Empowering Your Special Needs Child: Hope, Tools & Support

Keywords

parenting, adult children, special needs, educational strategies, advocacy, learning disabilities, multi-sensory learning, success stories, self-care, diagnosis

Summary

In this episode of the ABCs of Parenting Adult Children, host James Moffitt speaks with Dr. Emily Levy about the unique challenges and strategies involved in parenting adult children with special needs. They discuss the evolution of educational strategies, the importance of advocacy, and the role of multi-sensory learning techniques. Dr. Levy shares success stories and emphasizes the importance of self-care for parents, as well as the need for proper diagnosis and support for children with learning disabilities.

Takeaways

Parents are their child's best advocates.
Educational strategies for special needs have evolved positively.
Multi-sensory learning techniques can significantly aid learning.
It's crucial for parents to empower their children towards independence.
Success stories can provide hope for parents of special needs children.
Self-care is essential for parents of children with special needs.
Understanding specific learning disabilities is key to providing support.
Advocacy in higher education settings is vital for student success.
Parents should seek available resources both in and out of school.
Every child has the potential to thrive with the right support.

Sound bites

"Every child has gifts and strengths."
"Taking care of oneself is so important."
"Don't just sit back, take action!"

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Parenting Adult Children
02:53 Understanding Special Needs and Educational Strategies
05:45 Advocacy in Higher Education for Special Needs
08:40 Multi-Sensory Learning Techniques
11:42 Navigating Challenges and Success Stories
14:53 Identifying Learning Disabilities
17:33 Final Thoughts and Resources

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Transcript

James Moffitt (00:01.083)
Hello and welcome to ABC's Parenting Adult Children podcast. My name is James Moffitt. Today we have a special guest, Dr. Emily Levy. Is it Levy or Levy? Levy. Okay. Dr. Levy or Emily, thank you for being here.

Emily Levy (00:11.116)
It's levy, but close enough.

Emily Levy (00:17.262)
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here today.

James Moffitt (00:20.153)
Yeah. So, do me a favor and introduce yourself to the listening audience.

Emily Levy (00:25.09)
be happy to. Well, as you said, my name is Dr. Emily Levy. I am the founder and director of EBL coaching, which is a one-on-one tutoring program that uses all research-based multisensory techniques to help students with specialized learning needs in grades pre-K through adult develop their core academic skills.

To date back a little bit, I actually grew up in the field of special education. My mother was the founder of a school for students with learning disabilities down in Florida, which is where I grew up. So I sort grew up in the field of special education and then later received my undergraduate degree from Brown University, my master's degree in special education, and then my doctorate degree in general education.

James Moffitt (01:12.559)
Wow, that's a lot of education.

Emily Levy (01:14.848)
It is a lot of education, but I love learning. What can I say?

James Moffitt (01:17.945)
Yeah. So you're a professional student,

Emily Levy (01:21.464)
Well, I was. It's been a long time since I've been in school, but for many, many years I was studying.

James Moffitt (01:27.237)
Well, I'm sure learning never ends, right?

Emily Levy (01:29.246)
Never ends, ever.

James Moffitt (01:31.451)
Yeah, interestingly enough, my wife's been a special ed teacher for the last 25 years. So you, she, you and she have that in common. So yeah, she loves it. So I want to read this paragraph off of your pod match profile and we kind of launch from there if you want. So it says, exploring effective educational strategies for young adults with special needs. Dr. Emily Levy.

Emily Levy (01:39.692)
We do, very gratifying.

James Moffitt (01:59.867)
can provide valuable insights on how parents can advocate for their children during pivotal development.

Emily Levy (02:07.79)
Mm-hmm.

James Moffitt (02:08.133)
development, developmental transitions, helping structure healthy boundaries and support for long-term educational success. Well, that word just threw me for a loop. My brain knew how to say it, but my tongue didn't know how to cooperate.

Emily Levy (02:18.946)
That's okay.

Emily Levy (02:23.416)
Happens all.

James Moffitt (02:27.249)
So anyway, we have a, we have had quite a few guests on our podcast that talk about neurodivergence, special needs, parents of special needs children. And we've had several guests that were actually special needs or neurodivergent themselves and have teenagers or young adults that are special needs as well.

so this is a, a, think this is an important topic. I don't know how many in our listening audience, have that need, but, but I'm sure that, they, if, if their family's not affected by it, they know somebody else that is right. So these podcasts episodes will be, hopefully a good, resource and a source of hope and life to them.

