TPP 223: Parenting Bright Kids Who Struggle in School, with Dewey Rosetti

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Why do many parents believe their bright, differently‑wired child is “broken”?

Dewey Rossetti 0:00
What breaks my heart more is people who think their kids are broken and give that message in a subliminal way if they learn differently. And it's such a misunderstanding of the science of how people learn and what variability is in the population and what brilliance is. And so I hope people come away saying, oh, that's a different perspective. That's a new lens for me. I like that lens.
Debbie Reber 0:32
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm Debbie Reber, and this week, my guest is Dewey Rossetti. I'm especially excited to bring you this interview because way back in 2003, as a result of her experiences with her own differently wired daughter, Dewey helped found a nonprofit called Parents Education Network, or PEN, which I ended up stumbling upon a few years later as a struggling parent looking for support and resources. Penn, which has now been folded into the Children's Health Council, aimed to educate and empower parents, teachers, and communities to help kids with learning differences to succeed and was an early and meaningful influence in my own parenting journey.
Debbie Reber 1:21
Dewey is also the author of a new book, Parenting Bright Kids Who Struggle in School, a strengths-based approach to helping your child thrive and succeed, which follows her journey with her daughter and provides a new filter to look at learning differences. In our conversation, we'll be talking about that new filter, the science of individuality, based on the work of researcher Todd Rose, and how truly transformational it can be, not just for the child, but for the whole family. When we change our language and understanding about learning differences and come to understand that there is no such thing as average. And now I'll get to my conversation with Dewey. Hello, Dewey. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Debbie.
Debbie Reber 2:12
I'm excited to get into this conversation with you. We were just discussing before I hit record how similar our journeys are. And even I just have to say before I introduce you or ask you to tell us more of your story that you were one of the first resources that I found, Penn, what you created when I had a really little differently wired kid. And I had no clue what to do or where to turn. So I'm so excited to just hear your story and share the resources you've created in your new book with my community.
Dewey Rossetti 2:46
Well, thank you so much for that. And even though Penn is not operating under that name anymore, it's now under Children's Health Council, which is an organization that we all greatly respect. And it's a much bigger organization that can support it better. I have to say, it's just thrilling to hear that you came across us all those years ago. It makes me feel good all over again. Awesome.
Debbie Reber 3:10
Well, it was a godsend. But let's go back. I'd love for you to share some of your personal story. Because like me, it has informed really so much of what you've done in your world. So tell us a little bit about yourself.
Dewey Rossetti 3:25
Well, thank you. So my story is actually written down because I could hardly write about this field without talking about the child who pulled me into it. Very much like you and a lot of us who work in this field now started with our children. But I tell this story in the first two chapters in order to let parents understand that I know fully all of the ups and downs and roller coaster of how you find out about your child. being neurodiverse. And I'm going to start to practice using those words instead of learning disabled, which I think is such a bad word because it doesn't mean anything. And it certainly isn't accurate. But my child came home from her second week in kindergarten and said she couldn't sound it out.
Dewey Rossetti 4:12
And that was the clue. And I had her in that school for four more years because they thought they could help her learn to read.

How did Dewey Rosetti’s personal journey lead to the creation of PEN (Parent Education Network)?

Dewey Rossetti 4:20
But when we took her out in the third grade, her personality had changed dramatically. She'll be 30 in August. So this was a while back, 25 years ago.

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