Anne Ford
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"Anne" or "Ann Ford," after 1762 "Mrs. Philip Thicknesse," was an 18th-century English musician and singer, famous in her time for a scandal that attended her struggle to perform in public.

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I don't know if we ever fully get over the pain of watching a child trying to find their way through a world that too often doesn't understand.

I know, like if they're high achieving, maybe they weren't learning disabled.

I put up a huge wall of denial. It was years before I was able to break through it... accepting that your child has a disability, especially one like LD that cannot be seen or easily diagnosed, is one of the hardest things to come to terms with.

My son Alessandro was always so terrific with his sister, and the three of us-Alessandro, Allegra and myself-made the highs as high as we could, and mostly tried to laugh at the lows. I have written about some of the difficulties a learning disability can cause a family, but there is always an up side to everything.

It's depressing. Tomorrow we meet as a family. We do this twice a year. Billy comes and talks to us and tells us what's going on, and I don't think there's a single person in the family that isn't 100 percent behind him.

Learning disabilities cannot be cured, but they can be treated successfully and children with LD can go on to live happy, successful lives.