Where to start?
Here’s my personal collection of heroes and organizations you need to know about.
At least one in five people in the United States has learning challenges. Why is it, then, that kids who learn differently, and parents of kids who learn differently, often feel so alone?
Please consider the information I’m sharing with you here as a virtual hug and pep talk. I know that this all can feel overwhelming. There are people walking alongside you, and when you find these communities, it’s like a cold drink of water on a humid summer day.
Communities
One of the most important tools at your disposal is the power of community. More than any school’s special ed office, or any test or assessment or exam, your community can reflect back your child’s needs and illuminate your own. I had no idea how important a strong, supportive community really was until I was thrust into it, face first, and realized that there was no going back. A community of like-minded people is a must for families working with learning differences.
Here are some of the most popular websites, associations, books, and resources for kids, parents, teachers and schools to help them with strategies and ideas for dealing with learning differences.
LDA (Learning Disabilities Association of America)
Since 1963, LDA has provided support to people with learning disabilities, their parents, teachers and other professionals with cutting edge information on learning disabilities, practical solutions, and a comprehensive network of resources.
National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD)
NCLD improves the lives of the 1 in 5 people who have learning and attention issues by empowering parents and young adults, transforming schools, and advocating for equal rights and opportunities.
NCLD provides:
advocacy on local and national level to push policies that reduce barriers.
research to ensure new education initiatives benefit students with learning and attention issues.
scholarships and awards to celebrate advocates and leaders with learning and attention issues.
Young Adults initiative to empower and advocate for young adults 18-26 with learning and attention issues.
Project Eye to Eye
With only 68% of kids with learning differences graduating from high school verse the national average of 91%, many are left behind. At Project Eye to Eye, they want to move kids from isolation to inspiration, to help them succeed, to learn to self-advocate, to graduate high school and beyond, to have a community, and to live a life of hope.
Understood.org
Understood.org is shaping the world for difference. They’re dedicated to shaping a world where millions of people who think differently can thrive at home, at school and at work. Differences are your greatest strength.
Learning Ally
Learning Ally is a leading nonprofit education solutions organization that transforms the lives of struggling learners by delivering proven solutions that help students reach their potential.
Solutions include audio books for K-12th grade schools.
Populace.org
Founded in 2013, Populace is a new kind of think tank that blends thought leadership and original research with public engagement and grassroots advocacy. It is dedicated to building a world where all people have the change to live fulfilling lives in a thriving society. No averages, aggregate and types. We are aligned with the new science of the individual.
Robert Brooks
“Resilient children and parents see problems as things to be solved rather than overwhelmed by.”
Books:
Raising Resilient Children
The Power of Resilience
Raising a self-disciplined Child
David Flink, Cofounder and Chief Empowerment Officer Eye to Eye
The key to success is to have people who believe in you and support you.
Eye to Eye helps empower kids to succeed.
Book:
Thinking Differently
Todd Rose, Professor, Harvard University Graduate School of Education,
Each child is an individual and should be treated as such—not lumped in a group compared to an “average” child—which doesn’t exit.
Books:
The End of Average
Dark Horse
Rick Lavoie
Books:
The Motivation Breakthrough
It’s so much work to be your friend
Inspiration and information for Parents and Teachers.
Carol Dweck, Professor, Psychology, Stanford University
Book:
Mindset
Growth mindset: believe you can develop your abilities
Fixed Mindset: believe traits are fixed and cannot be improved (intelligence, athletic ability, etc.)
The power of “not yet”: you might not have achieved something YET.
Every time you push out of your comfort zone, you make new stronger neural connections. Effort leads to improvement.
Ned Hallowell
The Hallowell Centers
Centers for custom strength-based programs for people with ADHD. Dr. Hallowell believes every person has gifts that can be unwrapped and put to use. He builds positive energy and connects with the best in each person.
