LD, such a negative term!

I, too, like the term dyslexic better
than Specific Learning Disability in Reading and Writing.

To me dyslexic means wired up in a unique and different
way, with wonderful strengths and gifts, and a wonky
way of learning to read and spell which we’ll make work
eventually - just a puzzle to solve.

Anne

I hate it the term hurts and should be removed from schools. At least the SLP’s I know have the manners to refer to my son as having a learning difference or some learning difficulty.

We should all gang up and make them stop saying that term.

I was happy to read your response. When my son gets older , he is 9, I will be interested in how he views different terms.

As for now all my son wants is to be treated like everyone else and he works extremely hard at school and with his tutor.

I have to agree with AA on this one. I don’t know enough about dyslexia or other LD’s to be able to comment, but NLD _IS_ a very real disability. It is not “just” a learning difference, and it cannot be remediated away.

Calling it a learning difference would, I think, be dangerous. As it stands it is hard enough to get teachers to realize the seriousness of my son’s condition, and how much hemp he really needs. There is no magic bullet, and teaching him “differently” won’t make his problems go away.

I don’t think the problem with the term “LD” is the words themselves, it is what people do with them. If children with LD’s are treated as bad, or stupid or odd, then that’s wrong. But demoting it to no more than a “difference” makes it sound like an issue like eye color or skin tone. It’s not.

Karen

I have to agree with those in favor of the term. My son, who has auditory processing problems, has a disability. We are doing everything possible to remediate it but, at least for now, he has a disability. I guess we could say he has a learning difference—he can not learn in large groups, for example. But I feel too that dimishes the struggles he faces every day. It is, at least for him, more than needing things explained a different way. To me, a learning difference, implies that a child needs a different sort of teaching than standard. My son needs that too but even with the best of teaching, he struggles.

Beth

I’ll stand with the gifted child on this one. My first reaction was to be angry when I read dyslexia was a gift. Esp at the part where it said they excelled at athletics and math. Ha!!! But I’ve come around. Mostly becasue I DONT want him defining himself by what he CANT DO. I’ve seen people go from considering him esp bright at age 4, “the little professor” to being called dummy and baby by former friends at the endof reception year. And this in a church school considered the best in the area. HE’S STILL THE LITTLE PROFESSOR! He has a quirky ,wonky way of learning some skills, but the mind is still Beautiful. He plays chess, knows Greek and Roman Mythology the way most kids know Pokemon, can build nad perform the libretto for the Wagners Ring in Lego. (Dad wrote to Playmobil cause they don’t have any females that can ride horses and be the Valkyries.) He does this stuff not because we’ve coached him but because THOSE are his interests. And if I let learning some skills stand inthe way of that mind, I’d be failing him. He’s not disabled. he learns fine.

I’ll stand with the gifted child on this one. My first reaction was to be angry when I read dyslexia was a gift. Esp at the part where it said they excelled at athletics and math. Ha!!! But I’ve come around. Mostly becasue I DONT want him defining himself by what he CANT DO. I’ve seen people go from considering him esp bright at age 4, “the little professor” to being called dummy and baby by former friends at the endof reception year. And this in a church school considered the best in the area. HE’S STILL THE LITTLE PROFESSOR! He has a quirky ,wonky way of learning some skills, but the mind is still Beautiful. He plays chess, knows Greek and Roman Mythology the way most kids know Pokemon, can build nad perform the libretto for the Wagners Ring in Lego. (Dad wrote to Playmobil cause they don’t have any females that can ride horses and be the Valkyries.) He does this stuff not because we’ve coached him but because THOSE are his interests. And if I let learning some skills stand inthe way of that mind, I’d be failing him. He’s not disabled. he learns fine.

At the risk of sounding negative, I beg to differ with you, though I think I can somewhat appreciate where you come from. I would like to suggest that the way her mind is wired makes certain forms of learning very “unnatural” for her. While your child does need a different sort of teaching, even with this special teaching, many will never achieve (let’s consider reading/spelling) the degree of automaticity, accuracy and fluency (in tandem) that the nonld population achieves with relative ease. I do consider this to be a disability, for we cannot get around reading/writing to some degree in our world today.

