What I see

So once I became a parent in a school for children who are different I began to see similarities in the children I met at that school to children I knew from other places.

Kids who learn differently,  have parents who have done the homework,  have the money for the school, have sought out and found a diagnosis for their children completely form the student body of my daughter's school.

These parents have put in all the effort to get their child into a school that can teach them the way they need to be taught in order to learn.  That is the school my daughter attends.  It's chock full of caring parents who have turned every stone over that they could in order to help their child.  In most cases they are very open about their children's diagnosis and the treatments that are working for those children.

I started seeing some common threads. 

I'm not a pediatric neuropsychologist but I can tell the glaringly obvious signs that a child is a different kind of learner.

Asperger's, for example, occurs in 1 in 110 children according to the Center for Disease Control website. 

I disagree with that statistic.  I would personally put it in as 1 in 20 children,  possibly higher.  At least if I go by what I'm seeing in my children's classrooms.

I'm a person who is not that great at social cues myself so I recognize it when I see the way children in the schools act.

Not surprisingly some of the smartest (think book smart) kids are the ones who find things like playing by the rules of school the most difficult. 

This sort of thing is not a problem at my daughter's school which is set up to take on the challenge of patiently teaching children the way to act/not act in a social setting. 

These kids have been diagnosed for the most part.  They are in a sense out of the woods because they and their parents and teachers know that they are looking at a child with differences. They have the label and it's a road map to helping the weakness and strengthening the strengths.

In the Catholic school there is just not this much awareness.

It pains me to say this but just the other day while I was a lunchroom helper at the Catholic school I saw a small child being made fun of by the workers (I'm hoping the small child was out of earshot). 

Adult who didn't understand that people are different, they see things differently and that this is not such an uncommon occurrence.  Adults who didn't understand that some children are going to need to be told,  to be taught, what is appropriate and what isn't.

A small child in a school setting who isn't all that socially savvy is going to mess up. 

I'm pained by the lack of awareness. 

I'm pained by the shame I can see the children who are misunderstood getting heaped on them.

It's not just dyslexia (although that is my personal focus).  It's all the differences. 

I talked to a mother last night whose child is getting ready to graduate from high school in one of the local suburban districts.  Almost the whole time this child has been in school he has had an IEP for ADHD. 

The saddest thing she said to me was that his whole school experience not one person, teacher, tutor or otherwise has ever, "gotten him". 

To me that meant no one has: understood him, accepted him for who he is,  acknowledged his strengths, found the time to talk to him in a way where he felt accepted and intelligent.  

This is very sad and it's happening to way too many children and young people.