I am five years older than my brother, John Paul. Although we all love him, we always knew he was different. Fortunately, my mom’s background is as a teacher, and great mother, of five. In addition, although we are/were a pretty much blue collar family – we grew up in a town with a fantastic school system that benefited us all.
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My whole life, Math has made me anxious. It was not only my hardest subject, but at times, it felt like my worst enemy. In elementary school and middle school, I managed to obtain decent final grades in Math class because of my extremely consistent work habits and nightly homework help from my mom. However, as I got older, at times there was only so much my mom could do to help.
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I was not diagnosed with NVLD until my mid-thirties. My tragedies and mistakes are many and I couldn’t pick one to share with you today. Rather, I will share with you snapshots of my experiences as said to me and about me throughout my life.
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Growing up with NVLD can make summer vacation a real concern for many families due to academic and social weaknesses. In many cases, especially if both parents are working, the child can be lonely as without parental encouragement it makes going to summer activities so hard. One of the options that can make summer more enjoyable is to have your child attended a residential summer program for students with Learning Disabilities as these programs promote academic, personal, and social growth.
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I’ve had a strong vocabulary since the age of five. A majority of my childhood was spent writing extensive creative stories with words straight out of a thesaurus. However, if you asked me a math equation I’d look at you blankly and wouldn’t know the answer. Ask me to put together a puzzle, and I wouldn’t be able to comprehend how the pieces connect.
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My name is Monie, I’m a Radio and TV personality here in the U.S, originally from London, England UK. I’m mother to 4 children, 2 of which are now adults. Of my younger children, boy aged 15 and girl aged 10, I have been met with the challenge of accepting this round won’t be the same as my first round raising my older daughters.
Specifically, my newest challenge has been with my 10-year-old daughter, whom has displayed both above average and also awkward and age inappropriate qualities among her peer group since Pre K and kindergarten years. At first I thought kids will be kids, and try their parents and any other authoritative figures, also kids get into spats with each other, it happens, but after moving several times with my job, and getting the same reports for the same types of occurrences from different schools, I had to allow myself the possibility that somewhere there may be a disconnect.
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Having NVLD can make it difficult to understand social and communication clues, which can make forming relationships an obstacle. Two examples of when I experienced these challenges were meeting Dick Christy, my school counselor, and in 8th grade, hanging out with the “wrong crowd.” I just couldn’t pick up on the clues from Mr. Christy that he truly wanted to help me and ‘my friends” were only making fun of my NVLD.
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It all started when I was going to the fifth grade. I transferred to another school for a special education class. I always got bullied for being in special ed up until high school, I didn’t get bullied much. My parents never did anything to stop the bullying. The bullying caused me to become a mean girl because I felt that I had to protect myself from any harm. To this very day, I hate it when people treat me like I’m “stupid, slow”.
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Every so often in my life you join something that is extremely difficult however in the end you are so happy you made the decision to stay with it. I experienced this being the only varsity girl during my first year of cross-country and am grateful for all the personal connections and personal growth I made. Throughout all the challenges each of them turned into a tremendous positive with the help and support I received from my coach Jim Adams, and the members of the Canton cross country team. I was able to see that my disability wasn’t a detriment and realized people respected me for who I am.
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My son was diagnosed with NVLD when he was in the 3rd grade. He is currently a junior in college. We were hoping that college would help his socialization but he seems to becoming more and more isolated. He was involved in a bowling club but has since quit that. He does seem to do well with the academic part of college. He currently works as a part time server at an assisted living center. We worry about his future occupation and working with others as his social skills are very limited. I need resources or assistance on how to best help him with his future. He is such a sweet and kind man but seems to have very little self confidence in himself.
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