Character Builders Are Overrated

 I've written here plenty about the difficult things that life has dropped in my daughter's lap, and about her impressive ability to shoulder them and still maintain her magically sunny disposition. Well. we learned last week that we get to add double deficit dyslexia to the list. This, in addition to her ADHD and anxiety dual-diagnosis. And of course, the Alopecia. And let's not forget that we are finding this out in the last days of her FOURTH GRADE YEAR. 

This whole thing has my head swimming. I have so many different thoughts and emotions and worries and solutions all vying for my attention at any given moment that it's hard to keep them straight. I thought maybe a blog post would be a good way to work through some of it and clear my head. We shall see. 

I've known for a long time that there was some kind of disconnect, for lack of a better term, going on with her learning. She had good reading comprehension, but terrible reading mechanics, and has been terrified of reading aloud, just always. Similarly, she could grasp fairly complex math concepts, but could NOT keep her basic math facts straight, and in fact, would still frequently draw numbers backwards. All of this is beginning to make sense, of course.

E still goes downstairs the way toddlers do. Both feet on each step. And sometimes, if she's in a situation where something is blocking her step and she needs to step over it, she can't process HOW to do that right away. She gets really upset when this happens. For years, we have thought it was some strange, dramatic thing she was doing. Now, we realize it's an actual processing issue. Of course, as a Mom, I feel TERRIBLE about that. 

I also feel so frustrated because, COME ON, could this kid catch a freaking break, already? Like, going bald twice by age 9.5 wasn't enough? We have to add THIS on top of it? My poor baby. 

I do feel fortunate that we have a great support system surrounding our girl. This includes educators who adore her and want to help her succeed. It's going to take so much hard work on her part, our part, their part. But we will succeed. This girl is a tiny force of nature. This won't stop her any more than any of the other stuff has.