Emily Levy (03:24.046)
Absolutely, I think all of us know at least someone who has some type of special need. They're so prevalent. It's not a bad thing. It's just part of who we

James Moffitt (03:31.161)
Right. We're all human. We're all special. one of the, one of the, statements of, the HR in my previous employer, they had a customer service, customer service, training, right? So they said, their, their slogan was people of value serving people of value. Right. So, so people with special needs are people of value. Absolutely.

Emily Levy (04:00.462)
without a doubt, yes.

James Moffitt (04:01.711)
Yeah. so how have educational strategies evolved for young adults?

Emily Levy (04:10.19)
I think many years ago, there was much less identification of learning and attention, intentional challenges, less evaluations, less testing. And as a result, fewer strategies that really existed for how to help these kinds of challenges. And I think it's really been a gift where over the years, there's been more and more awareness, more evaluations, more diagnoses of different types of special needs.

And with that, strategies for how to help students who struggle with skills like reading, writing, math, study skills, executive functioning skills, organizational skills that so many of us struggle with and so many of us could really benefit from all of these wonderful strategies that have evolved.

James Moffitt (04:55.343)
Right. So about what time do you think that special needs

James Moffitt (05:04.625)
came into, when, when was that need illuminated? you think.

Emily Levy (05:10.254)
there was any one particular time. think that over the past 15 years or so, there's become less and less of a stigma associated with special needs. But I think it's been, it hasn't been one particular moment. It sort of evolved over time.

James Moffitt (05:26.641)
Well, I graduated in high school in 1980 and I know that between 76 and 80, we had a family that attended high school with me. And they, I guess they were labeled as mentally retarded, right? And sadly enough, know, kids are cruel. And so they were made fun of and ridiculed.

on many occasions, which I hated, but they were the only, they were the only family that I knew of back in between 76 and 80 that were special needs. I don't, I don't know what the special needs were, but you know,

So that was my only exposure to it back then. But lucky, no, lucky said the stigma is much less prevalent now, which is good.

Emily Levy (06:18.286)
Sure, first off that. sorry, go ahead.

Emily Levy (06:29.358)
Yeah, absolutely. And even that word, that word retarded, mentally retarded is no longer used anymore. There's intellectual disabilities, but there's a much more positive spin on even the language that's used. And, know, I speak to so many adults who are now seeing their kids get evaluated and diagnosed with things like ADHD or dyslexia, and they reflect back on their own childhood and they feel fairly confident that they had that too.

Even though no one was doing a diagnosis back then, they just felt that they weren't smart or weren't capable. So a lot has changed in really in a positive way, in my opinion.

James Moffitt (07:04.601)
Right. That's wonderful. That's good. It's certainly needed. I guess as a society and our culture, we've evolved positively in some areas, right? Some areas not so much, but in this area, yes. Yay. We'll take what wins we can get, right?

Emily Levy (07:08.942)
Absolutely.

Emily Levy (07:17.25)
For sure.

Yes. Absolutely, we'll take that one.

James Moffitt (07:26.801)
So what key tools help parents advocate in higher education settings?

Emily Levy (07:32.398)
Well, I believe that a parent will always be their child's best advocate. A parent always knows their child best. And even when it comes to higher levels of learning, of course we want the child to become independent and their own self advocate at some point. But I think it's a great idea to start each school year where the parent is involved in just sharing information, sharing strategies that have worked or have not worked for their child, and really just helping to set up their child on a positive note from the get go.

James Moffitt (08:02.609)
I got you. So we're talking, what, children, young adults that are in a special education setting.

Emily Levy (08:11.512)
Well, not necessarily just a special education setting. There are many kids with special needs who are integrated into a general education classroom. But I think, of the class setting, the parent should always, if they can, try to advocate to make sure that their child receives the services they should receive and the support that they really need to help them thrive in the best way they can.

James Moffitt (08:19.898)
Okay.

James Moffitt (08:34.737)
All right. So the tools that would help parents are going to be available resources that are available to them through whatever educational setting they're in, right?

Emily Levy (08:45.92)
Right, so a lot of the tools will be what's available at school, but sometimes there's not everything available that the child needs at school. So for instance, if a child has dyslexia, there's a method called the Orton-Gillingham method that research tells us is the absolute best and important method for helping those students build their reading and writing skills. Sometimes at schools, there are not teachers or support specialists

who are able to use the Orrin-Gillingham method. And so sometimes support outside of school can really help that child also. But of course, the parent should start with school and really try to access what's available in that school for their child.

James Moffitt (09:26.053)
Right, and then they can look outside in the community around them, support groups, what organizations are available in their area that can provide them with help, Okay. Which methods support young adults with learning disabilities?

