I love Susan Barton!

This morning I drove down to south Denver to attend a session at a conference for Colorado teachers on reading and literacy. Susan Barton was speaking. Susan Barton's website about dyslexia was the one I stumbled across when Adrian was in kindergarten. I love her. She is an evangelist for taking action with dyslexic kids and adults. The specialist I took Adrian to for testing trained with Susan.

Some of you know Adrian and are interested. Some of you may just want to watch part of it - if you know any kids that sound like this at all, you might want to pass the word along. If you have a child you suspect has dyslexia, I highly recommend watching the entire talk. Below is a link to her giving the exact talk that I saw her give today.

Go here and click on "Dyslexia Symptoms and Solutions".

www.webcastgroup.com/client/start.asp?wid=0680831062670&auto=true

I stayed after her talk today for a little while and listened to her talk a little bit about recent research that has been done on finding the gene for this. There's a link between that gene and the one next to it, which is related to immune system functions. They are thinking that is why so many dyslexic kids have recurrent ear infections. (Or, chronic hives like Adrian did!). It's exciting that they are learning so much.

I was debating not going. I am so tired, and this morning it was very tempting to stay home. The conference was about 45 minutes away, and it was another very cold Colorado morning. Adrian came in to my room to just play with some toys when he got up. And I realized, of course I'm going. I'm going for him. Of course, I also went for me, but I always need some kind of extra-motivation to get the hell out of bed.

When I walked into the session room this morning and saw her, my eyes filled with tears. I knew I was supposed to be there, and I was just overcome when I saw the room packed with people. I didn't know what to expect, and it was a very welcoming crowd. Mostly teachers, some parents. Susan is a rock star to those of us with these kids.

When I left, I felt confirmed that I was on the right track with Adrian. I ordered her phase 1 tutoring kit when I got home. I've been thinking of ordering it for 2 years!! I didn't believe in myself enough. I wasn't sure that I could really tutor him. But after listening to her today, I feel like I can. I've lost some time, but I think I'm getting in just in time to help Adrian before he really "hits the wall", as she says.