I sat across the table from Dawn, a wide-eyed eight-year-old girl in pigtails, bracing myself to tell her the news.
I have told students they have a learning disability hundreds of times over my 20 years as a school psychologist. But there was something about her earnest and expectant face that made me pause.
Was giving her an official label going to make her feel stigmatized and defeated?
Would the benefits of having access to more specialized services outweigh the cost to her academic self-esteem?
I carefully explained how her brain worked with a visual aid of her brain in pictures. I told her where she was strong and where she needed to do “brain pushups” to get stronger. And I told her that she had something called “dyslexia.”
And she jumped out of her chair, smiled ear to ear, screamed “YES!,” and did a move I’ve seen in sports celebrations many times—the signature victory arm pump.
Wait, what?