Heroes
Ned Hallowell: ADHD
Edward Hallowell—or Ned, as he is popularly known throughout the field—is a practicing clinician and prolific author on ADHD and many other related topics. I have seen him speak many times, including two presentations he has given for PEN. Hallowell is one of the most positive contributors to the body of information about ADHD, which he often calls a gift. I have travelled far and wide to hear him speak, as the experience is always so uplifting and hopeful, replete with examples of famous people with ADHD. For a quick review of upbeat and practical information about dyslexia and ADHD, watch one of his YouTube presentations
(https://www.youtube.com/user/NedHallowell).
During the past 10 years, Hallowell has opened Hallowell Centers in Boston, New York City, Palo Alto, San Francisco, and Seattle. Hallowell also wrote a popular illustrated book on parenting kids with ADHD, A Walk in the Rain With a Brain. Visit his website at https://www.drhallowell.com.
Robert Brooks: Parenting Best Practices
Bob Brooks is a veteran child psychologist who is also in private practice, giving positive and practical advice to parents and teachers about how to bring out the best in their kids, whether they have learning differences or not (Brooks & Goldstein, 2004).
Inspiring, warm, and experienced, with more than 30 years dealing with kids of all kinds, Brooks is like a personal experienced psychologist who has only your and your child’s best interest at heart. For a quick introduction, read his regularly updated blog with the latest findings from a variety of researchers and psychologists at https://www.drrobertbrooks.com.
Richard Lavoie: Social-Emotional Issues
Rick Lavoie (2007) trained in a residential facility for kids with learning difficulties for more than 30 years and has become required reading or listening for any parent whose child is struggling in school. With his long history of hands-on experience with troubled and different kids, Rick can make a listener understand in an hour what it might take years to discover about dealing with the social-emotional fallout, like anxiety, depression, and sometimes even self-harm, that occurs when a child is left to struggle too long with no help or change for the better in the situation.
Rick has written a number of best-selling books on parenting the different kid. He has also created many easy-to-absorb videos for parents. For a quick look at one of his best analogies, watch “When the Chips Are Down With Rick Lavoie” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78bwTPU CBsE) or visit his website at https://www.ricklavoie.com.
Carol Dweck: Growth Mindset
Dweck’s (2006/2016) Mindset is perhaps the best place to start understanding a child who seems to learn in a different way. If you, like me, once thought that your child’s learning difference negated any dreams of success, you need to read Dweck’s seminal work. This book is a game changer in understanding how to break old mindsets and learn how to parent differently for the different child. It continues to educate teachers and parents to shed rigid views of what constitutes talent and success.
Every parent should read Mindset to give their child the best shot at developing innate talents and interests. You can also watch Dweck’s (2014)
TED Talk “The Power of Believing That You Can Improve” at https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve
Todd Rose: The Revolutionary Square Peg
Todd Rose’s (2013) first book, The Square Peg: My Story and What It Means for Raising Innovators, Visionaries, and Out-of-the-Box-Thinkers, is an autobiographical account of his own journey from angry misfit to visionary thinker. It is a rich source of hope to anyone who knows a struggling child.
Rose was a frustrated student in early elementary school, where his energy, impulsiveness, and boredom often led to bad behavior and punishments. After dropping out of high school with a .9 GPA, he found his way to college and then graduate school at Harvard University, where he is currently head of Mind, Brain, and Education in the Graduate School of Education.
His second book, The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness (Rose, 2016), offered a scientific argument for busting the myth that there is such a thing as an average human, against whom each of us should be measured and graded. It details why school performance is so unpredictable for nontraditional thinkers and outlines Rose’s Science of Individuality with its three distinct concepts for analyzing the abilities of a human being. Context, jagged profile, and multiple pathways are identified and explained as ways in which to understand the strengths and challenges any individual brings to a place of learning or work. I have given out hundreds of copies of this book to parents and teachers alike to explain the main problem with schools and what kids face in trying to develop their talents in them.
Visit Rose’s website at https://populace.org.
