Jane Ross said it took a lot of time and energy to figure out why her son was struggling in elementary school.
“It took me three and a half years to figure out what was going on with my son, who was clearly a really bright and resourceful kid, but who was not doing well,” Ross said. “I got a lot of pushback. I was told, ‘Oh, you don’t want to go through the process of testing, it's so lengthy, it is very hard on a child, you don’t want him to be stigmatized.’”
Approximately 1 in 5 students in the United States has a learning disability, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities. And since her experience with her son, Ross has made it her mission to help other parents of children with learning disabilities.
Ross is founder and executive director of the Connecticut-based Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities. Her organization is hosting an event on Saturday, Feb. 11, at the Winston Preparatory School in Norwalk to give parents the tools they need to help their children succeed.
The event will feature a panel of speakers that includes special educational advocates, learning specialists, psychologists, attorneys and educators.
“Smart Kids with LD” works to help children with learning and attention differences by educating and empowering parents through education. The group explains to parents their children’s legal rights and how to navigate the processes to obtain accommodations and services from school districts. The organization believes that parents are their children’s most effective advocates and champions, not only in school but in the community.
In the 2020 to 2021 school year, 7.2 million kids, or 15% of all public school students ages 3 to 21, received special education services, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Among kids receiving special education services, the most common category of disability, at 33%, was a “specific learning disability.” In other words, a difficulty with the processes involved in understanding or using spoken or written language.
Unfortunately, schools don’t always identify these issues, or once identified they fail to provide the necessary accommodations a child needs to learn. Ross said parents are often left having to pay out of pocket for expensive evaluations or even lawyers to help navigate the sometimes complicated procedures associated with getting schools to provide special education services.
Ross said that was her experience.
“It wasn’t until I got an outside evaluation that I found out that my son, who had just turned 10, could not read,” Ross said. “I didn’t know that. The school didn’t find that out with their evaluation, which was done by a very competent school psychologist, but they just don’t press far enough to really get to the heart of what it is.”
Ross said that identifying what her son needed and getting him help paid off. She said her son is now a successful architect working at a major firm.
Ross said the experts coming together to speak at the parent conference on Saturday hope that all parents or family members who have a child that they think may need help will attend this event.
“This is a great opportunity for parents to come together to hear in one place from a number of terrific experts in their fields,” Ross said. “Parents need to know so much and the more they know the better, in order to provide help for their kids and to become effective advocates.”
The parent conference will take place this Saturday, Feb. 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Winston Preparatory School, 57 West Rocks Road in Norwalk. For more information, go to SmartKidsWithLD.org.
