The Other Side Of Learning Disabilities

Are learning challenges GIFTS in disguise?

- Manda Aufochs Gillespie

It was a great surprise when I realized my clearly bright, gifted daughter struggled with reading, writing, counting or anything with words and symbols. In some ways, I continue to be shocked by it, though we are almost two years past her official diagnosis of dyslexia and our family’s embracement of it as a gift. Like most of parenting, approaching the way in which my children learn has forced me to reconsider my values.

Writing, learning, and the world of books played such a significant role in my life that I considered them essential. Not only am I a writer, but the world of books and words guided me through an early childhood marked by poverty and an adolescence coloured by its aftermaths. As a young child, I escaped into books about the olden days, royalty, and fantasy. As a young adult, I escaped through the essays, grades, and scholarships that books also helped bring about. Certainly, if the world of words played such an important part in my own life, then being “book smart” must be a value worth pursuing with my own children, mustn’t it?

Then again, as any reader will tell you, when the main character holds anything too precious at the beginning of the story, you know the plot crisis will revolve around her needing to re-examine that treasure. And so, life again is a bit more poetic than fiction.

What is a Learning Disability?

One of the technical prerequisites of a learning disorder diagnosis is the possession of at least an average (and often above average) IQ, along with difficulties in processing spoken or written language or symbols. Thus, by definition, someone with a diagnosed learning disorder is “smart,” yet they may struggle with reading or writing or doing basic math. This is very different from an intellectual disability, signifying a cognitive capacity that is below average.