Learning Disabilities

The Wild Child is progressing well with his reading specialist. He's been working with her since his reading disability was diagnosed two years ago and he's almost ready to "graduate" from her program; he's reading with confidence so all it's going to take is more practice. We are so fortunate that we had the availability and proximity of the facility where he was tested and tutored- and the monetary resources to afford it- so that he could receive the help he needed to learn to read.

It's been hard on him- going to the tutor when his sister doesn't have to, even daily during the summer, and the frustration he felt when he knew he was smart but yet he couldn't master this basic skill much younger kids had no problem with. There was some teasing from the neighborhood kids back when he was first diagnosed. He's worked hard, though, and he's come so far- no more teasing, that's for sure.

One explanation I came up with for him when he was diagnosed was comparing his reading issues to a pair of binoculars. Most kids have plain old ordinary binoculars, capable of focusing on the written word with no problems, so they learn to read easily. My Wild Child, however, has an ultra fancy pair of binoculars that take time, care, and a lot of hard work to get them to focus properly, but once they are working right they'll read just as well as any other pair, maybe better since he'll know how to use them so much more effectively.

In the meantime, he continues to rely on his Kindle with the text to speech feature. He walks around with that thing all the time; the sound of my son is the sound of the Kindle automated voice. His comprehension is much higher than his reading level so I'm thankful that the Kindle has opened the world of books up to him. I could probably stand for it to break now, though, and I wouldn't replace it if it did. His reading level is getting much closer to his comprehension level, although there's still a bit of a difference, so that he doesn't really need the Kindle for a crutch anymore. It's like his blankie now though- he even falls asleep to it at night. As soon as he finishes a book he begs for the next one; I can't even begin to say how many books he's read thanks to the talking Kindle.

So many things to be thankful for, but most of all his reading tutor, his Kindle, and his ability to compensate for his disability with the proper help. We are very fortunate.