Pamela Squires
March 10th, 2008
When my now-age 25 daughter Keren was four years old, she lined up her many stuffed animals on the sofa and proceeded to lecture to them. “Ah,” I thought. “A natural teacher!” I did not know the heartache that was coming. In junior high school, she started to struggle to keep up with her friends in her ability to learn. Her self-esteem plunged. Many kids with LD/ADHD begin to think that they are just plain stupid and, since learning disabilities are a hidden handicap, they often are misunderstood, even though these are neurobiological disorders that affect the brain. You cannot imagine a mother’s distress when you know that your child has above-average intelligence, but see her struggling and sad.
Well, my daughter’s story has a happy ending. After she was late-diagnosed, she received medicine that allowed her to concentrate. She went from struggling and distraught in junior high school, to finishing high school with distinction. Keren not only graduated college, she graduated summa cum laude. That means she got one little B in all the years she was in college. All her other grades were A. And it took her two to three times longer to do assignments as other students.
Considering that only 2.4 percent of those with learning disabilities graduate with a four-year college degree (compared to 45 percent without learning disabilities), she beat the statistics in a remarkable way.
She went on to be a trainer for employees in a firm, and was highly successful at it. She knew what it was like to have difficulty learning, so she was exceptionally good at explaining. Just like when she lined up the bears, she was happy as a lark at the front of a classroom.
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