Kyro and Lindelle

Kyro was born prematurely after his mother Lindelle was in an accident. He is now in his final years of primary school, dealing with a ‘whole picture of issues’, Lindelle said.

‘He has language delays, he has got developmental coordination disorder, he has got a specific learning disorder in reading and writing. He suffers a lot of anxiety.’

Lindelle told the Royal Commission that Kyro works hard and is a good student, but the education system has failed him.

‘He is a very clever boy, so he is actually what you would say is gifted, like, he is in the high IQ range. But because of his disabilities, he is not able to perform and demonstrate, you know, that IQ type.’ 

Lindelle was concerned about the lack of resources in the public education system, but several schools in the private system turned Kyro away.

‘One school actually refunded our money and said, “We can’t cater to him because of his problems.” …  So he has that discrimination against him from schools because of his disabilities.’

Kyro does now attend a private school, but Lindelle said he suffers from the teachers’ lack of understanding.

‘Like, particularly the developmental coordination disorder … That impacts on his writing, he can't write, I suppose, climb and jump and catch and a lot of those sorts of things. So in the classroom he is disadvantaged because of those struggles.’

Lindelle has worked in classrooms herself and appreciates how difficult it can be for teachers. She believes teachers need to be better trained for the range of needs they’ll encounter in their students.

‘There's all those sorts of types of conditions which are every day and, you know, in all settings … [Teachers] are not taught how to differentiate, how to, you know, cater for those children,’ she said.

‘And out of 20 children, you have got so many children with different learning needs and stories, and some teachers just label them ­– that's a naughty child, or that's a child that … they are dumb or something.’

Lindelle said that when Kyro was six he came home and told her that the teachers at his school thought he was dumb and stupid.

‘I am not dumb and I am not stupid,’ he told his mum. ‘I know how to do things, but they just think that way. So because they think like that, I am just going to be like that.’

Lindelle has found teaching staff are often unsympathetic to her efforts to help Kyro. They think she’s ‘a pain’, and ‘just wanting things to be [her] way’. If she raises an issue, ‘they just sort of roll their eyes’.

She has also experienced painful judgments about her parenting.

‘So with, say, [Kyro]’s anxiety, they were saying that I must be an anxious person so therefore I'm, I suppose, filtering my anxiety on to him and therefore his anxiety is sort of – you know, I am creating anxiety in him.’

She believes schools need to do better.

‘A lot of schools, "Oh yes, we do this, yes, we do that", but they don't … You know, they make these little individual learning plans, which all look pretty on paper and it all looks good, but it is not implemented. And that's where the downfall is,’ she said.

‘The education system itself, I think, really needs rejigging for children, or anyone really, with disabilities. I think it's not – it is still very much in the 1950s, you know. It is not catering for the kids.’