Ideasicle Expert Profile: Lisa Taylor And Learning To Read
Lisa Taylor (Taylor Writing) has been an Ideasicle Expert since nearly the beginning. She is a writer by trade, but a mom when not trading words. Evidently, a very good mom. Her son had a learning disability and Lisa, naturally, had a big idea to help not only her son, but other families dealing with this same disability. Best if Lisa tells you the rest.
My 13-year-old son is dyslexic. My family’s journey to supporting him has been complex to put it mildly. This post is not directly about him, it’s about an IDEA. Also note that “IDEA” refers to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a law that supports the free appropriate public education of children with disabilities.
For me, the experience of having a young dyslexic child created an IDEA in an Ideasicle X sense.
You see, with a child’s confirmed dyslexia diagnosis comes a steep learning curve that includes medical info (dyslexia is a medical condition affecting 1 in 5 people), laws, classroom methods, neurological science, social/emotional awareness, and terminology — oh, the terminology. It’s layered. That’s why there is an entire industry of professional special education advocates and lawyers out there helping families navigate the process.
You might think, “but we’ve got laws; all is good!” It doesn’t quite work that way. Today, successful student outcomes directly rely on individual family advocacy. These efforts take years of time, collaborative communication, and personal organization: three things in which people with dyslexia often lack skills.
Big, brilliant, creative thinking? Yes, dyslexic kids have that. Organized communication follow-through? Not so much. But that’s the thing. Dyslexia is genetic. There are countless parents actively navigating the special education process, and an untold number have dyslexia themselves.
IDEA: Let’s simplify for all!
It’s common for professional copywriters like me to immerse themselves into subjects they learn and write about. We become “accidental experts.“ We take complex information and distill it down one way or another.
Years after my son’s diagnosis, mid-pandemic, I was often on Facebook boards seeing the same emotionally-laden questions asked over and over by others. And I found myself directing people to the same resources over and over. So I thought, “why am I repeating myself? Someone should make a website.”
That someone became me.
I created Dyslexia Now What to be a resource hub for positive momentum. Mission: to make discovering and referencing fact-based information on dyslexia easier.
The effort is a work in progress, but so are most websites. It’s like an idea posted on the Ideasicle X platform. The site deserves to be out there, given a chance to solve an identified problem. With additional time and collaboration, Dyslexia Now What has the potential to go further.
Reading is a basic human need within society. We can do better giving children (all children) better access to it.
Nothing is unthinkable.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then Lisa is one hell of a mother. She had a problem, she researched it, she thought about it, and then she applied her amazing talents to help solve it. Not only for herself and her child but for anyone facing it. That is how Lisa works and thinks.
Imagine what she would do if you recruited her for your next Ideasicle X project.
Nothing is unthinkable.
Click here to learn about all of our Ideasicle Experts.
Will Burns is the Founder & CEO of Ideasicle X. Follow him on Twitter @WillOBurns.