My Learning Disability Story

My name is Saundra and the writer of this blog. Since I became an adult, I have been very passionate about being in the Special Needs Field. It all started with my struggles. I struggled in school since I was a young child. My mom was always fighting the school system to get me the help I needed. Back in the 1970s they did not know what I had. I could read, but could not absorb or comprehend what I was reading. I had difficulty with grammar and writing. I was always confusing my left from my right. I became confused with some of my letters, such as p and q and b and d. I remember we moved and I went to a new school, they put me in the lowest reading group. I was embarrased by this. As years went on I struggled through High School. I was placed in reading, english and writing remediation. This was emabarassing as well. I remember getting A's and B's in Math, Business and Science and getting D's in English and Social Studies. I remember getting papers back and peaking at my score and lying to friends how well I didn't do. I would go to my counselor and she could not figure out what was going on. I was glad that that they did not look at me, as lazy, because I wasn't and I tried very hard. Some things I just could not figure out how to do, such as comprehend reading. In 1984, the end of my senior year, I remember the district brought in a psychologist to test me to try and figure out what was going on.

I remember sitting there petrified with my counselor and the psychologist. I already felt dumb and stupid academically in school. I remember doing a bunch of testing and one test stood out. It was a card test that I had to put like 8 cards in order. These cards were event cards. For example... Looking at rain, Opening an unmbrella, Walking in the rain with the open umbrella etc. There was a bunch different topics that I had to try and sequence. After I was done testing, they called my mom and dad in and told them, we know why your child is struggling. She has Dyslexia. I remember my mom being grateful for knowing. But in 1984 . Dyslexia was very new, they had no stategies. I ended up graduating with a non-regents diploma. When my friends graduated witwh regents.

I tried going to our community college right out of school and failed out. I worked as a cashier and assistant manager of a store. I loved it. I was excellent with computers and numbers and I did not have to write much. I got married and had 2 kids. My first child was born with a 90 degree rotation in their hips. They did not walk or talk until they were 3. My first child was getting early intervention like 3 times a week. When my first child was 8 months old, I became pregnant with my son. My husband decided to an affair when I was 8 months pregnant with my son. I don't think he wanted a disabled child. Let alone, my being pregnant with his second.

My parents took us in and finished off a room in the basement for my little family. My son was born with floppy layrnx and severe upper low tone. He began early intervention. So I had 2 kids with disabilities and early intervention. I started to really love how amazing these service providers were working with my kids. I was starting to feel inspired by it all.

After being really determined to regain my life, I went back to college. I learned to compensate a lot over my dyslexia the past years. I bought a tape recorder and recorded my classes. I read my books into a tape recorder. I remember having my first child in my lap and my son laying down next to me and me reading into and listening to my tape recorder. There were classes I definitely struggled in. I would drop classes because it was too much. I Graduated with an AAS. Which for me was a huge accomplishment. It took me 1 1/2 years, taking intersession classes also. I did not marticulate. It was all I could do to get my AAS in Liberal Arts and raise 2 babies.

I started working at Boces as a TA and 1-1. I loved working with special needs children. After a few years I married a man who I thought would be a good father to my kids. We had our son Jacob, who has mod-severe autism. As our marriage went on, he became more argumentive and violent at times. The kids and I left the house for good and Jacob's father was diagnosed with bipolar and depression. We are much better apart and work very well together as Jacob's parents.

The kids and I got our own apartment for a year. My father had passed a few years prior and my mom and I decided to buy a house together. So we bought 6 bedroom older home. I went to work at out local district as a 1-1 aide/TA. I worked for our local district for 6 years. I also was my mom's caregiver until she passed.

I still live in the same house. Two years ago, I had some major health issues and I became disabled. I have Occular Myastenia Gravis, Hyperparathryroidism, Nerve Damage to name a few. It doesn't stop me to want to help the the special needs community.

Having Dyslexia and having kids with disabilities taught me a lot. I could easily relate to the kids I worked with. Having dyslexia taught me to Think Outside The Box. I would teach my students to think outside of the box. Sometimes traditional ways are more difficult to process.

I have a lot of strategies tha I learned over the years and taught to my students. I think I will blog of various stategies I use personally, with my own kids and the kids I work with.

I love writing this blog. I have gained so much knowledge through my journey. I know my blog may not be grammatically perfect. That is part of my Dyslexia and it is OK not to have the perfect blog and to be to be different. Doing this blog, I taught myself HTML coding and I like it. I am pretty proud of that. Where for a long time I was embarrassed by my my Dyslexia, now I embace it. It makes me, Me! Kinda different and quirky at times. LOL And That is OK. I still do dyslexic things all the time. Nothing wrong with that. :) I hope you enjoyed learning more about me