People with a learning disorder are creative, non-conventional, hardworking, and intelligent. People with learning disorders are CEOs, actors, geniuses, athletes, and celebrities. Most importantly, their intelligence level can't be measured by the absolute joke that is the American educational system.
Personally, I have a couple of friends with learning disorders. Many of them have told me how they have broken down in tears when it came to reading a textbook or doing an exam but then exceeded expectations in their film class or transcended an audience with their public speaking skills. While I could write an article that lists all of the amazing, wholesome things about them, I decided it would be more worthwhile for my readers to learn everything that my friends want them to understand.
1. "Not every learning disorder looks the same."
Do not lump them all together because every learning disorder is different. Dyslexia is a language-based disability where people have difficulty reading and understanding written words, getting letters mixed up and confused. Dyscalculia is a math-based disability where people have trouble solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts. Auditory processing disorders cause the person to have difficulty understanding language despite having normal sight and hearing and dyspraxia gives patients difficulty with coordination and fine motor skills.
Moreover, every human being is different, thus every diagnosis is different.
Daniel Radcliff is best known for his role in the Harry Potter franchise and has dyspraxia, a learning disorder that affects motor skill development. He jokingly said, "I sometimes think, 'Why, oh why, has Velcro not taken off?'"
2. "I am not stupid."
This is another concept misunderstood by the general public when it comes to learning disorders. Learning disorders are brain-based, to put it simply these brains are wired differently, not wrongly. Moreover, the majority of students with a learning disorder are actually highly intelligent which can be difficult to demonstrate when the education system is made to work against you, especially when those around you don't understand your disorder. Between your exasperated teachers, your disappointed parents, and you holding full knowledge that you are much more intelligent than how the education system perceives you to be, it must be exhausting to be a student with a learning disorder.
3. "Just because I struggle with school, doesn't mean I don't want to learn."
There's a huge difference between a student who is unmotivated and a student who is so overwhelmed by the classwork they don't understand, so the student just ends up giving up. Imagine attempting to study for a test but being unable to memorize a single word or getting sentences mixed up so badly that an effort towards it seems like a huge waste.
People with learning disorders don't learn the same way as other kids are taught, they can't. These students are told to demonstrate their knowledge using conventional methods like written exams and timed tests. In the end, it is their ability to belong to the status quo that is being tested and not their intelligence level, which results in "one in five American students dropping out of school due to their learning disorders."
As this PBS article states, "these are real disorders — with impacts that are felt every day and in so many ways. Imagine the stress of the school day, worrying about whether you will be called upon to read aloud or write on the board, in effect being asked to put your LD on display. And the same goes for the workplace."
I'll also stress that grades do not equate to everything, a bad math exam doesn't equate to unintelligence. Just like books smarts don't equate to a good resume.
4. "My disorder doesn't define me."
Any person living with a learning disorder knows that is simply a part of who they are and in no way defines that person. With the correct accommodations and support, any individual with a learning disorder is perfectly capable of becoming successful in school as could a deaf person with an interpreter. Kiera Knightly has dyslexia and states, "I drove myself into the ground trying to get through my dyslexia and when I finished school, I had top grades."
5. "This isn't something that goes away."
Having any form of disorder is a full-time job. No, it doesn't "go away" after school. No, it's not something that can be "outgrown" nor is it "just a phase." Learning disorders affect a person's input and output of information, their processing, organization, memory, and social skills. So there is no pause button on these disorders they affect before school: when watching cartoons, when buying groceries at Walmart, when driving home. Learning disorders aren't just a childhood thing, you can't outgrow them like clothes. Currently, there are about 4.6 million Americans living with learning disorders.
6. "Don't judge a book by its cover, and don't assume anything."
Individuals with learning disorders are treated with pity and irritation when actually all that's needed is patience. Micromanaging a student doesn't always help. Moreover, being talked to in a demeaning manner is irritating and rude. Don't assume having any learning disability is a burden, for many, it has its advantages. "The gift of dyslexia was that I learned everything forward and backward, inside out, so I was fully prepared," Orlando Bloom said. "I had to learn everything so that I wouldn't have stage fright or the lines wouldn't fall out of my mind."
