The LYLAS Podcast
If you know what LYLAS stands for, then this podcast is for you! Two besties since middle school turned moms and psychologists dish on "the good, the fun, and the yucks" of life! We're tackling all things mental health, "mom balance" (whatever the hell that is), transitions in life (divorce, career, aging parents, parent loss, loss of friendships), self-care, travel, healthy habits, raising kids, and allllllll the things us midlife mamas are experiencing. We hope each week listeners feel like they just left a good ol' therapy session with their bestie! We'll dish on all the tips and tricks to keep your mental health in check and enjoy this thing called life! Meet your life's newest cheerleaders-- Sarah & Jen! LYLAS!
The LYLAS Podcast
Turning Academic Struggles in to Success
A clean report card can still hide a hard truth. When spelling lists melt down into tears and progress graphs flatten, parents are left wondering if it’s effort, maturity, or something deeper. We open up about the moment a seasoned school psychologist realized her own child needed more than time—she needed an evaluation, a plan, and a different kind of help. That shift from “try harder” to “teach differently” becomes the turning point.
This is also a story about protecting self-worth. We share scripts for talking to kids about learning differences, shifting praise from outcomes to effort, and inviting children into the plan so they feel empowered, not singled out. Behavior is reframed as communication; avoidance becomes a clue to skill gaps, not a character flaw. By partnering with teachers, requesting the right data, and acting early, families can move from confusion to steady progress.
If report cards raised questions or your gut says something isn’t clicking, you’re not alone—and you’re not powerless. Listen, take notes, and share this with someone who needs a nudge toward early intervention. If the conversation helped, follow the show, leave a review, and tell us what topic you want next.
Please be sure to checkout our website for previous episodes, our psych-approved resource page, and connect with us on social media! All this and more at www.thelylaspodcast.com
By the time this episode comes out, if you have a school-aged child, you will probably have received their report card for the first nine weeks. Especially if you have young kids. It could be concerning. Or, you know, you might have like that first meeting with your child's teacher, and they're like, well, they're a little bit behind. Um, and a lot of parents may not know what to do with that information. And so hopefully by sharing this story, this personal story, um, this will help parents out there that find themselves on the other side of the table, as I keep calling it.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Well, let's dive into it because it's a great story and it really does kind of validate what it's like just to be a parent and a mom. And even with all the education and resources and things that we have, that does not that doesn't always transcend into our role as a parent.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and that was hard for me to sort of swallow at first because I, you know, to give our listeners some background, I have two decades of education experience working in public schools and particularly with kids with learning challenges. Um, so my role as a school psychologist was to um analyze data, school-wide data, help to determine which students were at risk and needing additional support in reading, writing, math, or behavior, and then helping our teams or being a part of a team that develops interventions and monitors progress, all of those things. And then in some cases, we would evaluate students for disabilities. For the most part, it's things like having a cognitive disability or impairment, or blind, or hearing impairment, or autism, or developmental delays, or, you know, those types of things. Um, but one that's a little bit more, I would say, challenging for a lot of schools in general to really discern is learning disabilities, um, like dyslexia, dyscalcula, dysgraphia, that's a writing disorder. Um, those can be a little bit more challenging to identify. And um, even though having been on that side of the table and doing that for, like I said, nearly two decades, I've recently been on the other side of the table as the parent of a child with a disability. And uh boy, has it been humbling in so many ways and helped me to recognize some things I could have definitely done differently in my career. Um, but you know, that's why we continue to get experiences and grow and learn and do better. When you know better, you do better. I firmly believe in that statement. And um yeah, so hopefully I can impart a little bit of personal experience on both sides of the table here to give you an idea of, you know, how you might be able to help your kid if your child is struggling in school with reading, writing, math, or their behavior. Um and so anyway, had a I have a child who's diagnosed with dyslexia this summer. Uh, had my child privately evaluated by a school psychologist and uh someone I trust and know. Um, and I was able then to take that evaluation to the pediatrician and discuss the results of that, and then also take that evaluation to the school and you know, pull the team together and say, okay, what can we do to help support my child? Um, typically, you know, I could have asked the school to evaluate. Um, I could have put it in writing, so they had to at least call a meeting and consider my request. However, I just, you know, this is my area, and so I wanted to take control and I wanted it to happen now. And a school doesn't have to do it on my timeline, but I didn't want to wait um because it's my kid, right? And I don't want I don't want to wait. I wanted to to figure it out as quickly as possible. So um there were some signs