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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 out of her truck with her young son, Caleb, fresh from the campground where they were staying. Although her son was newly diagnosed with a reading difference, Dorothy was a fountain of knowledge and a bundle of positive energy. I learned a lot from her. Then there is Linda from Australia who found Camp Dunnabeck after an exhaustive search for the right services. We got to know each other a little in an Orton-Gillingham seminar which is like extra-curriculars for those of us in this world of reading and language differences. Someone said we go to the ends of the earth for our kids. Here’s to Dorothy and Linda.

Dorothy and Caleb_01
Two beautiful people. Dorothy and her son, Caleb.

The People

And then there’s people I happen to meet. Each day I take my dog for a walk on a lane that is usually deserted except for the typical wildlife we encounter. The other day a car actually drove by, and stopped. The driver introduced herself as Stephanie. She thought I was one of her tenant’s guests staying in a cottage on her family compound. She was as surprised to see me as I was to see a car. She asked where I was living and I told her where, and that my daughter was attending Camp Dunnabeck in Amenia, New York. As often happens, Stephanie then told me that she was dyslexic and how much harder it makes everything. She was on her way to see a young woman she had mentored for years who had grown up without a lot of parental support, and even at thirty, she was still struggling. As our impromptu/serendipitous/chance meeting came to an end, she smiled perceptively and reassuringly told me not to worry. She said your daughter will be fine. You are doing something here and she has support, that will make all the difference. That’s what we are all doing here. I hope Stephanie is right. #Teachmykidtoread #Dyslexia

The lane that leads to Stephanie's compound.
The lane that leads to Stephanie’s house.

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