The Dyslexia Life

02/27/2026

Calling anyone near Quantico who has a child at Dowea aka Dodea!

Come make your voice heard!

02/27/2026

Today was a reminder of why this work matters.

We spent the day at the Dyslexia Awareness Fair standing shoulder to shoulder with parents, teachers, and advocates who refuse to let kids fall through the cracks.

Dyslexia is not rare. It is not laziness. It is not a behavior problem. It is a reading difference that requires structured, explicit, evidence based instruction. Period.

As a Georgia Special Education Advocate, I meet families every week who were told to “wait and see.” Meanwhile their child’s confidence is slipping. That is why events like this matter. Education changes outcomes. The right intervention changes lives.

We talked about:

• Early screening in K to 3
• Structured literacy and why it matters
• Georgia reading laws and what schools are required to do
• IEPs, 504 plans, and how to actually enforce them
• What to do when a school refuses to say the word dyslexia

I am proud to serve military connected families and Georgia parents who are willing to step into the fight for their kids. If you do not advocate for your child, no one else will do it the way you will.

If your child is struggling to read, do not wait.

Send me a message. Let’s get a plan in place.

02/25/2026

Hi! A small favor…I’m working on my Google review game….

Can you please write a review for The Dyslexia Life!

Anyone who writes a review by Friday will be entered to win an Amazon Gift Card.

The Dyslexia Life would love your feedback.

Post a review to our profile.

Post a review to our profile on Google

12/19/2025

Hey I’m the nicest person in the whole world til you try to trick parents in IEP meetings and offer balanced literacy!

If holding schools to the law and making legislators educate teachers in line with the Science of Reading is mean…. Cool. I ride at Dawn!

11/25/2025

Here’s what I’d do:

1. Full Educational Psychological Evaluation by a Neuropsychologist, Child Psychologist, or Developmental Pediatrician.

2. Auditory Processing Disorder Evaluation (Ears, Nose, Throat (ENT)

3. Speech-Language Pathologist (testing for Language Processing Disorders).

4. Occupational Therapist- (Testing for handwriting and other age-appropriate skills)

Tasks to be completed at school

1. Write a letter to Request an Evaluation for special education services at public expense to your principal and head of special education services (If you already have a medical diagnosis of SLD/Dyslexia include the paperwork from the doctor.)

2. Sign written consent to start the evaluation (60 days under Federal Law) once you sign consent. If you don't get the consent forms within a week, send an email asking for them again. Document. Document. Document

Find your support

1. Find your state's Department of Education and locate their Parent Rights and Safeguards. These are your rights in your state. 2. Join other support groups on Facebook (Partners in Promise, Wright's Law, Decoding Dyslexia Military(state and regional groups and pages) 3. Find your community support. The road in special education is long. You will need a support person outside of your family (Parent, Spouse, Friend).

Hi, I’m Hilary. I’m a special education advocate serving kids with dyslexia around the world. Providing advocacy, education and IEP meeting support

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11/22/2025

I only wish someone had told me in my twenties that delays to get my daughter evaluated would cost of my family dearly. It takes 4 times as long to intervene when it comes to reading in 4th grade. Don’t wait get evaluated for special education and get a neuropsychological evaluation.

11/19/2025

Waiting to see isn’t a strategy it’s a delay tactic.

It is easy to teach reading to everyone in Kindergarten when we use curriculum and teaching in line with the science of reading and we train teachers!

Waiting to see is a tactic played by every US school district in this US.

It’s taught to teachers as a way to lower the number of kids in special education.

Schools have an obligation under CHILD FIND in federal law to find kids with disabilities.

This is how you get help for your kid- Ask for a complete evaluation for special education!

Comment Letter and I’ll send you my template to get help and you can do it in 10 mins.

11/13/2025

💻New on the Blog this month: Dyslexia Awareness

Did you know that according to the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity, that approximately 1 in 5 students has dyslexia? 🤯 Check out our latest blog article by Barbara Bratton, who specializes in working with students with dyslexia and Specific Learning Disabilities in reading, to see the latest updates about this learning disability.

🔗: https://thepromiseact.org/dyslexia-awareness/

11/09/2025

Here is the lie that keeps getting repeated all throughout public education.

It’s possible to diagnose dyslexia as early as 4 or 5.

Waiting to see waiting to ask for help waiting to go to neuropsychologist to have your child evaluated only makes it take longer and more money to intervene.

In any other area of modern medicine, we would never tell you to wait and see. Your parents are often told by both educators and doctors to wait and see.

It takes 4 times as long to intervene in 4th grade.

11/05/2025

If you’d told me a few years ago that schools couldn’t teach dyslexic kids to read, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you’d told me I’d meet many families who spent thousands a year on attorneys just to get basic reading instruction, I would’ve said no way.

If you’d told me those same families would end up in settlements where they actually never got paid, I would have been shocked.

If you’d told me people would spend hundreds of thousands in private school tuitions—money parents planned to save for college—just so their kids could read, I would’ve thought you were crazy.

If you’d told me an IEP team would suggest the “most appropriate setting” for a dyslexic child was a class with a para who could read to their kids, I would’ve said that had to be a joke.

If you’d told me a principal would dismiss a $5,000 neuropsych evaluation because they “trusts her teachers more than someone who spent three days testing your child,” I would’ve said that couldn’t happen.

If you’d told me I’d take cases where we’d have to fight every single year just to get basic reading goals on IEPs, I would’ve never believed it.

If you’d told me I’d meet parents who’d quit their jobs and get Orton-Gillingham certified just to teach their own children, I would’ve said you were out of your mind.

But here we are.
And we’re not laughing anymore.