um at such a young age that certainly some red flags started to go up. But even even though I was seeing some red flags, I was having a hard time acknowledging that this was a real thing. I kept thinking, they'll get it. Late bloomer, like their mom, it'll come, you know. Um, but then the signs started to be glaringly obvious as time went on, and I couldn't really um couldn't ignore it anymore. And so you're probably thinking, like, well, what were the signs? Don't keep the secrets. You know, every kid is different. But for me, the spelling words, when when we started doing spelling words in first grade, I thought I was gonna lose my mind. And I found myself, I'm embarrassed to say this because I know better than to say things like this to a child. Um, but I would find myself saying things like, Well, you're gonna have to stay in first grade next year if you don't if you don't really try, if you don't take this seriously. Um, because I was getting emotional about the fact that it was so hard. Um and feeling like, well, if you would just put in more effort, you like you can do this. I know you can do this. That was me deflecting and really like, you know, just not wanting there to be an issue, I think, more than anything is why I was doing that. Um and so that was, you know, the first red flag. You know, I knew that uh their reading was not coming along quite as it should, and I knew that from the assessments that come home. Like no matter what state you're in, you probably get some sort of information from the school in the fall, in the winter, in the spring that says things like, well, your child performed on this reading assessment and this math assessment, and their score falls at this percentile. And for just listener purposes, if your child falls at the 10th percentile, that means that 90% of kids their age were scoring on this normative sample that they took, that this this um research-based uh assessment, uh, this normative assessment, they scored 90% of kids scored better at or better than your child. So obviously that's concerning, and you're seeing like those types of things come home, maybe like kindergarten, first grade, or you might start to see like a decline. Like your child, maybe in kindergarten, they're they were scoring at the 30th percentile, and you're like, okay, they're in the average range, like lower end of average, it's fine. But then, like as time's going, time is going on, you're starting to see that percentile rank drop over time, and you're thinking, well, that's not going in the right direction. Um, or you might get one thing that says, Well, your kid's at the 30th percentile, but then you meet with the teacher for a conference and they say, Well, I gave them this other assessment, and they're actually at like the eighth percentile. You know, like things are, you know, one was taken on the computer, one was done in person, and the one done in person, they actually scored lower, you know. So that could tell you like maybe they clicked the right button on the computer assessment and got it right. Maybe, you know, they looked over at their neighbors and saw their neighbor chose A, and so they chose A. You know, there are so many things that computerized assessments can't tell us the way that a face-to-face one-on-one assessment can. And so, um, yeah, so we were getting some of that feedback from their teacher. And and then um, like I said, it it literally almost broke me when I s with the um the spelling words. Um fast forward to the second semester of first grade, and uh my child was receiving intervention, reading intervention at school specifically to work on like letter sounds, what we call phonics. Um and I asked for, I knew that my child was receiving intervention. I asked to see the data, um, which is every like couple weeks, hopefully it's every week or every other week, um, they are administering an assessment to see if the child is progressing right towards the goal that they have set, trying to get them closer to grade level. And um I asked to see that that data because that's something I'm very comfortable with looking at, and it was like a flat line, right? And I said, rhetro, um, because I knew then that um whatever they were doing in this intervention was not being effective. And I knew that I don't really have any control over that, but I do have control over what we do at home. And even as an educator, I didn't know what to do with her. So I want to make that clear. Like I could pinpoint that something was wrong. I still didn't know what to do. And that's where I had to, you know, use my phone a friend and call people that I knew would know what to do. And so I had um a friend come over and do some um more assessment with her, just some like really basic one-minute timed assessment so that I had some like good hard data. And she also happens to be very diagnostic, and so she was able to say, Yeah, there's definitely something going on here. Um and then we developed uh an intervention plan, and I called another friend who is a very skilled teacher with background in special education, and I said, Could you use a certain program called Reading Mastery? It's a direct instruction program that explicitly, very explicitly teaches kids how to read. Um and she said yeah, and so and I knew she would be very consistent, and so we set up that schedule and immediately put that into um effect in February. And we let that go for a few months until the summer, and then that's when I she was making progress, but at that point I had a plethora of data to say we I had reason to believe that there was a learning disability. And so that's why we had her had my child evaluated over the summer. Um so that kind of is like what got us there. But I just want to recognize that um there's a lot of privilege in what I just said, right? I have friends that I could call for support that knew exactly what to do and came at a moment's notice. I have, you know, the financial means to pay someone to privately tutor my kid with a specific program that I know is research-based and works. Um, and so like I recognize that that's not the case for a lot of people. Um, and so hopefully we can talk about some things you can do as a parent if you don't have access, if you don't have the financial means, or you don't have the resources personally for that, there are some other things that you can do to get your child the help that they need.