Emily Levy (09:36.588)
Exactly.

Emily Levy (09:45.39)
Well, there's so many different methods and part of it depends on what the specific challenge is. So every child, every student is unique. There might be a student who struggles just with reading, in which case they need strategy specific to reading. And even within that, is it decoding words? Is it reading fluency? Is it reading comprehension? Is there someone who struggles more with math or with organizational skills or with writing? So it's a really a matter of being specific as to what that student's needs are.

and then providing them with the strategies to help them for those specific needs.

James Moffitt (10:18.991)
Okay. Can multi-sensory learning techniques aid in boundary setting?

Emily Levy (10:26.264)
Well, multisensory learning techniques really help students thrive academically. would say they're really, there's so much research that supports that. I think it can also help with boundary setting, but I think it's really more the academic angle that they can help students tremendously with.

James Moffitt (10:43.661)
Okay. So explain to us what multi-sensory learning techniques means.

Emily Levy (10:51.278)
So multi-sensory means that rather than just using one modality or just say working out of a workbook or listening to a teacher, we integrate multiple senses simultaneously. The visual, the auditory and the tactile kinesthetic modalities. So that means using a structured approach to teaching but integrating tools like multi-colored highlighters, whiteboards, magnetic tiles, colored sands for younger kids performing letters.

these kinds of multisensory tools to help aid in their learning.

James Moffitt (11:25.105)
And that's something that parents could use at home, Yeah. Thanks for explaining that. Because I was sitting here scratching my head.

Emily Levy (11:27.508)
Absolutely, yes. Sure.

Emily Levy (11:34.318)
It's okay, you're not alone.

James Moffitt (11:38.331)
How can parents engage without hindering independence?

Emily Levy (11:42.53)
Well, that's always a fine line. And what I like to say about that is I think that when a child is younger, they need more involvement by the parent. They really are not able to be independent. Some are, but most are not, really need the support and guidance of their parent. But the idea is that as they get older,

they should learn to advocate for themselves. They should learn to do more independently and they should rely less and less on a parent to help them get through school and eventually through life. So I think it's a gradual process of a lot of parent involvement in the beginning and then gradually letting go and empowering the child to do more of their own self-advocacy.

James Moffitt (12:20.891)
I got you. Okay.

So, I just ran out of questions.

Emily Levy (12:27.21)
Okay.

James Moffitt (12:30.705)
And unfortunately, I don't know enough about the subject matter. I try to ask intelligent questions. And so can you think of a case study or a general example of how you have helped somebody, a special needs family, learn how to navigate the waters or the complexities or struggles of that situation?

Emily Levy (13:00.046)
Sure, well there is this one boy that really has a sweet place in my heart who I personally worked with years ago. I used to do lot of tutoring myself. Now I don't, I kind of oversee the tutoring that we do. But many years ago, I worked with a little boy who was in first grade at the time. He was actually one of my first students. He had severe ADHD and severe dyslexia and was bouncing off the walls, struggled to stay in his seat, could not read at all.

And I used the Orton Gillingham method with him to build his reading and spelling skills. And I taught him strategies to develop his overall academic and organizational skills. And not only did he make it through elementary and middle school and then to high school, but his mother reached out to me many, many years later saying that he graduated college, he graduated graduate school, which is making me feel old and is now working as an engineer. So it was just...

just one story that shows how with the right support, with the right tools, even kids with significant and severe challenges can get through school and have the potential to be so successful in life. So you have to stay the course and really advocate for your child, but they all have such great potential to really do great things.

James Moffitt (14:15.281)
It's always to hear success stories like that. Because I would imagine that some parents who have special needs kids, especially when they're younger or whatever, especially as they enter into this situation or this family dynamic, I would imagine it can be kind of depressing and challenging and maybe some feelings of...

Emily Levy (14:17.804)
Yes, I love them.

James Moffitt (14:43.717)
frustration and hopelessness and helplessness and can you talk about some of that?

Emily Levy (14:49.482)
Absolutely. see it all the time. I I speak on the phone and meet in person with parents who cry to me all the time, how they blame themselves. They feel hopeless. They feel that their child's never going to make it in life. so when I share these success stories with them and when we speak through it and I tell them how I've seen so many kids succeed who have specialized learning needs,

It's really empowering for them, but I think it's important for parents to not lose sight of the big picture. Every child has gifts and strengths, and ultimately, they have the potential to do well in life if they choose the right career. It's getting through school that can be the challenge, but once they get past that, they really have that ability to glow, to shine, and to find a wonderful career. So I think sometimes you get caught up in the moment, and it is easy to get really frustrated and feel like there's no hope.

