In extra curricular activities I have to explain her disabilities in order to have her participate. She can't read or do crafts or run as well as other kids her age. But she is sweet and kind and hardworking. It doesn't stop many adults from treating her as "the little special Ed kid who should just be happy to participate."
My only sibling recently passed away and in one of our last conversations I received a lecture about how "there is nothing wrong with Dd." "The neuropsych report was wrong." "Kids just develop at different rates." The entire situation was just the result of bad parenting - we didn't hold DD to appropriate standards. We have also been told by others that "you should be ashamed of yourselves as parents" and "the only thing she is 'gifted' at is getting out of doing her work." Some are convinced she is gifted but the LD issues don't exist. Others see only the deficits and think the whole high level comprehension is a joke...
Not a lot of good idea's but sympathy. Many people including relatives see the problems I'm having with my son as defiance or misbehaving because of bad parenting. It is very unhelpful and can make a bad situation worse.
Do you have to describe her disabilities for her extra curricular activities? I know this depends on how noticeable or severe these problems are. My older DD who has LD's is sweet, hard and hardworking as well. She didn't read/process as fast as her peers and had two left feet left over from gross motor delays as a toddler. I usually wouldn't mention it for extra-curriculars unless it was brought up by the adults in charge or because an issue with the other kids. All kids have a huge variation as to what they can do and it often helped to not give these adults preconceptions about what she could or couldn't do. It gave her a change to feel normal.
