My darling daughter has ADHD and language based disabilities. It can take her twice as long as the "average" person to learn something new. And I wonder what her adulthood is going to be like. Will she be a happy and productive citizen?

I really wonder what I should focus on. Should I make Natasha practice her handwriting more? It is really awful. Or should we be drilling on spelling? Again it is awful. (Natasha... more

Symptoms of Language Based Learning Disability are located here. This blog is about Natasha's specific symptoms. They are seen by anyone who interacts with her on a daily basis.

I have collected some conversations with Natasha to show what I am talking about. First up is a conversation about Snicki. He is Natasha's 7 month old puppy. According to the lady on the street corner, (Snicki entered our lives about 2 months ago but that is another story :) ) Snicki is half Boston Terrier,... more

I saw an article last week, which flashed me back to November 2004 when my daughter was diagnosed with Dyslexia. Blogs on my flashback are found here and here.

I started looking for symptoms lists for Language Based Learning Disabilities. It impacts verbal communication more then most people realize. So I went back to my favorite book on the subject; Overcoming... more

Prior blog on this subject is located here. I saw an article last week, which flashed me back to November 2004 when my daughter was diagnosed with Dyslexia.

I was enraged that my daughter had to endure some really sucky life experiences... because of her language based learning disability (dyslexia). It wasn't something that she could make better by trying harder.

I was angry with myself and... more

Picture: Natasha (my darling daughter) June 2006. Her eyes are grey. You may be thinking they are blue, but trust me. They really are grey.

I recently traveled back in time with an article titled Discovering Language Disorder in our daughter. It discuss the signs of a language based learning disorder. The author, Carolyn, mentions one of my favorite books; Overcoming... more

Image: www.freeimages.co.uk

My daughter's last 3 years in school has taught me much. The most important lesson that I learned was to trust myself. If I believe something is wrong, then probably something is wrong.

I briefly wrote up my daughter's journey in part 1, part 2, part... more

So my darling daughter was 7.5 years old had been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia... Now the adventure really began.

And Natasha wasn't actually diagnosed with dyslexia. She was too young according to the federal government's rules to have a learning disability. She was officially developmentally delayed.

Two weeks after my daughter's evaluation, I attended my daughter's IEP meeting. (This meeting must be held 30 days after parents are informed their child qualifies for special education.) Since I am single I took my mother with me as a witness.

The... more

Honesty time...... I didn’t want to medicate my baby with a controlled substance. So I didn’t push the doctor on the ADHD diagnosis, but after an unsuccessful kindergarten and first grade (unsuccessful because she still couldn't recognize 1/2 of the alphabet and she was struggling with focusing) I knew something was wrong.

But instead of listening to myself, I listened to others. Her first grade teachers suggested repeating first grade. I was told, "Sometimes children don't start reading until 8 years of age". I didn't have any better idea and the public school... more

Part 1 of this story is here. Just a quick note..... when Natasha's first kindergarten teacher told me that my daughter had ADHD, I discussed it with her pediatrician. An ADHD diagnosis (DSM-IV diagnostic criteria) wasn't quite met. And she had SID which sometimes looks like ADHD.

So my daughter spent her kindergarten year under stress and not learning very much..... other then she did not understand things that other children did.... more

My daughter’s kindergarten teacher diagnosed my daughter with ADHD and told me that I really should medicate her. My first reaction was explain Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID).

My sensory seeking daughter received SID diagnosis (and occupational therapy) about 6 months before she started kindergarten. The therapy had helped her but she still had a ways to go.

The teacher thought that I made... more