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Book Review of It's So Much Work to Be Your Friend: Helping the Child with Learning Disabilities Find Social Success

reviewed a must-read for parents of kids with LD on


For the longest time, I insisted that my daughter had no social problems due to her dyslexia. Social problems were for kids that have ADHD or autism or other "more serious" labels. I could not have been more wrong. When she started struggling with community sports, I saw that her issues with visual-motor perception and sequencing were making it difficult for her to succeed. And her coaches saw her as LD - lazy and dumb. This book explains how these social problems are linked to learning disabilities and gives some specific ideas of things to try. It's more informative for me as a parent than it is a guidebook, however. I wish there were a bit more on how to talk with community people about LD issues. Teachers at least have some experience with dyslexia and are expected to accommodate, even if they don't, but the average lay person has no idea.

It's a great book and very comforting to the parent. It's not the end of the search for what to do, but it's a great (or even essential) place to start.