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and just to kind of point out a few other things, I think that whenever, you know, our educational background can serve as blinders a lot of times to what we see happening around us, even within our own selves as well as our kids. And, you know, even me being a clinical or health psychologist, I don't mess with itty-biddies. I don't mess with kids. You know what I mean? That's not my area of expertise. And so I don't know what to do whenever something starts to go wrong within the elementary age range. Adolescence, I'm let's go. You know what I mean? We can kind of continue on. But even at that point, I don't think it's our job as parents to also be our kids' shrink or psychologist, school psychologist, or anything else. It does add a tool which can help to get them assistance. Um, but that's not our job in the moment. And I'd also say this as a kid that grew up dyslexic with having having if you're having problems spelling, you should be like, oh, Sarah, that's right. This is what's happening. My husband actually has today. Um, and he actually has on his phone an app that says like Sarah's vocabulary. So with that, we also mispronounce words, and and um, that's why I even say different words several times on here. That is like all of these words that I say that are not phonetically correct, that I still have a very difficult time saying today. But whenever I say them, he can go back to his list and see what the real word supposedly is. Um, but your parents reading to you every day does not prevent you from having something like this. I assure you that, you know, Jan and Rick, who are avid, avid readers, um, read to me at nauseum, you know, every day, every night, wanting this to be the case. My grandmother was a math teacher. She, you know, I worked with her a lot to try to help out. But just that type of exposure and repetition doesn't necessarily help with something like this. It's not preventative, let's put it that way. And so they could have moved all different kinds of mountains, but it wouldn't have necessarily changed the outcome.
SPEAKER_01:Right. And kids can be low performing for multiple reasons. And I think that as a school site that worked in a very high poverty uh area, that was the hardest thing. It was like, is this kid underperforming because they've had no exposure and you know, very little language and uh have never been read to? Like, is it more of a product of the environment? Because that's different, right? Um than a kid who, you know, has a specific learning disability where there's actually a very specific way that kids process language and where they process the language in their brain. Neurotypical kid processes language in a different part of the brain than a kid that does have dyslexia. Um, that a kid with dyslexia, let's say like an eight-year-old with dyslexia, they're processing language in the same part that a non-reader, an early kid, a young, very young child would be processing language. And that would be normal for a three or four-year-old to process language in their prefrontal cortex. Not normal for an eight-year-old that's had instruction in reading. That's the difference, right? And I don't even like that word normal because you know, I do think that dyslexia is a superpower in some ways. And um there's a lot of other, there's a lot of other um gifts or whatever you want to call them that that people with dyslexia have. Yes, it's going to make school very difficult, at least without remediation, or until you can get to a point where you can learn to read. Um, but I mean, you're a perfect example of that, Sarah. You still went on to get your doctorate. Like you still, you it didn't hold you back so much that you couldn't achieve your goals. And that's because you had the resources and the remediation that was necessary to teach you to read, which is all the ultimate goal, right? A lot of people think that it's like, you know, seeing letters backwards. Well, that's true for a lot of kids to flip letters or, you know, I definitely my child does that. Um, to transpose, thank you, transpose letters, but that's not like the marker for it. Um there's a it's really it's a lot more involved in that, and that's why it can be a little difficult sometimes for for people to pick up on it. Um but however, I think what you said is so poignant in that I didn't need to be her teacher and I didn't need to be her school psychologist, which is why I hired people to do these things. Because turns out, not good at it. Not good at being, you know, I could advocate for my kid, but I don't know how to teach her. Or I didn't, you know, like that wasn't working. That dynamic was not working for either one of us. And that was hard too. That was a hard pill to swallow, quite honestly. Yeah. Because you can teach another person's kid, right? And I and I can be um empathetic and really kind to other people's kids. You know, I would have never said that to a kid that I was working with. But that, you know, that's just part of like something I've had to come to terms with. It's like I didn't want her to have to, I didn't want her to have dyslexia or anything else for that ADHD. I didn't want those things for her and that it was easier to be like, well, you're just not trying hard enough, instead of recognizing, like, well, no, maybe there is something here.
