Skip to content

News

Will New York’s Guidance Memo on Students with Disabilities Resulting from Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia Change Anything?

New York is making progress towards better dyslexia awareness, and the acknowledgment of science-based approaches to reading. That’s the good news! As a parent, though, what I want to know is will the guidance memo change anything. Will more teachers get trained? Will we get more effective services? In August 2018, the Deputy Commissioner of The State Education Department sent out a guidance memo on Chapter 216 of the Laws of 2017: Students with Disabilities Resulting from Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia. The memo went out to the following stakeholders: District Superintendents Superintendents of Public Schools Public School Administrators Charter School Administrators Superintendents of State-Operated and State-Supported Schools Executive Directors of Approved Private Schools Nonpublic School Administrators Directors of Special Education Directors of Pupil Personnel Services Chairpersons of Committees on Special Education Organizations, Parents, and Individuals Concerned with Special Education In plain English, the purpose of the guidance memo is to inform school districts about the specific educational needs of students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. Furthermore, the memo confirms that these very explicit terms can be used for evaluations, eligibility determinations and drafting IEPs (Individualized Education Program). #SayDyslexiaNY Just look at the stakeholders. The memo is out!  Now that the good word is out when we start complaining that our kids aren’t learning to read, the services aren’t working, and… | Read More »Will New York’s Guidance Memo on Students with Disabilities Resulting from Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia Change Anything?

What Are You Going To Do About School Next Year?

Each summer, families like ours, with kids with reading and learning issues, have endless debates about our school options for the following academic year. “What are you going to do about school next year?” “We’re in due process. Maybe our district will pay for a specialized school.” “We were moved to another school in the district. We’re hoping that the new school will work out.” “We’ve accepted that a private school for kids with reading issues is the only way our son will graduate from high school. We’re not sure how we’ll pay for it, but we’ll make it work.” “We’re trying to understand what services our daughter is entitled to.” “We’re going to SKYPE with an OG tutor since there aren’t many in our area.” “What are you going to do about school next year? What are you going to do about school next year?” It sounds nerve-wracking, and it is since the options are limited and typically a financial burden and a logistical challenge on families. Many families are just stuck taking whatever the school district offers due to cost to come up with a different solution; AKA educational inequities. That alone should be indicative of why we need a tidal wave of change in our educational system. If the best we can hope for is to chatter… | Read More »What Are You Going To Do About School Next Year?

It Will Get Better for Kids with Reading Issues Like Dyslexia

“It will get better. Your daughter will be OK,” said a friend whose daughter with a reading issue recently started college. Many times, throughout the years, parents of an older child with a reading issue like dyslexia would assure us that their kid was doing fine; enjoying college, succeeding in a job, starting a family. Well-meaning friends and families would point out the latest celebrity that came out as being dyslexic. That wasn’t us. Our daughter wasn’t famous nor was she a genius or a prodigy. We weren’t famous. I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel that everyone told us we would start to notice. I didn’t see the gift of dyslexia. I saw yet another unwanted challenge. The light still hasn’t come, but it has gotten better. Our Journey It hasn’t been an easy journey for us, but our story is typical. Occasionally I meet people who embrace their child’s difference from the get-go and make peace with who they are. They glide through the education system with minimal drama. I respect those parents that keep their grace in the midst of challenges, but it is not us. The truth is that for years I would get angry, frustrated and sometimes depressed. I felt betrayed by the educational system that I spent my career working… | Read More »It Will Get Better for Kids with Reading Issues Like Dyslexia

Why Kids with Dyslexia Need Specialized Schools to Thrive: An Interview with Kevin Pendergast, Head of School at The Kildonan School

