Hi Friends,
My name is Jacquelyn and I am so proud to announce the start of my website, MindsLikeMine. I am 18 years old and have been formally diagnosed with dyslexia and dyscalculia. I chose the name “MindsLikeMine” for my website because it embodies a sense of community. As a young child, I wanted to have people in my life who had minds like mine so that I could relate to them. However, as I bet you can imagine, many people don’t discuss their learning disabilities openly. I hope my website is relatable and can make people feel seen, heard, and included.
Here is my disability journey:
When I was in second grade, I had a learning disability evaluation done, at the request of my parents. The outcome of my evaluation was that I just had anxiety, which was already diagnosed. The school found me ineligible for special education. However, it was acknowledged that I had difficulties with directionality, spelling, reading, and writing. In hindsight, my anxiety was probably caused by my undiagnosed learning disabilities.
In third grade (age 9), I had a private neuropsychological evaluation, arranged by my parents. The neuropsychologist diagnosed me with dyslexia. The school accepted this evaluation. Halfway through third grade, I was put into special education under an IEP (Individualized Education Plan). Throughout fourth-ninth grade I was put into many reading programs… and never finished any of them! These included: Spire, Wilson, Read180, and another program that was not evidence-based. Some of my instruction was given by special education teachers. A large portion of my instruction and in-class support was completed by Ed Techs. While Ed Techs can be helpful, they are not as specifically trained as special education teachers.
Towards the very end of eighth grade, when I was 14 years old, my parents had me privately re-evaluated with the same neuropsychologist. This was due to the fact that my school hinted that I might lose the ability to stay in special education because of my “good grades”. After my mother relayed math concerns, this neuropsychologist found that I had an additional diagnosis of dyscalculia
Throughout my ninth grade summer vacation, I started private tutoring for reading support. Before I started tutoring, I was reading at the seventh grade level. The tutoring program used the Lindamood-Bell curriculum. I learned how to decode words, become more fluent with my reading and spelling, and develop symbol imagery. I spent a total of 170 hours tutoring during that time. My school continued the Lindamood-Bell instruction when I entered ninth grade.
During my tenth grade summer vacation, I repeated the process of tutoring, but did both math and reading. The math tutoring program was called “On Cloud 9” by Lindamood -Bell. Because of this, I was able to improve my mathematical reasoning and mathematical calculations. One of my proudest achievements during this time was giving the correct change to customers at my summer job. Previously, I had always had difficulties with understanding money.
Amid my sophomore year of high school, I accomplished reading a novel by myself and I comprehended it! In the years past, my parents had to read to me or I used an audiobook program called LearningAlly to complete all of my reading assignments.
In eleventh grade, I was finally given a recording device and continued my specially designed instruction which was a part of my IEP.
My social media journey began during the Covid-19 pandemic in freshman year of high school. I started my TikTok account @Jacquelyn_Elyse to share my disability story in hopes of finding a community in which I could relate.
In senior year of high school I had specially designed instruction and because of that I successfully made it through an Honors class. I had the appropriate accommodations. I am also proud to share that I made the National Honor Society junior and senior year! With the appropriate accommodations and taking classes that best suited my needs, I graduated with Honors.
In the fall of 2024 I will be a freshman in college.
Tutoring and my IEP specially designed instruction in math and reading, has not been “easy,” but it helped me learn many strategies that I could use in my daily life. I am so proud of myself for sticking with it and I highly encourage reading/math support.
