Until she tells you that she can spell if she hears the words, how the word is spelled. This starts to make sense when you realize that she can quote every line of every movie she has ever seen, and she makes plays with her American Girls CD and the computer, and the scenes are played back with a computerized voice reading the lines. Could it be that there is no correlation between the written word and how it is spelled, but when it is heard it all clicks in her mind?

That's not the way most people do it, and that's not how the test is administered, so is it any wonder that she fails the tests? I wonder if this frustration with spelling has something to do with not liking school, and does it add to the anger problem? My guess is that it is terribly frustrating and confusing not to be able to learn things like most of the other kids.

It all makes sense to us now, and we realize that there is no "learning disability" there is a "different learning ability". Now that the problem has been identified, we can work to help her learn. All that learning about multiple intelligences and working with kids in an after-school program finally comes in handy for working with my own kid. Isn't it amazing how things work?

In conclusion, even though we initially freaked out about her grades, we listened to what she was saying, and paid attention to what was going on with our daughter, and we learned how we may be able to help her with one subject in school. This will hopefully reduce some of the frustration and anxiety she feels in school, and make her less angry with the world for not understanding her.

This leads me to my point for today, which is (drum roll please) that kids, and especially foster kids, need someone to listen to them and be there for them. I mean really be there for them. To stand up for them in school, when they have problems fitting in with the "normal" kids. When they have problems because they don't know how to express their anger in constructive, appropriate ways. When they feel like no one understands them, that they are different in one way or another from other kids.

They are all telling us what is going on with them, we just need to be aware that it comes out in different forms, and that we need to hear them and understand, and help.