Dyslexia Personal Statement

Personal Statement

She was two and still not talking. Sure, she could put together a two or three-word sentence, but not much more than that and she seemed to be speaking less than her peers. But she was my first child. I didn’t know what to look for or what the age appropriate milestones were. My husband and I spent countless hours with our pediatrician, day care providers, pre-school teachers, speech and language pathologists and psychologists seeking answers. Nothing was concluded. As time went by, her language did evolve and she began talking more. Nevertheless, she often struggled with word retrieval, word order, memory, directionality and rhyming among other things. I felt like I was on a hamster wheel. I was spinning and spinning without making any progress. I felt helpless. Four and a half years later, I had the answer. She was diagnosed with dyslexia; a …show more content…
My daughter, Annabella was formally diagnosed when she was six and a half. I felt lucky. I felt relieved. I even felt emancipated. I finally knew what we were facing and had a clear path on how to support her. Reflecting on our journey, I have realized how fortunate we are. I found the right people to help Annabella and she is receiving the best support offered. Sadly, not everyone is as lucky. Too often a child’s struggle with reading, writing and language flies under the radar just enough to pass school. The child may do okay in Kindergarten through second grade and pass…just barely. By third grade, they hit a wall. There are state exams, complex books, less pictures, longer spelling tests and it just gets harder from there. Now they probably hate going to school, are getting teased and the worst thing that can happen to them (in their eyes) is being called on to read aloud in class. This is happening more often than anyone may think and these children need