SPEAKER_02:But that happens to all of us. But I think that's I think that's our first go-to just as parents, is to um place whatever observation we're having on effort. You know, they're not there's not putting a lot of effort or there's not enough motivation, or you're not trying hard enough, paying enough attention to what's happening. And I mean, that's everybody, you know. Me even today, if I'm trying to do something and somebody says, well, you just need to try harder, uh, that's where I'm like, oh, oh, okay. Um, right. You know, here we are. Um, but that's not necessarily the case, but it's our automatic default. And so we just have to be for self-forgiving of in those cases whenever we find that to be the first place we go to, especially as parents whenever it comes to our own kids. Because again, I'm not looking at my kids with the eye of, well, we're going to go ahead and just, you know, you seem to be a little mute today. Let's go ahead and do a little evaluation to see if you're meeting any criteria for X, Y, and Z.
SPEAKER_01:Right. You don't want to jump to that. You want to kind of like make sure it's not just motivation or make sure it's not just lack of, you know, lack of being read to, all those things. You know, I got two kids, opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of their reading ability. One is state identified, gifted, and talented, one is identified with a learning disability. They had the exact same, they had the exact same breast milk, they had the exact same nurturing and upbringing and preschool experiences for the most part. Um so it really just goes to show that how different kids are and that sometimes like that can that can clue you in too when something is just not coming along the way that you know that it should. Right. I knew in my gut like something was not where it needed to be for reading. Yeah. Um and writing. Because you if you can't read, you can't write, let's be honest. And uh you know, so yeah, it was just it just took me a minute to come around to okay, this is like really something we have to do something about. And early intervention is key, and I knew that. And so that's why I was like, I'm not waiting, I'm not knocking the school, but I'm also not waiting on the school. We're gonna we're gonna start right now and figure it out. Because they got 800 other kids to to to consider.
SPEAKER_02:And if you get the opportunity as a parent to identify that your child is learning in an alternative manner or that um, you know, they just might need a little bit of assistance, the sooner you can get that intervention, the better, because you know, you the child at some point can run the risk of not feeling good about themselves, not smart, you know. Um like they're de it can really take some effects on a self-esteem from that happening. Um just like within the home, it's like you feel dumb or you feel stupid, or you, you know, you have to, whenever I was a kid, um, oh, and I mean it some schools even still do it. Like you get pulled out for like a special class, you know, so you'd have to leave your peers and things like that to go, which was a great idea because it was a smaller environment, this, that, and the other. But then again, you're still being taken away from the general environment. Um, and that's a lot to kind of process as a kid if you don't have guidance as to how to kind of like talk about this with your kids whenever they are receiving some type of intervention. And I think that is important too. Anytime your kid is receiving some type of intervention, we have to equip them with some type of skill set in order to frame this in a healthy way, and then also how they communicate that to other people, you know, in a way that is uplifting, that's positive, but that's also reflective. Because if we just leave this up to our kids to, again, make the case for themselves, they don't have the context or the cognitive skills or the emotional skills to do so. And then we're just kind of leaving them hanging. And so I think it's real important if you're listening to this as a parent, if your child receives any type of intervention, um, again, medical or otherwise, that we equip them with the skills to be able to talk about it with others in a healthy conceptual frame that's developmentally appropriate for them to have a good view of themselves along with that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head with that, Sarah. I'm so glad that you shared that because that was my biggest fear was like, how do I explain this to my kid? And I have a close personal, another close personal friend with learning disability. I asked her, like, you know, how what was your experience like growing up? And she was like, you know, I was in so much tutoring. She was like, I definitely felt dumb. And she was like, part of it was the way her parents talked, spoke to her and about her. And so that really solidified in my mind, okay, we have to give her the language to be able to describe this, to discuss it, and to help her understand that this doesn't make her any less than anyone else. And so a big part of that is being able to describe, okay, what is dyslexia? What does that mean? Uh, and this is why we went through all of this extra, you know, testing this summer, and so that we could put a good plan together that was going to help you at school. And and I purposely involved my child in that discussion. And what do you think would help you at school? And they were pretty insightful with what they came back with. And she said, Mom, sometimes I just need her to like explain it a different way. Very insightful, right? Um, but something that she needs. And I could totally see that just based on how things go here. A lot of times I'll have to like stop and be like, you know, explain to my husband what she's saying is, or I'll, you know, she would misinterpret something her daddy might say, and I would say what he means is. You know, so it's just it's those like really nuanced types of things that that are so helpful for kids. Um and then I, you know, I happen to also be taking a reading course right now, and um, it has a lot about like brain development and and how kids learn to read. And so I've I'm able to show her things like brain scans of kids with dyslexia and kids that don't have dyslexia and how that changes when you have the right help and remediation. I'm like, so every time you go work with Miss Michelle or or this person at school, that's your brain is actually changing. Like, how cool is that? Um, and and that sense of empowerment of like instead of like, oh, I have to do so much more than everybody else, like, why doesn't everybody else have to do it? No, like you you're like changing your brain, you know, like so cool. Um and she's really handled it super well. Like she'll say things, you know, like, well, you know, well, he doesn't have dyslexia, but that's okay. You know, like so. I mean, like she she really does, I think, grasp um what it is, and that definitely she she's a smart little girl. I've got the cognitive test to prove it. Um you know, like she she is. She's she's very smart, way better visual spatial skills than I'll ever have in my life. Um, you know, she get very artistic, funnier than I'll ever be, like so many other skills. And that's what I think is so important is that you focus on what they're really, really good at, and then I'm really careful to reward effort and not outcome. You know, I don't really care how she does on the spelling test. I don't, we practice them every single night, but what I care most about is the effort that she puts in. And so that's a big one for us as we constantly I love how hard you try at that, you know. I don't really care if she gets 10 out of 10 or 9 out of 10. I care that she tries. Um that her effort's good. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and that's and that's a big reward that comes away from that for her and for everybody involved, because then the fights that used to take place or the aggravation isn't that it's all based on reward and feeling good and positivity and growth, all the things that you kind of want to have happen in that. And I'd say too, you know, just because you have like, I mean, it probably goes without saying a learning disability does not mean that you're not smart or that you can't do things, you know, because I think that anytime I don't even like the word disability. Um, you know, technically I have a medical one too. Um now I will pull that card every now and then. Um, but um, why not? But I will, I mean, it doesn't mean that there's an inability to do things, it just means that you do things differently and there's not a block for it. So, right, my teachers could have easily said, Well, you don't need to be taking AP or honors classes. I remember whenever I was um growing up, my dad would literally read aloud every single one of my humanities books, and you were in humanities classes too, so you remember how many there were, um, or my AP honors classes, all of that stuff like was read aloud to me, and I am in high school. And while I'm sitting there taking handwritten notes or draw, you know what I mean, writing out what I'm hearing uh be said, because if I were to sit there and do it, I don't think that I would have been able to do it on the time frame that was given. Um, not in that kind of context for sure. So especially after the point where interventions quit, and then you're just kind of left to like flounder on your own. And that was where that was really key in helping to um develop those other areas. I mean, was I still he can't read aloud math problems to me, so that was always still an issue. Um, but you know, we made it. Uh but the other things worked out better for the most part.
SPEAKER_01:But there's a lot of things that we can do to help support and give kids tools. And I think that's where like coming back to the school, like your parent, what can you do? First thing you can do is say, okay, what is available at the school? Like I obviously you're telling me over and over again, my kids are not where they need to be. What are some things that the school can provide? Is there an intervention program? If they're receiving it, can you share their data with me? And and, you know, so the parent can also see and sort of take things into their own hands, you know, whether that's seeking like an outside evaluation or request, you know, requesting an evaluation from the school. That's something that a parent has a right to do. You know, certainly when I got that graph and I saw a flat line, I could have easily requested an evaluation. I had reason to suspect a disability right then and there. However, like I said, I've been on the other side of that table. And I there are there are so many things that go into that. Um, and I wasn't willing to wait. And I knew I knew what to do. And so, you know, for some, for some people, like if you don't know what to do, I would say absolutely start with your school, advocate for your kid. You're telling me they're not where they need to be, you're showing me this data that says they're not making progress. What's the next step? Can we do some further evaluation so that we can get some early intervention into place? Um, and that that may be special education, it may not, you know. Um it may be things like 504 or a tutor. What you have to decide that as a parent, what's best for you and and for your kid. Um I wanted a specific the reason I chose not to pursue special education is I wanted a specific program to be used. And I don't have any say over that, what the school uses, but I do have say over what my tutor uses, the person I'm paying. And so that's why we decided to go that route. Would she have done just as well if I would have requested, you know, special education? Maybe. I'll never know. But I thought I I think I knew better, and I've got enough people that I could that I could turn to to kind of guide me in the the pieces that I didn't know. Um and this goes for math because math is a whole nother animal. Um this goes for behavior, you know, all of these things, you know, just whatever I'm saying in terms of reading, apply that to math, writing, you know, behavior, same thing, right? You can ask, okay, what supports are available for my kid that's having learning challenges due to their behavior? What can the school do? Um, and the more we can work together instead of like pitting against each other, well, the school failed them or they didn't do this, or they're, you know, no, how can we come together because we all want this child to succeed? Um and I truly felt that way, you know. I you know, I was able to take an evaluation report, say this is what we're doing, this is what I am requesting, but open to a conversation here. Um Um so you know it really is about being collaborative and on the same team, regardless of how you get there. At the end result, you're the same team working for the greater good of your kid. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And I think it's important what you said earlier too, that um to include your child as part of that team. You know, as much as that is developmentally appropriate and that, you know, again, in terms of if you want a person's buy-in, involve them. Um, let them feel a part of the process. Um, even if they say something that's silly, like I would have probably said, you know, what do you think would help you better in math class? Not going to math class, not having to learn fractions would be fantastic. And also, let's not put letters in with numbers. That would also be great. Um but whenever that's not anything.