Rather than change the term “learning disability” it would be far better for the world if we channeled our efforts into making people realize that accidentally being born able to learn to do whatever is socially important does not make one inherently superior to people who aren’t as lucky. This whole competitive attitude that measures our worth as humans by what comes easily is pretty foul when it comes down to it.

Changing words for disabilitise has been happening for hundreds of years. All that happens is that a different word takes on the same negative meaning. Developmentally disabled, retarded, imbecilic… a rose by any other name smells the same.

I’m in this yoga class, and let me tell you, I am absolutely “yoga disabled.” Yet nobody makes an issue of it. I get more help, more props, sometimes alternative exercises. No heavy sighs (“maybe you should take up something else”). No, instead it’s more of “oh, you really *need* instruction… glad you’re here and wanting to learn this! We’ll take it slow and show you.”

KNowledge and reading and math should be the same.

I prefer learning difference to learning disability. If the specific learning difference is known, that’s my first choice but so many people look back at you blankly when you tell them your child has dysorthographia and dysgraphia as well as dyslexia.

I have to agree with AA, when I tell people my son has LD, they look at me like he’s a stupid kid, if I tell them he’s dyslexic, they seem to understand. My son is 13 and he prefers the word dyslexic too. Face it…..kids learn fast in school, the kids who go to the LD class are the dumb ones. WEll, at least that’s how kids see it….admit it….it was that way even when we went to school.

I am no longer frustrated about the labels. What I am frustrated about it is that no label of any kind, even with the legal weight of an IEP behind it ,will enlighten unenlighted teachers, or make insensitive children and adults more sensitive.

I agree with you….also, I think the term is imprecise.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a formal diagnosis for my son at the moment, but when I do I’ll probably refer to it as that.

I don’t like the umbrella term “My child has learning disabilites” because it doesn’t point out the strengths a child may have.

Maybe I just don’t like labels.

According to the neuropsychologist who saw my son often time lables are misused and she don’t like to use them either. When she does up her reports she is sure to outline the childs strengths and weaknesses so the school knows what is going on. She says if you tell a school a child has autism what are you really telling them since each affected individual can present differently. I liked her approach and the school found her report to be very useful as it spelled out his strengths and weakness. I am not a big fan of “genaric” labels either.

I agree with you too. I was shocked by the labels in the beginning years, but now its more important that the kids are Helped by these labels. My sons have Ld’s (which is what I seem to call it now), in processing/ Language Arts areas - one child has retrieval processing problems in all areas. I do not want my children labelled dyslexic, since they are not dyslexic. It would not help them. I choose to look at it more as a term of identification rather than negatively. My sons know it is not the most important label that describes them or identifies them in my eyes. It is not how their family and friends describe them either. In our house this is all about academics only.
I also have heard teachers refer to students( Ld or not) with many labels in a negative way over the years, I do not promote that in any way.

We actually have had no problem with children. We’ve had some very, very good teachers too, but some really awful ones as well.

Karen

By way of being the “agitator” that I am, one of the unfortunate things is that all “disabilities” are really just the lowest end of a continuum. There is a nice sized group of children who only slightly miss the LD qualification. They must go through life w/o the benefit of an IEP and the protections afforded by IDEA and 504. There is no way we can keep everyone happy on this issue. Criteria are necessary, if you want any protections. However, those who just miss the criteria have reason to be frustrated with a system that “penalizes” them and assists another who is just a “hairsbredth” different in functionality. How do we reconcile all of this?

To add to this topic it’d be interesting to see what ld, dyslexic, whatever adults in the working world have to say. . Gut feeling is that you might get an employer to accept dyslexic as long as you can demonstrate you can do the job and will solve any problems caused by YOUR problem YOURSELF. And ask for no quarter. I think there’s some acceptance out there of dyslexia having even a kind of mystical advantage among IT and engineering folk. I can’t see employers wanting to hear about how you struggle- they just want to know what you CAN do. Thus all the human interest stories on blind and handicapped people who live on their own and work with just a few modifications. Learning disabled…. ? When I was a boss I know what my reaction would have been.

