud to himself or to the teacher to his heart’s content. But for some reason, he won’t read age appropriate books; he will read books that have pictures in them. That frustrates me at times, but if it works for him, I have to understand the cloud that he lives on. The cloud that he occupies is filled with a jumble of letters that don’t quite form words the way they should. Numbers are hard unless he uses a calculator. He grasps for the letters to put them in order, but they seem to be out of his reach. The numbers just will not come into focus. He is on his cloud alone. We have all sorts of computer programs to help him get simple math and simple spelling, but he gets mad when his four-year-old brother whips through the programs like nobody’s business. I have sat him down on many occasions and explained to him that even though he is not as fast as other kids when it comes to learning, that doesn’t mean that he is any less loved here at home and among our friends who adore this little boy who can be sensitive and loving. He can’t help the way he is, he just needs to accept himself and try his very best. ------------ About the author: Kaycee Nilson has completed her first novel, "Night Falls on Chicago." The first two chapters can be viewed at http://www.KayceeNilson.com. Besides writing columns for Useless-Knowledge and Speedway Media, Kaycee is currently working on two more novels, "From the Mind of a Vampire", and "I'll Love You Til You Die." If you have enjoyed what you read, or would like to leave Kaycee a message, please visit her message board at http://www.KayceeNilson.com/Board Email: Kaycee@kayceenilson.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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