I have a learning disability.
I’m a gifted student.
If you think these two sentences are polar opposites, you’re right. But if you think they can’t coexist, guess what?
You’d be wrong.
As a 2e, or “twice exceptional” teen, I feel particularly threatened when I read about what people think of kids with learning disabilities.
One of the biggest myths that infuriate me is the one that children with LDs aren’t very smart.
I can’t believe that someone would actually think that just because a child struggles with reading or math that they are any less intelligent or capable than their peers. A learning disability is NOT anything more than a brain difference. It doesn’t mean someone is retarded or slow. In fact, some children with LDs are even gifted, and they’re often called “twice exceptional,” or 2e, for short. Having an LD has nothing to do with intelligence, although sometimes an LD can mask giftedness and vice versa and then the problem really exacerbates itself.
More often than not, a child with an LD works much, much harder to succeed than the other kids. They put forth an amount of effort that most people can’t even imagine. They just want to be able to do the work like the other kids in their class.
The reason I have such a hard time with math is because I have a learning disability called dyscalculia, and if you haven’t heard of it, that’s probably because right now, dyscalculia is in the position that dyslexia was a few decades ago: few people know much about it. When I was in school, because I was fine in every other subject, my teachers just thought math was hard for me. They didn’t think I could possibly have an LD, and unfortunately, that’s a position a lot of kids are in. They go undiagnosed and they suffer.
I grew up pouring myself into my math homework, night after night. Often, these homework sessions would end in tears and anger. My parents were confused and worried and I was just so frustrated. I could hardly stand it. I wanted so badly to just be able to do math like everyone else, and I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t. I’d accepted long ago the fact that I’d never be really amazing at math, and that was okay with me, but I can’t tell you how much I just wanted to be able to do the simple stuff without a problem. I mean, after all, I was trying incredibly hard. Why shouldn’t I be able to do it? Isn’t hard work supposed to pay off?
Instead, I continued (and still continue) to struggle with reading analog clocks, remembering left from right, change and money, and directions, which are all also related to dyscalculia.
This is how my entire school career went. It wasn’t until I finished school that I found out about dyscalculia and got myself tested, something that I wish my teachers had done years ago.
So that brings us to the present.
I’ve been diagnosed with dyscalculia.
But I’m also gifted.
Still confused?
I’m confused every day. I’m constantly being amazed at how I can do everything else fine, but when it comes to math I just can’t function.
But there are a lot of great resources out there for parents and kids now. Some of my favorites are SmartKidsWithLD.org, LDOnline.org and AboutDyscalculia.org.
I just wish more people would realize what LDs are and what they aren’t and realize how important an early diagnosis is. It saves a child from so much.
I’ve been there. I know.
Please, spread the word about LDs. No one should have to go through what I did.
