During first grade DD developed migraines so we ended up doing a lot of neurological testing. It was amazing to me that every single doctor - both in patient and out patient - insisted on talking to us about all of this with her in the room. I would hand her my iPhone to play with but of course she still heard every word. After this instead of just saying "my hand hurts" while writing she would say "I have a fine motor deficit" or even "my fine motor deficit is making my hand hurt."
During second grade she has grasped that she is "crazy smart" (our words) and she "learns differently". When she recently missed a day of school to spend the day at the 2E school we are trying to get her placed at her friends asked where she had been. Apparently she said to them "Well, you know how I learn differently." "Oh yeah!" "Well my parents found a school for kids that learn the way that I need to learn." "Great!" (We told her to leave out the "crazy smart" part when talking to the other kids because they could interpret it as an insult. She got that 100% too.)
Interestingly as she started internalizing "I learn differently" more her headaches, stomach aches and other somatic complaints dramatically decreased.
