Anxiety & Vision

So so many *things* have contributed to our daughter's anxiety.

Sometimes the list feels endless... but one thing that helps is consistency. Also, fighting and advocating relentlessly to finding answers, helps. And we had to fight to make people to listen, to obtain answers.

Two answers we fought hard to find this past year, was that on top of her severe anxiety, our daughter is dyslexic and can't see properly.

When we received the diagnosis of dyslexia... I cried. Ugly cried. They were tears of relief. An answer, another tool for our toolbox.

Then the eye exam, and learning that she can't see things up close, where things are spacially, and needs glasses and PT every day, for about the next year. A problem that can be corrected with time and PT, but a problem none-the-less.

Now, imagine having crippling anxiety, being dyslexic, AND not being able to see correctly.

Her eye doctor told her, he's never met a child her age (9), with these hurdles, that hadn't just "given up on school by now." #StrongGirl

We've seen #SchoolRefusal...an entirely different post.

So, before finding out all of these answers to questions we didn't know how to ask for, we didn't know what was going on, and she didn't know either. How could she?

Now imagine the added anxiety, with already low self-esteem, and her third teacher says to her, "you can't read, you can only read kindergarten books" out loud, in front of her peers (no disrespect to teachers, they're angels... but teacher's are also humans, and sometimes humans can be unkind). She still talks about that, nearly a year later, telling us "my teacher didn't 'believe' in me." These moments impact our Little Ones.

The rages we've seen, the school refusal we've battled, the third grade spelling words she'd bring home, like...T-H-A-T and W-H-A-T... confused us, because she's brilliant. Truly brilliant. But now we know...

Nothing changes. She's still brilliant, she just needs new tools and new learning strategies.

Pieces to the puzzle. 🧩 Tools to the toolbox. 🧰

Through it all, she perseveres. She overcomes, she grows, she learns, we learn, and she continues to teach us, what This Thing That Has A Name is... and That, THIS Thing, Can Be Tamed.

Special thanks to Ray-Ban for making her the cutest kid ever. The day she received them, the first thing she did, was put them on and pick up a book to read. 📖💕💫

#AnxietyAndVision #ThisJourney #TalkingToChildrenAboutFeelings #OneStepAtATime #AdvocateForYourChildren #LearningAsWeGo #Patience #ThisThingHasAName #Anxiey #ThisThingCanBeTamed