My son has dyslexia. He is now 41 and a successful lawyer, but getting through school, and his academic frustrations, was a challenge we all learned from. Once my husband and I understood the problem that was plaguing our highly verbal, clearly intelligent son, I found it very important to respond with a solution for any issue he raised.

First was introducing a “tutor” who understood the problem and could tackle any skill deficit he had. Then, it was finding a school that was set up to use his talents, and not just  focus on all the spelling errors, almost illegible handwriting, “careless errors” in math, and length of time it took him to turn out a written product.

In college, it was finding an expert in dyslexia who could explain the brain differences between dyslexics and nondyslexics, so that he could draw an appropriate boundary around some frustrations that still existed in school. It was listening and looking for solutions so that the academic frustrations did not overwhelm the creative life of his mind. It was always acknowledging that school was tough, but that he could do it.