Desperate parents

There seem to be so many lies and so much misinformation around the subject of getting help for a dyslexic child that I find it hard to break through to parents who don't know me well.

I do still try.

Sometimes people don't know what to think of me at first (I am a bit odd I guess and my passion for this subject borders on over-the-top). 

Still, I do try to relay what I know (a lot at this point) hoping that maybe, just maybe, a parent will remember it at a later time.

Sometimes it works out.  Sometimes it doesn't.

Like when I told our story to a parent who was experiencing a similar circumstance and then, at a later date, someone else I didn't have any connection with agreed with me to them. 

The parent called me back and said, "Explain what you told me again."  Which I did and which I'm happy to report is currently in the process of working out for that family.

If someone is in complete denial I don't try to rip off the blankie of course.  I don't think that would lead to anything good.  I know a child right now who is on the way to being nearly completely illiterate, yet when I saw the mother recently I said nothing.  Did I do the right thing?  I think this parent knows enough about me to call me should she have a question she thinks I could answer.

Still, I don't think I could rest, as a parent, if my child was suffering and misunderstood in school without turning over every single rock to try to find an answer.

I don't think every parent is like me. No, I know that not every parent is like me.

Also though not every child has dyslexia to enough of an extreme to need to push that hard either. Many compensate and cover up and manage to get by.

So I try not to judge.

Yet, I know that my parents worked very hard on behalf of my brother and I plan to always work very hard in a similar way for my children.

When I think about this subject now I believe that there will always be a lot of misinformation and there will always be desperate parents actively searching for truth and finding, well, not enough good information.  Yet,  when I have a good moment I see that things may be changing in a big way for the better. 

Things like films about dyslexia, celebrities coming out and saying they have dyslexia and many states trying to change the way they teach reading (to heck with "Whole Language").   These things give me hope.