Beyond words

Beyond Words: Reflections on Our Journey to Inclusion, Is a heartwarming at times heart wrenching story of a mother’s battle to find the proper education for her disabled son. Diane Linder, who penned this powerful book is herself an educator who found herself frustrated and constantly let down by the education system in New York and decides to take matters into her own hands rather than allow her son to simply fall through the cracks. The story takes us into Diane’s life where we see a woman who is passionate about many things such as music, friends, but mostly her family which include her husband David, Adam, her youngest son, and Benny who was diagnosed at an early age with speech impairment as well as a learning disability and becomes the center of Diane’s passion when it becomes her mission to find him the proper nourishing school environment.
The book begins with Diane detailing her life from young single musician to college graduate, professor, and wife and expecting mother. Benny, her first child was born a ‘radiant” child who from an early age shared his mother’s love for music as he would sway happily to the sound of her playing Mozart on her clarinet. By the age of two Diane and her husband David began to notice that Benny had missed virtually every milestone and had an inability to produce words, prompting them to have him evaluated, and thus Diane’s journey to heartache and eventually inclusion begins. Right from the start Diane is given a “tense” “judgmental” feeling from the first of many evaluators and therapist who will enter her and Benny’s life. They are often cold and only seem concerned about what Benny cannot do and not at all about what he can. Diane recounts one of these heartbreaking moments early on, she states: “The social worker from a local agency came for what was supposed to be a routine visit. She sat through a therapy session shaking her head, rolling her eyes, and writing voluminous notes. Then she sat on the floor in my