Just not right…. May 18, 2007
Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise , 3 commentsI apparently screwed up big time yesterday. I think. Not sure still.
We have signed Soleil up for Hebrew school on Thursdays. Now here’s our logic. She has afterschool programs Tuesday-Friday. Instead of 4 days a week, we can drop it to 3 days a week. On Thursdays, Jay will head home early and pick her up and take her to Temple. Then they will go home together and get dinner ready. She will need to start Hebrew school anyway and Thursday instead of afterschool is better than taking away 2 hours on Sunday. You know mom the kid needs her sleep!
On the application form, I added that she is bright, but has a lower than age appropriate attention span. And she does. The girl derails her train of thought faster than anyone I know, except me. That’s where I know she is okay. I can follow her thoughts. She can go from talking about airplanes to "Mom, Why did the Elephant buy things?" While Jay is getting mental whiplash, I am following that she suddenly thought of the Master card ad where the elephant uses a proximity system to buy items for his caretaker, who is ill.
The school called me to ask about this. When speaking to the woman, I felt extremely, un PC
Woman: So, is this YOUR observation at home, or something that her preschool sees?
Me: Both, we see it at home and her teachers find this the only area that she is behind her peers in.
Woman: Have you had her PROPERLY evaluated?
Me: Um, I don’t know what you mean, but we haven’t called early intervention or anything.
Woman: So this is an informal disability.
Me: I don’t believe she has a learning disability. She is bright, she just has difficulty paying attention. She thinks too fast and jumps from thought to thought. This can be disruptive to other students and I thought you should know that.
Woman: Mrs. Spacemom, I must take the time to educate you. A "Bright" child can still have learning disabilities. Learning disabled has nothing to do with intelligence and developmental delays are not indicative of a deficit in intelligence. I am SURE (said with a snarl) your daughter is quite bright, but she still needs to be PROPERLY evaluated to determine if she has a learning disability. Why don’t we wait and see how she can handle the class. We may need to call someone in for an evaluation.
Me: Uh, sure.
In truth, I was extending my third finger thinking "Talk to Tall Man lady!"
UGH!!
Okay, granted, she is 100% correct, a learning disability is not a sign of intelligence. But then again, a label is just a label. Do we have to be so damn correct on everything?
Listen, Soleil is bright. But she doesn’t think the way others do. Except maybe me. I see how she thinks and I follow her perfectly and I get it. But it’s not a learning disability. And I wasn’t trying to say "she’s too smart for a learning disability" What I am trying to say is "It’s hard for her to slow down and we are working on teaching her that. You should know about it to understand why she is so mentally bouncy"
Sometimes I just don’t say the right things and that just pisses me off..