Hi AA, Sorry wasn’t directing anything to you personally, but just continuoing on the topic. After all the whole point of all this education is to get to independent kids with a good shot at life whatever they want to do. And when I think how the world has changed in the last 20 years it’s hard to say what it will be like for kids in the next 20. As parents we pays our money and takes our choices. I’m putting my money on the dyslexia is a gift attitude because I don’t want my son to define himself by what he Can’t do. He has a very bright mind. He could have been dealt a lot worse cards. Stephen Hawkins for example I would consider disabled but it didn’t stop him from learning. he found ways to compensate for what he couldn’t do and got on with it.
Just as there’s no one way for our kids to learn, there’s no one choice for parents on how to deal with our kids problems.
Your experiences are very insightful nad I can relate as a hypoglycemic whose blood sugar can drop if I don’t eat right or get a load of hidden sugar in something or just have a hormonal swing . I’m left unable to remember my own name let alone finish projects. Employers were symnpathetic but it always came down to you need to do what you need to do so that you can do what you promised you would do when you took the job. And I’m afraid that if I saw disabled anywhere on an applicants form or records I would find a good excuse not to hire them. And partly because that word is a redlight and I would have suspected it would mean I would have to deal with government regulations if I hired them. Commerce is a bitch.

AA, I’m sure you’re such a good employee you don’t realize what a chance an employer takes when they hire.

You say.” Under the law employers don’t Have to accommodate you for learning differences but they do for learning disabilities.”

The word disability , as in disability claim, has a negative connotation for employers. Disablity has a definite LEGAL connotation.

My son will have to live in the real world. He may come of age in an even harsher economic climate than todays. He’s better off with an attitude that he is what he does well not what is difficult for him.

And I’m afraid I have to cut this short because he’s demanding attention and the first message I wrote got cut off by server anyway.

20 years ago the “slow” kids at my school went to the “resource room” that included ALL children who weren’t the “norm”. Alot of the slow readers hated going to this room, where they were uncomfortable with being labelled “retarded”.
Learning Disabilities come in many different forms with many differing levels. At least today, 20 years later, my children with learning disabilities, have a regular classroom to go to and an educational plan that will help them progress. Ideal all the time? It is not…or we wouldn’t even have this forum, but its a work in progress. And I believe progress has been made. There are now people in the workforce who understand and may even know another with an LD. That is progress. I understand those of you who can’t come out of the closet for fear of losing respect, raises or even an employers excuse to get rid of you BUT for those of you who can share- comfortably- with people you can trust….it will add progress - maybe even for one of my kids.
Education usually can add value, as people that listen will understand, and not be so prejudgemental the next time.
ps: One of my LD sons has a friend that will most likely be the valedictorian of his class. They have been close friends for 4 years. His goal is to get into an ivy league college since 6th grade. Maybe he won’t be so shy of the LD kids as he respects his friend that has LD’s. We’ll see…

AA , Disabled means you have been rendered unable to move or that you are unable to pursue an occupation. That is how it will be understood by most people. Until I discovered the use here I would have assumed the words meant what they said. That that person is as unable to learn as a quadri or paraplegic is to walk.
Even ten years ago I would have recognized what Dyslexic meant. I had actually forgotten this but in university I read and tape-recorded books and assignments. One girl I read for was a dyslexic in the arch-engineering dept, the other was a quadriplegic who lived in a nursing home because that was the only place the state could give her the daily nursing care that she needed to keep her alive let alone do her homework. Reading an assignment meant trying to turn the pages with a pencil between her teeth and read while not drowning in her own saliva and phlegm. Her roommate was a 65 yr old woman who’d been in a coma for two years. I can tell you in a nanosecond which struggle I’d rather anybody have to have. You bring entirely different connotations to the word disability than other people are going to have. Are you sure you’re not sugarcoating the word ?