Katie Selby – She is Not College Material

Overcomers Overcoming

Katie Selby began her extraordinary education journey at the age of three, which continued through high school. She was diagnosed with language impairment at the age of three. At that age, she communicated by using gestures and pointing to meet her needs. She didn’t say her first sentence until She was 5. To this day, she wishes she knew what her first complete sentence was. She doesn’t remember, and neither do her parents. After she started kindergarten, she was diagnosed with learning disabilities. Her learning disabilities are in reading comprehension, written expression, and math. She takes time to understand what she’s reading and sometimes needs clarification from others. As she reads a book, she takes her time to comprehend what she reads. She also has her phone nearby to look up word definitions. With her written expression, developing the right words to form sentences takes her time. With her math disability, she needs lots of support to understand math concepts, especially algebra. If she didn’t understand the assignments in elementary school, she typically waited for her teachers to notice her facial expressions. She was afraid to ask for help. She didn’t believe that asking for clarification would help. She didn’t learn self-advocacy skills until she was in high school. That was when She learned to ask for clarification if she didn’t understand an assignment or test question. Through this learning process, she identified others who adapted to her learning style, leading to her getting a college degree. She proved her naysayers wrong.