Laura, thank you so much for having me. It’s a great opportunity to, first of all, connect with you because you do such wonderful things, and also to be able to share with other parents some of the things that I’ve experienced in working with individuals that don’t fit the box, the traditional box that our public education system provides them with. I thank you again for letting me share my passion with your audience.

I’m very grateful. Honestly, when we talk about normalizing learning differences, I feel like this is a really important topic because our school system is set up in such a way that it’s more of an industrial … I know they make efforts but you have to fit the box in order to feel like you fit in. Yet, we have such brilliant and beautiful people who are looking for education and looking to really live into their own passions, so the work you do of course is extremely exciting and I’m so excited to share some of the tips and tools that you may have for our parents today. Let’s start the conversation and ask the question that I always ask, which is, what is your Momma superpower?

My Momma superpower. With my own kids and with the numerous, numerous kids that I’ve worked with over the years, I’ve been blessed with both those experiences, I really feel that recognizing differences, the individual differences in people is one of my superpowers; not only recognizing those differences but encouraging the individuals to take those differences and recognize them as being special to them and use them to develop the life that they choose to live.

Again, you had mentioned not fitting the box of public education. Unfortunately, that’s where a lot of kids start to feel different and that’s looked at as a negative. I have really tried to encourage students or individuals to look at that as a blessing, look at that as something to run with because those differences are what makes them unique.

Then we also have a lot of similarities. There are things that we do every day that are similar to the kid sitting next to us in school, and that’s okay too. I think it’s good to know that we do have those connections but they should not identify us, it’s the differences that need to identify us as individuals. That’s what I think my superpower is and that’s what I try to encourage with my own children also, not just my students.

Well, that is beautiful. That is such a big component because, before we got on this interview we were speaking a little bit into how labels can really, they can be so helpful in certain ways. However, those labels also become negative, right? They become, “My child has autism,” or, “Oh, my child has ADHD,” and there’s a lot to unpack when you have that kind of labeling and to really get to the core of the person. Right?

Absolutely because, again, back to the differences. An individual with ADHD … Which I have been diagnosed with ADHD as has, actually, my son, and his ADHD, and my ADHD, and little Joey or Susie’s ADHD, are not the same ADHD. They still need to pay attention to, or parents need to encourage them, to explore those differences, the strengths that they have, the interests they have as an individual, not as a label. Labels can be, they can really discourage growth because a lot of times also if someone hears that label they automatically think something about that individual which may not be the case.

A lot of ADHD kids are perfectly capable to sit in their seats and work for 45 minutes, where another young lady or young man might not be able to sit for five minutes. To have a label, be an identifier, can really be a dangerous thing. We need to really look at those individual differences that each person has.