15-year-old Parker lives in Brisbane, is an amazing photographer with nearly 4000 followers on his Instagram (@PHLPhotos) and he has Developmental Language Disorder.
Despite originally being diagnosed with dyslexia in Grade 3 Parker continued to have difficulties at school that were not totally explained by dyslexia which led to a diagnosis of DLD in early 2020.
“It’s not that you’re not listening or paying attention. DLD feels like everything is going over my head all the time. When I talk, it feels a bit like I’m about to stutter. Everything rushes to your mouth at once. I have to stop the sentence and restart or move onto something else. My mates don’t really notice, but I do,” he shared.
Having a label has been life-changing for Parker. It explains why he finds it difficult to understand when a teacher gives him an instruction and why he finds it hard to concentrate with his mind often going blank. Parker wants people to know that having DLD doesn’t mean you are ‘lazy’ or ‘stupid’. Just like him, the 1 in 14 people with DLD are working incredibly hard to keep up with what’s going on around them.
“Knowing you have DLD means you don’t beat yourself up over it. People need to be patient and not get frustrated.”
Parker speaks adamantly about the importance of not being singled out. He doesn’t want to be treated differently.
“It’s ok to have DLD. You can’t get rid of it. We need more awareness of DLD. More people with DLD telling their story to let people know about it.”
You can listen to Parker share his experiences on The Talking DLD Podcast here.