“Your child should attend a school specific to language disabilities or consider the home-schooling option.”  Families like ours receive this type of recommendation all the time, and it is a life-changer. Perhaps you work full-time, or you know that you and your kid are not a good fit for a home-school scenario. You may not have ever thought about a specialized school or considered the logistical and cost factors. Your child has not been progressing in a typical school environment, and you know they are smart, so the recommendation is not a shock. It’s merely a wake-up call for a reality you were not ready to face. That was our story. To get our daughter the reading services she needed, last April we drove to The Kildonan School in Amenia, New York, to learn whether our daughter would be a fit. As previous blogs have described, our daughter attended the summer camp, Camp Dunnabeck, for six weeks, and made unprecedented progress. For kids with reading issues who have not demonstrated improvement in a traditional school system, private schools for language issues are the difference between thriving versus not finishing high school or graduating with limited choices. For this post, I am proudly interviewing Kevin Pendergast, esq., who is Head of School at The Kildonan School. What are the major differentiating… | Read More »Why Kids with Dyslexia Need Specialized Schools to Thrive: An Interview with Kevin Pendergast, Head of School at The Kildonan School

Dawn Smith-Pliner and Isabella on a kayak in a lake in Vermont.

Chasing the Dream: Dyslexia Services and Little White Lies

Most parents are relieved to finally learn what they knew all along; that their kid has dyslexia or a reading issue. For us, it meant that we could finally get the services that we knew our daughter needed.  What we weren’t prepared for, were, well, the little white lies. Little white lies happen. I always thought that little white lies were innocent twists on the truth. Failing to tell a little white lie could expose information that might do more harm than good. What I’ve learned, though, is that having an understanding of the little white lies makes me a better parent advocate for our daughter. Public Education & Dyslexia Services The promise of public education. I always envisioned that our daughter would go to public school, and it never crossed my naïve mind that we couldn’t make it work. It’s public education! When our daughter was in pre-K and kindergarten, we signed up for the lottery in our school district. We did not get any of our choices, so we enrolled her in a private Montessori school, and went on a waiting list. Eventually, all of our daughter’s friends got into one of their schools of choice. However, once our daughter had an IEP, we were told she was no longer eligible for the lottery or any of the… | Read More »Chasing the Dream: Dyslexia Services and Little White Lies

Dyslexia and Adoption: Let’s Connect the Dots-Part 2

Where is the research about dyslexia and adoption? And, why isn’t adoption cited more frequently as a subgroup within the broader dyslexia community when adopted kids are twice as likely as non-adopted kids to have learning or attention issues (Morin, n.d.).   Would a specific subset muddy the global effort to help more people with dyslexia learn to read? Would fewer people want to adopt children if they thought their child would be at a higher risk of having a learning difference? As a parent of an adopted child with dyslexia, I’ve often struggled with the dyslexia community at large to understand what makes our kids more prone to reading differences. In my last post on this topic, I questioned the effect that sudden language disruption would wreak on a young child learning to read (Gindis, 2004). I still don’t know for sure whether sudden language disruption is the reason our daughter has a reading difference, but I believe it is a factor.  What I have since learned, is that there are tons of ideas why our adopted kids could be more prone to learning differences. Here are some of them: Poverty Stress Trauma Poverty, Stress, and Trauma You don’t hear a lot about poverty, stress, and trauma in the mainstream dyslexia community. However, they are really, really important factors to… | Read More »Dyslexia and Adoption: Let’s Connect the Dots-Part 2

Educational Technology: To Plug or Unplug & Other Questions to Consider When Your Kid Has a Reading Difference

“No more screen time, read a book.” Who hasn’t said that to their kid? However, what do you suggest when your kid can’t easily read for comprehension or pleasure? Go listen to an audiobook. Read an e-book with audio for at least fifteen minutes. Even with the educational technology that is available, my kid doesn’t like to read. Period. It’s a fact, and it may or may not change. Use it Or Lose It Everyone has to read. It’s not a debate. As a parent, I need to encourage our daughter to read.  As such, I feel torn about how hard to push technology when it comes to reading, and I’m not consistent. Sometimes I suggest reading a book or a print product, but who am I fooling. Of the books she owns, none have ever been read. Even the graphic novels. I can tell her that the more she practices, the easier it will become, but that still doesn’t mean she will want to read a book-ever! Listen to an Audio Book or an E-Book Print or words alone are a really tough sell. I get it. Reading the content takes all of her efforts, so there’s not much joy in the task. Therefore, I would argue that the time is now to promote e-books with audio or just… | Read More »Educational Technology: To Plug or Unplug & Other Questions to Consider When Your Kid Has a Reading Difference

Higher Education and Teacher Curricula in Reading: Why Can’t We Be Friends?

