(Credit: Ode Magazine)

The brain is a rainforest.

“People with conditions like ADHD, dyslexia and mood disorders are routinely labeled “€œdisabled”. But differences among brains are as enriching—and essential—as differences among plants and animals. Welcome to the new field of neurodiversity.”(http://www.odemagazine.com/doc/70/Your-brain-is-a-rain-forest/2)

It will be people who have brains like my son’s who will push society forward in its limited understanding of how the brain works and beyond the deficit and disability models.They will bring society fully into understanding neurodiversity and how to nurture the whole child by recognizing that the brain is a rainforest and how we must collectively focus on the strengths and gifts (and diversity) rather than what we, in our limited views, see as disabilities. As one of my son’s doctor’s said, “Calvin will be one of the world’s great thinkers and will solve great problems.  Your job as the parent is to nurture him and get him intact through systems that are not generally set up for children like Calvin.”

Calvin has been described by a doctor as being “highly gifted.”  She went on to explain that he is “Very bright and multi-talented, superb conceptual thinker,  kind-hearted, empathetic, sweet, gentle, great sense of humor, sophisticated vocabulary, advanced common sense reasoning skills, well developed ability to generate and support logical arguments, outstanding verbal fluency.  These strengths are joined with “vulnerabilities” in language development in comparison to these outstanding conceptual and problem skills.”

“It’s called Dyslexia.”  That is the name of a children’s book that I read to Calvin tonight after we talked about the fact that he is dyslexic. We threw the word out there and then owned it. Calvin embraced that he is dyslexic. I embraced the fact that my son is dyslexic. Although we are still getting our heads wrapped around it, we are on our way. It has been a very difficult year and a half since we were first introduced to the fact that Calvin had challenges in school. Watching him struggle, battle with the knowledge that he was not able to do what others in his class could do, working to help him focus upon his strengths and consulting with his AMAZING teacher, reading specialist, director of learning services and other team members at his school to navigate what was going on in his brain, body and emotions, all the while trying to ensure his confidence and sense of self remained intact. But it was not until two weeks ago that we fully understood what it all meant. Needing to get more specificity and clarity, Calvin went through a series of neuropsychological tests and, at one end, he is highly gifted to the level that the test (for 6-16 year olds) could not test him further as he reached the 16 year old range. However, at the other end, he is dyslexic. That means he is impaired in reading, decoding, and spelling. It is a neurologically based impairment and often genetic. Estimates are that about 15% of the population have dyslexia.

Before I read the dyslexia book to him, I started to go into the politically correct explanation of how everyone has “learning styles” and how we worked with doctors to figure out his learning style. I carefully avoided the “LD” label, short for “learning disability.” I started with the predictable parental sing song tone and an explanation worthy of all the expert books on how to tell your kid he has a diagnosis. An official diagnosis. A label. (As I was saying the word “dyslexia,” I internally struggled with it because for so many purposes a label or diagnosis is “needed” (insurance, public schools to ensure help, society that often needs to categorize us, ourselves in order to grasp the challenges and find solutions, etc.) yet is totally unrelated to who Calvin is and what he is capable of. Nothing could possibly define the essence and potential of an amazing child who we knew from birth, was unique. A word cannot define a person and it cannot define Calvin.

So as I got all wrapped up on doing the right mommy thing and the internal conflict I have about labels and blah blah, in true Calvin style, Calvin cut to the chase and said to me, “stop talking about all that learning style stuff.” I could tell in his tone and look that he was in essence saying, cut the crap, give it to me straight. He ALWAYS can sense when someone is not being direct with him. I love that kid.

So I asked if he wanted the straight scientific scoop. He did. Of course he did. He LOVES science. So I gave it to him straight. I told him that he has dyslexia. At that moment, I knew I hit a cord. He was in his comfort zone. I was talking facts and science.  I explained to Calvin how it means his brain is wired a certain way that in effect makes it harder for him to learn to read and write. However, at the same time, in some neurological way that at some point science will be able to map and explain with precision, it also means he is off the charts creative, inventive, articulate, empathetic and so many other things that he blows my mind. So when he commented to me that him being dyslexic meant he was “defective” (telling me that this is in fact what he has been feeling all this year and last with the reading and writing struggles), I told him to look me in the eyes and listen to me carefully: “you are not defective.”   I went on, “Yes, your brain is wired in a way that makes reading and writing harder to learn. But this is a gift. It is a gift because for whatever reason (a reason that it will take people with brilliance like you to tell us how it all works), it also results in your extreme giftedness and creativity.”

Then I went on to read the book, “It’s Called Dyslexia.”   When we got to the part about famous people with dyslexia, I nearly cried. With each name, and explanation where he did not recognize their contribution, Calvin grew in confidence and stature. To the point where he got so excited that he literally dropped to the floor in dramatic relief (drama yes, but his way of expressing genuine emotion through and through).  Albert Einstein.  Leonardo da Vinci. Walt Disney. Beethoven.  Even Tom Cruise and Whoopi Goldberg.

Credit: Bruce Algra Posters: http://shop.algra.com/osb/itemdetails.cfm?ID=501

After that, I pointed to the stack of books that I had just received from Amazon. I explained to Calvin that the books were all about dyslexia and we would be reading them to figure out how to support him at home.  We would also get support for him outside home. I also explained that the books had some fun games that we could play and that would help him.  I joked that I am not much fun so had to read about how to be fun.  He told me that I am  in fact fun. I said okay maybe so but I just need to learn how to be fun in a way that it will help him learn. So we are on our way…..

Credit: Bruce Algra Posters: http://shop.algra.com/osb/itemdetails.cfm?ID=511