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11 Year Old Dyslexic Girl Finds Oasis in Books; Gives Back to Others

Categories: Disability Type, Giving, Learning Disabilities

As a kindergartner, Gabriela started school with a bounce in her step and a heart full of hope! She couldn't wait to Gabriela and Momlearn how to READ the books that she loved. However, like up to 1 in 5 children in the United States, reading didn't come easily. It seemed a strange magic gifted to other kids, but always out of her reach no matter how hard she tried. Gabriela was diagnosed with severe dyslexia. School became torture for her, and her parents did what so many before them have done ...looked for help. She began reading intervention at school, but she needed something to help her access information at grade level.
"That's when we found Learning Ally," says her Mom, Darcy. "The human-narrated audiobooks changed her life and she can't stop reading. She finishes a whole book in a day now!" 
Her current favorite is Robert Beatty's Serafina series, which is a New York Times Bestselling hit. Beatty has first-hand knowledge of the same types of struggles in Gabriela's home - his daughter has dyslexia and he wrote the middle-grade novels with the thought in mind that they should be read aloud. Gabriela also joined Learning Ally's youth organization, the YES! Program, which pairs younger dyslexic students with older students as buddies to help them learn how to become strong self-advocates. Now age 11, Gabriela feels so strongly about the benefits of Learning Ally that she wants every child with a reading disability to find hope like she did. She spent her whole summer raising $2,300 to donate to the non-profit, all part of an impactful organization called Our Children Making Change. Gabriela will present this donation (in the form of a giant check) to Learning Ally officers during a youth event on Saturday.

Match Her Donation

As a national not-for-profit, Learning Ally provides over 82,000 human-narrated audiobooks to dyslexic, blind or visually impaired students or adults. The organization also maintains monthly webinars for parents, teachers and students, live in person events, a pre-teen and teen student-to-student dyslexia buddy program, and a college mentorship program for blind/visually impaired students. The not-for-profit never turns anyone away for financial reasons. If you would like to help match Gabriela's donation, give today at this link:  SupportUs.LearningAlly.org/Fundraise Click to Donate