Lois Letchford recounts her son Nicholas's struggle with dyslexia and school trauma, expressing regret at not pulling him out sooner. She urges parents to take dramatic action if a child is failing or showing signs of learning-related trauma.
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Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, author of the book Reversed: A Memoir and literacy problem solver. What do I wish I had done 25 years ago with my son Nicholas? I wish I had made better decisions for him and consequently for the family 25 years ago. I sent him to school knowing that he failed. The situation our family was in was that I had a 9-year-old, I had Nicholas at 5 and a half, and I had a younger son, Isaac, who was 3. Isaac was not sleeping through the night. I was tired and he was at home all the time. I felt if I had Nicholas at home, I needed to teach him one-on-one with no distractions from anyone. I didn't think of any other solutions. Today, I wished I had taken him out of school on day 6 when the teacher spoke to me and said, well, he can't do anything. I wish I had removed him from school and tried to sort it out some other way. Do anything other than let our children sit in the class and feel like they are dummies or they're stupid Or they cannot do anything. 'Cause my son came out with all of those labels and all of those feelings at the end of first grade. And they are not something that just disappear as success piles on. They remain. That experience remains and we cannot change it. That's my advice. If you have a child that is not doing well in school now and they are coming home and screaming at you, Or they're throwing chairs or something is going so dramatically wrong, let's stop and say, this cannot happen. Something dramatic has to change for my child to be successful in school. And let's work from there. It's something I wished I had done and I wished I'd been given this advice 25 years ago. Thank you. We're looking at when learning is trauma. Hit like. Hit subscribe and share this video with others whose children are struggling with reading. Thank you.