Reading wars, structured literacy programs, early screening, multi-sensory interventions delivered with fidelity, IEP, IEE, assistive technology. When I began to get my arms around what I define as the “dyslexia space” I had no idea how complex the underlying issues were, and all of the controversies! Good heavens. Many years ago, when we were told that our daughter had a reading difference and/or dyslexia, we had one goal in mind. Teach my kid to read. That is what I call this site, and that has always been our goal. All we have ever wanted is for our daughter to read. What we didn’t know then is how complicated that would be. Sadly, our story is not unique. There are millions of kids like our daughter, and some are not so lucky as to have our life-wrenching choices that at least offer some solutions. I have written in other blogs about the immense improvement our daughter demonstrated after she received services with fidelity at Camp Dunnabeck. As a friend often says, we peeled away a layer of the onion. Our daughter was happy, she was learning, and she was reading! Did we solve our challenges or come to the end of our story? Hardly. The journey never ends, even into adulthood where workplace challenges for dyslexic adults are starting to garner some attention.… | Read More »Higher Education and Teacher Curricula in Reading: Why Can’t We Be Friends?

Dyslexia and Adoption: Let’s Connect the Dots

It’s dyslexia awareness month. As such, I would be remiss in continuing our story without mentioning adoption, particularly international adoption. What about adoption and dyslexia, or learning differences for that matter? Where is the research, and why isn’t adoption cited more frequently as a subgroup within the broader dyslexia community? Maybe it would over-complicate a very challenging educational space, or possibly most people have no idea that such a high percentage of adopted children, especially those adopted internationally, are dyslexic. If only we knew. Statistical and Empirical Evidence of High Rates of Dyslexia in Adopted Children The first person who told us that our daughter would have a learning difference was our adoption attorney. Go figure. While preparing some adoption paperwork, she indicated that our daughter would not get through college in four years—if she went at all. I was insulted. How dare she stereotype our perfect child! Because she had worked with internationally-adopted children her entire career and since our daughter came to us at around the age of two, the attorney predicted our daughter would have some type of learning difference. We knew we would prove the attorney wrong, but sadly, we didn’t. What I learned is that in 2014 alone 110,373 kids were adopted through foster care, and domestic and international adoption (Jones and Placek, 2017). Kids… | Read More »Dyslexia and Adoption: Let’s Connect the Dots

The Quest for Reading Services: Stories of Parents and Other People

The Parents There is our story. Yet, there are so many other stories to tell. Over time, I hope this website can feature tons and tons of stories and serve as a repository to document the heart-wrenching decisions that families are faced with to get their child the correct reading services. While every story is different, with a parent’s awareness I recognize, that there are poignant commonalities between us; we the parents of kids with learning, behavioral and physical differences. We see a hope and resilience and an unwavering vision of our kid as brilliant, perfect and deserving of happiness. Even if there are times that only you see it and people around you are skewing your vision or taking away your hope, you stay on your path. For us, our path is to get our daughter to read, and keep her self-confidence intact in the process. That’s what we owe her. Keeping our kid’s dignity and self-confidence is the hardest part of being a parent of a kid with a learning difference. The people I have been meeting this summer are a lot like me. So many Moms (and some Dads) staying up here with their kids. Dorothy was only here for part of the summer, and I miss seeing her smiling face in the morning. Dorothy would leap… | Read More »The Quest for Reading Services: Stories of Parents and Other People