After listening to a college writing professor/published poet/song writer/musician speak at a poetry contest my son entered, I decided to write to him and I included a copy of my son's poem with some background about some difficult things my son was dealing with as a twice exceptional child with motor dysgraphia and dyspraxia and scoliosis, which made it difficult for him to fit in with kids his age. My son's poem didn't win, and the winner was a happy poem that sounded like it was written by a child. My son's poem sounded more like it was written by someone older. It was about a difficult journey, his journey to the place of his dreams. Some of the metaphor sounded like it was referring to difficulties he encountered as a twice exceptional child, like "as I slowly tire, like an animal caught on a tangled wire." He sometimes referred to his problems with motor dyspraxia and low muscle tone as having tangled wires. The "tangled wires" thing would happen sometimes in piano when he was tired or getting a migraine and it didn't seem to matter if he practiced or not. Sometimes he did better with no practice than he did when he had practiced a lot. I think if he didn't understand that he was twice exceptional, that it would be even harder to deal with. In his poem there was also a line that said "I was distraught, but I had a thought that I should try another way." With his disabilities he will have to find another way and I have no doubt that he will.
The professor wrote back about the poem and said my son did a beautiful job with his words. He said he didn't find out that he had an ld until he was older. He also said he never fit in--not in any grade, ever. He said the K through 12 state-run institution has never known what to do with students like him and quite possibly my son. He said they do not fit the mold and learn in very different ways.
The professor also said that creativity was the therapy that got him through his early years and encouraged my son to keep writing.
I also wrote to a woman who is a university graduate student doing research on pain management after seeing an article about her in the paper. She has pain from scoliosis and arthritis. She had to learn to focus on her work instead of the pain and my son is working on that. My son doesn't have ADD but pain does distract him and make it harder for him to concentrate on things like math and piano. He proved this year that he can make high grades in language arts even with his disabilities. He is also doing really well in musical theater and he gets lead roles now. My son has gifts and disabilities and he needs to know about all of it so he can learn to compensate for the disabilities but spend more time on the gifts so that he can be the best he can be.
I am finding smart, successful people with some of the same disabilities my son has. So far, the people I have talked to are very helpful and willing to share their stories with us and it is helping us get through a difficult time.
I think my son was better off knowing that he is twice exceptional, but I remember he was surprised that his dysgraphia was a learning disability when he felt he had never had any trouble learning anything, it was doing things (like handwriting) that he had trouble with. Now that we have the health issues, I think it is a little harder for him to learn because it is a distraction but I still think he would benefit by taking accelerated classes, especially in language arts. His writing composition teacher things he would do well next year in the high school class if we can find a way to manage the health issues.
