When I first learned that my child had a LD, I was shocked and upset. If you go onto the internet and type in “is there a cure for learning disability,” all the results tell you is that there is NO CURE. I didn’t know if this meant my child would never amount to anything, and I’d never even met anybody with dyslexia, so I started frantically reading as many books as I could find.
I also started looking for the expert. You know what I mean by “expert.” The ONE DOCTOR who knows everything about LD and what your child is going through. The ONE DOCTOR who can set you on the path to success, can set up proper testing and prescribe whatever you need to do. The ONE DOCTOR who knows the path. After all, that’s how the system works, right?
Nope. I literally spent years looking for “the expert,” until I learned the dirty secret: There is no ONE DOCTOR who can fix the problem for your child. It’s all on parents.
Don’t get me wrong — there are thousands of specialists available, but just as in any medical condition, someone has to act as project manager, coordinating all efforts and pushing things forward. As I kept learning, though, I found myself wondering “what if “forward” isn’t that easy to define?”
If you’re reading this blog because your child was recently diagnosed with a learning difference, my heart goes out to you. It’s difficult for any parents to discover that our children aren’t perfect. It’s immensely painful to learn that our children are going to officially have a difficult time in the educational system. I empathize with that distress.
However, I’ve spent years researching the landscape of learning differences. My background is the world of Silicon Valley engineering, and I tried to understand what the systems were and how they worked. I also tried — desperately at times — to learn what equals success, and what the process is for achieving it.
This blog, and the associated books, aim to be a clear, understandable look at the landscape of learning differences. Fine Until Kindergarten contains almost two hundred pieces of solid research, including studies, experts, specialists, teachers, authors, and experienced parents. Our books (we have a few upcoming) are written to be short, sweet, and immediately useful, and we honor the experience from expert-parents whose input is all-too-often only mentioned in online forums.
Our books/blog take a look at how our school system works, including the over-testing, and how children are being taught and why. We work to educate you on how to question, request, claim support, and push back.
We look at how the diagnostic system works for LD children, and how it sometimes overlaps with uneven brain maturity, which is common in children with both LD and giftedness.
We take a pragmatic, un-overwhelming look at how American laws provide support for you and your child. We give you an overview of what is provided, how you qualify, and what to do to make that happen.
But most of all, we teach you how to protect your beautiful, brilliant child from too much stress or too much failure in the educational system. That’s our job as parents, and we have all sorts of suggestions.
This blog will contain information that is going into future books as well, answering the questions of how we support our children’s learning at home, for example.
And finally, we make a lot of our research available for free. If you look on the Freebies page, you’ll see lists and downloads, and if you sign up for our newsletter, we send out new information every so often.
If there’s anything that you want to know, just email me at cat@fineuntilkindergarten.com
Happy Parenting!