"The Sky's the Limit" 

Shawn and Stacey Simpson 

  

Shawn (00:00) 

My name is Shawn Simpson. I'm a father to two children, 14 and 12. Palmer is my son and my daughter is Haley, who also has dyslexia. 

  

Stacey (00:11) 

I'm Stacey Simpson, I'm Shawn's wife, and I am also a reading specialist. I work at a local school district in Connecticut. 

  

Shawn (00:20) 

I was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD when I was in first grade. My mother discovered that I was struggling academically, so I got to have another go around at first grade. But I went through the PPT process back then and was identified as being dyslexic and also having ADHD. So, I was in student services through fifth grade and I actually was exited going into middle school in sixth grade. 

  

I had an incredible special teacher when I was in elementary school, which certainly helped me out in immeasurable amounts. Also, I had very supportive parents, so my mother and father. My mom wasn't an educator, but she knew something was going on. And so, probably at that time period, I don't know that many people were diagnosed with dyslexia. She kind of pushed and pushed and got some outside evals and made sure that I got the supports that I need. I would say I still struggled academically. It was embarrassing as a kid, sometimes I get pulled out of mainstream classes to get extra supports. I think going, eighth grade and into high school is when I really realized I've always had a relationship with dyslexia, obviously and struggled, but I don't think I ever really understood why I struggled academically and learned things differently. It's not that I couldn't learn. It's just that I guess my path to gaining knowledge was different than everyone else. My freshman year, I think I really cracked the code.  

  

Again, dual diagnosis with ADHD and dyslexia. So, inattention is not great for me either. I was an athlete. Having the structure of athletic practices after school and not having time to get distracted too much really helped me. And, for as long as I can remember, I've always really thrived off of not wanting to fail or disappoint people. So that's always really motivated me, not just academically, but in all facets of my life. 

  

Stacey (02:09) 

I don't remember exactly when he told me he had dyslexia. It was probably once we were together for a little longer and it really didn't mean a whole lot because it didn't, it wasn't anything visible that I could see. I think for me, once we got serious and because I had the reading degree, I was an educator, I knew there was the genetic component. So for me, it was more of a worry of, you know, when we have children someday, there's a good chance that however many we have could have dyslexia. So just wanting to be prepared for that and making sure that we were looking and making sure we got them the help they needed just because if you don't catch students when they're pretty young, it's a little bit harder to catch them up once they struggle to learn how to read. 

  

Shawn (02:54) 

Are you angry with me for passing this gift down to our daughter? 

  

Stacey (02:58) 

No, not angry. I mean, it was a very stressful journey for our daughter. Sometimes I felt like I was in it alone, because Shawn wasn't, he's the admin, you know, just keeping everybody happy and wasn't going to ruffle feathers. And I was a little bit more like, okay, well, we're going to have to ruffle the feathers because she's not learning. So, I think I was more protective of we've got to do this and we've got to do it early.  

  

And so we started Haley's journey when she was in PreK trying to get her identified because she had so many of the red flags and so many markers. And it sort of fell on deaf ears. She was just too young.  

  

Shawn 

It’s frustrating, right. 

  

Stacey 

Which is what we were told. She's too young. We can't test. We've got to wait. 

  

Shawn (03:40) 

Also like, so two educators come to the table like, hey, we're recognizing this. And then, I have it, look at me, this was my struggle, but here's the, I guess, scientific or educated approach because you're an expert in the area. Like, having people not want to hear what you have to say about it was like, woah. 

  

Stacey (03:55) 

And just not necessarily being up on the newer laws and the research. And I found that frustrating because these were educators, just some of the myths we were hearing and we were told that it was a visual disability and just things that were no longer true. So it was a long journey, but she, she is awesome. She did great and she caught up and we got her what she needed probably when she, more first, second grade. So it took us a little while to get there, but that wasn't too late. 

  

Shawn (04:24) 

It's funny because I think it's awesome in many ways. You know, once you kind of figure out how to unlock your potential, because it doesn't mean you're not intelligent. You're just learning in different ways and not maybe the traditional ways in terms of reading and writing. So it's interesting and can be very frustrating to see my daughter's struggles and what she does in school. Very similar to how I did. It's really cool to see how well she's been doing because she has supports and a mom who goes to bat for her. 

  

Um, the other thing is I experienced it as an individual. So it's great that Stacey has that background because she gets the scientific piece of it. I'm having the training and the understanding of how the brain works, supports that are needed when they're needed, what's best in terms of instruction. It's twofold. Like it's the nice gift that I gave my daughter, right? But it's really cool because she's a super cool kid and has her own talents. 

  

Stacey (05:19) 

So, Shawn, I have taught a lot of students who have had reading disabilities throughout the years and really struggled. And I would always tell my students about my husband because he's been super successful. And I would tell them that just because you have a reading disability does not mean you will not be successful. So my question for you, Shawn, is what would you, I mean, you work in a district. You're a superintendent. You have tons of staff and students. So what would you want to tell those students or the teachers of those students? 

  

Shawn (05:52) 

I think so, just because someone is labeled as having dyslexia or any learning disability doesn't mean they're dumb or can't do it. So I think that's a label. And as an educator now in leadership roles, you see like, our scores aren't high because those are special ed kids or our scores aren't high because they come from a poor family. Like that's super frustrating to me because I think when you put a label on things, people put limits on things. So what I would say to… first off is to adults who are educating kids, there's many different ways. We all learn in different ways. There's many different ways to crack the code. So, just because someone has a label doesn't mean it's a limit. Your roles and educators try to help the individual unlock their potential. And that can come in a variety of different ways, obviously. And then what I tell kids, anybody, is you can do anything you put your mind to. My dad always said that to me. I think that's so true. It just might be harder for some people. But, if you are willing to put in the time and you have to have adults that are willing to put in the time to help you figure that out, the sky's the limit.