On the Invisible Needs of Special Students

By Suzanne Barehers

My son came home from school in tears today. It wasn't because a classmate tried te pick a fight or because he had been forgotten in a holiday gift exchange. He cried because his grades weren't good enough for the honor roll. Most 7th graders are delighted with 3 Bs, 1 B +, and 2 As, but not Josh he wanted te make the honor roll.

Two years after having a homemade son, we were delighted with the adoption of our perfect 2month-old son, Josh. He was bright and verbal, always curious about words. Books were a favorite diversion; when he was cranky he would say, "Mom, let's just read a book." Though he occasionally said words inside out, such as melon for lemon, we considered such mistakes simply a rather cute quirk and assumed he would do well in school.

Instead, the verbal problem translated into a true learning problem when he began school. Josh would read the middle of a word first--reading patting for tapping. In spite of advanced degrees in reading, I was baffled by his apparent disability. Like most middle-class parents, we did everything possible, including extensive testing, special glasses, and private schools. Tests only confirmed what we knew: He had an above-average intelligence and below-average achievement in reading and spelling....