But I think holding on to the big picture and knowing that your child has gifts and strengths that will get them far in life is something that's really so important to stick to.

James Moffitt (15:54.543)
Right. That's good. And I'm sure that, you know, one of the things that we, one of the topics that we, visit here on this podcast is, self care and that self care is not selfish. And so parents, parents of all situations, whether it's special needs or, or not, they need to, understand that it's important that they take time out for themselves and, know, body, body, mind, spirit.

take care of their mental health, their emotional health, spiritual, physical, nutrition, exercise, all of that, you know. And so, I can imagine that having a special needs child in the family puts maybe a little extra burden on them that other families may not have, right?

Emily Levy (16:47.898)
sure and I agree I think taking care of oneself is so important and that's part of I think also as parents let go and empower their child to be more independent in turn it frees up some of their own time so they can take care of themselves more and really spend that time that's so important.

James Moffitt (17:05.563)
Right. So can you give us a Reader's Digest, layman's definition of some of these different things like we hear ADHD and some of these other diagnosis that you might hear? Because I'm sure there's parents that may be just on the cusp of wondering or maybe thinking about taking their child to be diagnosed. And there may be people listening to in our listening audience that

have not gotten to the point where they want to engage professional help, right? So they have all these symptoms that they're dealing with, but they don't really know what they are or what that might be indicative of.

Emily Levy (17:50.382)
Well, first off, think if a parent is noticing all these different kinds of challenges, the way to really identify, of course, what may in fact be going on is to have a full evaluation done, which can be done for free at their local public school. And there are many different types of diagnoses that exist that may apply to their child. There's ADHD, which is, of course, more related to attention, focus, organizational skills.

Dyslexia is typically it's a learning disability with regards to reading. Dysgraphia is a learning disability specific to writing. Dyscalculia is a learning disability specific to math. Then there's also autism. There's speech and language challenges. There's intellectual disabilities. So there's a lot of different diagnoses out there. And the benefit of going through the evaluation process and receiving that diagnosis

is that then their child is entitled to specific services at school that can really help them thrive. And without those services, it's very difficult to do well in school and to really build their academic skills and thrive in that setting without these services. So I believe it's a gift. think it's something that's so important for children to have if they really need it.

James Moffitt (19:07.089)
That's awesome. All right. So I want to give you three to five minutes for an elevator speech. What would you, what would you tell the listening audience?

Emily Levy (19:15.074)
What would I tell the listening audience? Well, I would say that there are, I kind of alluded to this in the beginning, but there are so many wonderful strategies out there that can help your child. And don't just sit back. It's really important to take action, to be your child's advocate, to seek the services that your child's school offers. And if they don't have those services at school, seek them outside of school. There's a lot of programs outside of the school environment.

that can help your child. But step one is really getting that diagnosis, finding out what exactly is going on so that you can then identify the services and the support to help your child. And again, every child has strengths, has gifts. We all have weaknesses. None of us are perfect. Know that your child has the potential to do well in life as long as you help them to get the right support and get the right services so that they can really thrive to their own potential.

James Moffitt (20:11.665)
That's wonderful. Dr. Levy, I appreciate you being on the podcast today. And to the listening audience, I want to say thank you for the privilege of your time. You can listen to this podcast on Captivate, FM, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, and Public Radio. You can watch the video episode on Rumble. That's rumble.com. Our website's located at parentingadultchildren.org.

the website provides contact information. You send me an email, leave me a voicemail and I'll reach back out to you. in the blog section, there's a upcoming show schedule and you can leave a review for any podcast episode that you listened to that you liked or whatever. and Dr. Levy, do you have a website or a book or something you want to show to listening audience or tell them about?

Emily Levy (21:03.118)
So our website is eblcoaching.com. That's E like Edward, B like boy, I like Larry. So eblcoaching.com. There's lots of articles that I've written on various parenting topics, podcasts, information about the tutoring services that we provide. So lots of information on that website.

James Moffitt (21:22.189)
Awesome. Thank you. yeah, I try to release a new episode every Friday morning around 8 a.m. And again, thank you, Dr. Levy for being here and for, for your contribution to the episode. I'm sure a lot of people, will get what they need from it, you know, get the resources and help that they need. And so, yeah. So, and say everybody else will say goodbye and have a wonderful day.

Emily Levy (21:23.79)
Thank you.

Emily Levy (21:42.648)
Thank you so much for having me.