ABSTRACT
Research indicates that children and young adults with Learning Disabilities (LD) frequently face academic and social difficulties. These difficulties include poor academic and social coping mechanisms due to challenges in accepting their own disabilities, low self-esteem, educational distractions and difficulties, and discrimination or societal stigma. A number of people identified with learning disabilities have been successful in overcoming these challenges, with early identification, school and family support, and self-acceptance. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the experiences of individuals with LD and their journey from identification to acceptance of their disabilities. This chapter provides narratives of the lived experiences of people with LD and describes the formation of their identity within individuals’ unique sociocultural and family contexts. The narratives presented in this chapter begin with the identification of participants’ disabilities and the experiences, and understanding of the identified disability over time, through which they accepted their own disabilities, even when others around them did not. Four persons with LD narrated and reflected on stories of how they perceived their disabilities, their concerns, and coping with identification crises once their disabilities are identified, and their experiences at home and school. They also described how they have moved on to building a positive frame of mind and affirmations that led slowly to moving towards acceptance, their journey from stigmatization to understanding “Who am I?”
