Once you get labelled, people expect you to behave within the very narrow confines of that label.
- Jo Brand
Many parents struggle with the decision to disclose their
child’s diagnosis. In my experience,
exposing a person’s diagnosis can lead to a lowering of expectations,
behaviorally, academically and in sports.
This is not only true for children, but adults too. While children can face difficulty with
achieving academic success, adults in the workplace can struggle with obtaining
career advancement.
As we embark on a new school year, many parents are
likely concerned about how their child’s learning differences will impact on
academic achievement and their school experience. I have heard from several parents that they
feel it is the school’s responsibility to identify whether their child has
learning challenges, and if she or he does, to address these challenges. In a perfect world, our schools would be able
to do this. What it would likely mean is
smaller class sizes, additional teaching resources, and better training for
teachers on how to identify and address learning differences.
I think it is very important to understand that children
with learning differences have the capacity to learn, they simply learn
differently from their peers. A learning
difference does not correlate with a child’s intelligence. Many parents, me included, worry that by
disclosing their child’s learning differences, he will be labelled as less
intelligent than is peers. Our son has
already become aware of his learning differences, and has voiced that he is not
smart. As you can imagine, I found this
heartbreaking to hear coming from the mouth of our creative and curious little
boy. It also concerned me that his
enjoyment in learning would be negatively impacted.
We decided to disclose our son’s challenges to our
school, prior to his starting school, because we wanted to work with our school
to ensure adaptations were provided to enable our son to succeed in the
classroom. For me, it was also important
that his teacher was aware of what to look for if he was becoming frustrated or
disengaged in the classroom, and for us to be engaged in discussions about
solutions.
I will not lie, it hasn’t been easy obtaining resources
for our son. We take each school year
one month at a time. We remain in close
contact with our school, and have also sought resources outside of our
school. There have been many frustrations
and some success on the way.
Whether a parent chooses to disclose their child’s diagnosis
is a very personal decision. There are
many factors that come into play, including how impactful a child’s diagnosis
is on their learning experience, support of family and friends, and the parents
own feelings about their child’s diagnosis.
There is no right answer
here. We do what we think is right for
our children. Hopefully, with better
education around learning differences and related diagnoses, our school system
will grow to be better equipped at managing the learning needs of all
children. In the meantime, we keep
pressing onward.
