Should wealth dictate whether your dyslexic child receives the multi-sensory learning method they need to succeed? My answer to that, “HELL NO” but life is life, facts are facts and that’s just the way it is. The size of your bank account does matter and it's a grim outlook for working class people with dyslexic children. How do I know this? I know this because we are one of those working class families that realizes there is help out there, but financially cannot even come close to reaching it. I remember a comment I once read wherein the author said something to the effect that if your child needed braces, you would find a way to get them braces. That seems to be the mindset of some of the people I’ve come across when it comes to getting the specialized schooling/tutoring my son needs,just get him the help he needs. It’s really just not that simple. Sure, I’ve heard the stories of the superhero parents who have sold everything they owned in order to pay for their child’s specialized schooling or the superhero parents who have forgone mortgage payments in order to get their children the help they needed and I applaud them and all they've done for their children but I’m not a superhero, I’m just a parent. My family needs to keep making the mortgage payments so that our children don’t end up living in our car doing their homework by the dashboard light.
I’m not writing this to spread news of my financial woes, just my confusion on why it costs so much. I understand it's a specialized training for professionals and my husband and I have been working with our state legislators to pass laws that would bring this specialized training right into our public schools so that children like ours can receive the help they need. My family made the financial sacrifice last fall so that I could go through 60 hours of Orton-Gillingham training. I now volunteer to go into schools to reach the children whose parents cannot afford specialized schools, just like us. However, that’s just a tiny dent in what is a massive amount of children waiting for and needing tutoring, it’s like poking a giant with a toothpick.
So, here’s the point of my post today. I’m asking as a volunteer Orton-Gillingham Tutor, a parent who volunteers to help other parents with their IEP Meetings, I’m asking as someone who is taking action to make a difference, not someone trying to just wish the problem away and a I’m asking as a parent who understands the frustration of not being able to send her child to a school that sees the potential in dyslexic/SLD students. I’m asking specialized schools/organizations, can you do more?
If you have community outreach programs, thank you! If you don’t, why and would you please consider it? If you do, can you do more? If you bring in 4 teachers and donate multi-sensory training to them, next time can it be 5 or 6? Will you consider adding a few more trainings a year? If you offer free or reduced tutoring to students can you fit in just a few more?
Thank you.
*So that you can see what we as parents are up against while trying to make a change for our dyslexic children, here is a copy of North Carolina HB 420 which was introduced this year to try to start making positive change for children like ours in North Carolina. Check out the pictures below or read here:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H420v1.pdf
After the bill, you will see a letter that was sent to the legislators we were working with that called the bill aimed at helping dyslexic students, redundant. The bill specifically addresses dyslexia, not just learning disabilities. I’m getting rid of all of the identifying information because it’s the content that is important, not so much where it came from.
I’m not writing this to spread news of my financial woes, just my confusion on why it costs so much. I understand it's a specialized training for professionals and my husband and I have been working with our state legislators to pass laws that would bring this specialized training right into our public schools so that children like ours can receive the help they need. My family made the financial sacrifice last fall so that I could go through 60 hours of Orton-Gillingham training. I now volunteer to go into schools to reach the children whose parents cannot afford specialized schools, just like us. However, that’s just a tiny dent in what is a massive amount of children waiting for and needing tutoring, it’s like poking a giant with a toothpick.
So, here’s the point of my post today. I’m asking as a volunteer Orton-Gillingham Tutor, a parent who volunteers to help other parents with their IEP Meetings, I’m asking as someone who is taking action to make a difference, not someone trying to just wish the problem away and a I’m asking as a parent who understands the frustration of not being able to send her child to a school that sees the potential in dyslexic/SLD students. I’m asking specialized schools/organizations, can you do more?
If you have community outreach programs, thank you! If you don’t, why and would you please consider it? If you do, can you do more? If you bring in 4 teachers and donate multi-sensory training to them, next time can it be 5 or 6? Will you consider adding a few more trainings a year? If you offer free or reduced tutoring to students can you fit in just a few more?
Thank you.
*So that you can see what we as parents are up against while trying to make a change for our dyslexic children, here is a copy of North Carolina HB 420 which was introduced this year to try to start making positive change for children like ours in North Carolina. Check out the pictures below or read here:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H420v1.pdf
After the bill, you will see a letter that was sent to the legislators we were working with that called the bill aimed at helping dyslexic students, redundant. The bill specifically addresses dyslexia, not just learning disabilities. I’m getting rid of all of the identifying information because it’s the content that is important, not so much where it came from.