It’s time to tell our story. Our son Stapleton’s story.
Part 3: Where We Are Now
This school year started out wonderfully, but after the “honeymoon phase” quickly wore off, Stapleton was back to being awake all night, worrying about everything.
Our son is still being treated for anxiety, all because he was simply not taught to read in the first place.
Again, as parents, we felt like we had failed our child. His therapist said he developed (and still suffers from) PTSD from all that he has been through.
My son started complaining that he needed “sultimensory” to learn. It took me forever to figure out what he was saying, he needed multi-sensory!
I just can’t learn by sitting in front of a computer all day. I need to move around, use manipulatives and learn in different ways…
He began making up excuses not to go to school and acted out. One morning he took off before school started, hiding in the wooded area behind our house for a couple of hours. We took that as our sign that we couldn’t keep pushing forward anymore. Mentally, and as a family, we couldn’t take the stress. We aren’t blaming his teachers, our education system is simply not made for EVERYONE to succeed.
We pulled both kids out of public school and are homeschooling them for the time being.
See, my daughter also struggles in school. She has the opposite problem as my son. She can decode words, but she doesn’t comprehend what she has read. The school was sure to tell me she was on a second grade level in reading, but that she didn’t qualify for any “extra help.” We recently learned that She has a language processing deficit (which affects every subject), anxiety as well as ADD. She also started crying herself to sleep every night and dreading school every morning, complaining they didn’t teach in a way she can learn.
Having kids that do not fit “in the box” is hard.
I can’t even begin to tell you the stress we’ve been under for the past three years or how many sleepless nights we’ve had. The feeling of helplessness and having no idea what to do.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked myself, “How is this ever going to be okay?”
I can’t tell you the number of disappointments we’ve experienced and thought, “Is this how our kids feel all the time?”
…feeling like I can’t ever do anything right
…frustrated to the point of wanting to run away because no one sees or hears or helps me.
Then my heart breaks all over again not just for my kids, but for all the other kids that don’t “fit in the box” either and don’t get the help they desperately need and deserve.
I know there are many other stories identical to ours.
And there will be many more to come.
We’ve spent thousands of dollars on tutoring, diagnoses, therapy, counseling and medication. Looking back, we now see all the red flags and wish we had known how much he was struggling and the hardships we could have prevented. Our phrase has been “you don’t know, what you don’t know.” We know now more than we did and we want to help you.
All of that to say…
Through this overwhelming process, we have learned so much! Our mission is to save others the heartache we endured.
A lot of times just knowing that you are not alone; knowing that you aren’t the only person going through something and that you have so many things in common with complete strangers; can make the difference in your day.
There were many days when I thought, “How am I ever going to survive?”
Having support, especially when you are desperate, and a community that encourages and builds you up, makes all the Dyfference!
We believe everything happens for a reason. We have learned so much on our journey to helping Stapleton, and now it’s our turn to give back.
To learn about our Orton-Gillingham based tutoring modules, click here.
Our goal is for parents and teachers to have the necessary tools to help their children succeed.