Finally: a few compensation details for LDD parents

In a previous post, I lamented the dearth of details for parents seeking to teach their LDD kids how to compensate for their various learning "quirks". The other day, I received the print version of an article titled "Cognitive Outlaws" from Psychology Today Magazine that details how four successful people compensate for their learning differences every day. This truncated version will probably only interest those with a kiddo with crossed circuits but even that's worthwhile. More later on this.....

I found this passage particularly interesting because it seems to describe Kid 2 most closely: "it's the detours that contribute to the rich landscape of creativity and dot-connecting that so often mark the entrepreneur, the innovator, and the creative." Yup, Kid 2 is definitely comfortable with detours. He regularly tells me how during the school day, the teacher was talking about something dull but instead of struggling to listen, he designed-in his head- a new creature for the game level he's building at home.

I suppose I could say "that's terrible, you have to concentrate on what Mr. A is teaching!" but it wouldn't do any good, so I don't. My best friend, who is a brilliant lawyer currently focused on raising equally brilliant kids really can't grasp why I don't just push Kid 2's nose to the grindstone until "he gets it". But I know that what he'd only get is frustrated, discouraged and depressed. And it's not worth it. Yup, Kid 2 isn't going to Harvard--the dream of every parent in the success-obsessed Westchester burg we live in--but in truth: 99.9% of his peers aren't getting in either.

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