SPEAKER_01:It's still information.
SPEAKER_02:It is. That should be an alert almost to parents, like this is that significant of an issue that they just don't want to do it at all. So don't just see that as, you know, now a lack of motivation and behavior with it. This is just that significant of an issue that there's just total want of avoidance. Um, but use that, find other ways to make it fun or creative, or, you know, help them wrap around the idea that this is still going to be important and we're still gonna do it. We're just gonna find a way that's gonna work best for you so that way it's not gonna be as big of an issue. And including your kid on that process is just really as much as what's able to is really important, not to the where the point, though, that it enables them or does not allow them to kind of grow and do things.
SPEAKER_01:So no, I don't think that we should try to avoid, you know, you know, we can't be like, well, okay, reading's hard for you, so we'll just have everything read to you. Well, no, you still need to learn to read. Like as you get older, yes, that might be an accommodation that we put into place when you're in high school and you're taking honors courses. Sure. But right now, you have to learn to read. So we are not going to remove that because it is a challenge. I I strongly feel that we equip our kids with the skills to move through the challenge and we support them and we reteach, you know, all of those things. Like that truly is how we help kids overcome learning challenges and behavior. Right. While we're on that note, right. Behavior often will kind of clue us in. If you had a kid that typically doesn't misbehave and and they're struggling at something academically and they're starting to misbehave, a lot of times that's another clue to you that's something's going on, right? Because I'll do anything to avoid fractions. I'll do anything to avoid, oh, you want me to read in front of the class? I am going to act a fool. So you send me out of this class so I don't have to read in front of that class. Because I would much rather say face and be the bad kid or whatever by getting sent out of class than having to sit in here and show my entire class I don't know how to read. Yeah. You know, so behavior is is always communicating something to us. It is, it's never just, oh, they're just bad. Nope. That's not the case. It's telling you something. Um, it can just be a challenge sometimes to figure out what that something is. You know, we can do another if you want more information on special education and 504 plans, if that's something of interest, like send us a text. Um, go to our website, lilesspodcast.com, go to our Facebook or Instagram and and message us and let us know if that's if this is a topic you want us to further discuss. We could get Susan, Dr. Thomas, back on the show because she literally lives and breathes this. And she is my go-to for all things. I mean, she's the one I called when we couldn't learn spell, you know. It's like something's wrong. I need you. And uh, you know, she's taught thousands of children with dyslexia to read. And so I knew she would know what to do. Oh, so yeah, this is something I'm very passionate about, is certainly ignited a new fire under me as a parent and um as a school psychologist, but also just wanting to learn more about what to do, not just identify it, but then what do you do once your child is identified as having some sort of disability? And it goes without saying if your child has suspected like autism, cognitive impairment, hearing impairment, like you don't delay, you don't ever delay evaluation, but those types of things, those are like automatic evaluations. So learning disability is a little bit trickier and a lot of times doesn't surface like you know, it's not something super obvious, I'll say that. Right. Until they start to receive instruction and assessment. That's why we do so much testing in schools, because that's how we figure out if there's a problem. There are plenty of people at a school that can explain that to you if you don't understand. And most people don't. If you don't live and breathe this, you probably don't know what this stuff is, and I get that. Um so don't be afraid to ask. Nobody expects parents to know this. No.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no. Most professionals don't know it unless you're in this tiny niche of people. Uh, and then you might. So there it is.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I hope that um there was some sort of I don't know if I imparted any wisdom there, but anyway, thanks for letting me share that. Check us out on our social media, check us out on our website. You can always catch us at thelaspodcast.com. And uh until next week, y'all. Lilas, me out.
