Neurodiversity and learning disability were never in my vocabulary before I had my daughter. I had never been exposed to learning disabilities of any kind really, and I had no idea the extraordinary gifts those who are neurodiverse had to offer this world. No, when I was in second grade, I was in my egocentric world and our teacher had us write “a book.” It was a short story and
It’s Halloween, 2018. You are a freshly turned nine-year old. You are 9 years old. My mind immediately repeats a phrase from my dad, “Mr. Baskall, here’s your little baby girl.” I remember I would roll my eyes and scoff at him. “Ugh dad!” I would lament as he looked at me with eyes brimming with pride. I don’t have any words to describe or memorialize your entrance into this
Enough with the 30 million word gap. It doesn’t mean crap when your kid has an actual language disorder.
This year as you talk to you children about their new teacher, new classroom, and new adventures, I beg you to talk to your kids about being kind. I beg you to explain to your child that children with disabilities are just like them, but it might take a little longer to understand or get to know them. If nothing else though, please just teach your children to be kind. Maybe ask about something they did that was kind alongside your questions of who they played with or what they learned.
Executive functioning (EF) deficits are a common comorbidity with a variety of conditions including: ADHD, OCD, ID and others just to name a few.
Visuals are AMAZINGLY helpful for children with EF dysfunction. The problem is, most teaching involves auditory input. The teacher (or parent) talks, children listen, and learning takes place. For kids like my daughter, who have a language processing impairment, the teacher (or parent) talking is basically the equivalent to the teacher in the Peanuts comic series. All the children hear are “wah wah, wah wah wah wah.”
The problem is SLP’s and parents are so focused on the speech and not looking at the big picture in early development. There is this thinking that if we could just overcome the apraxia, everything will be OK.