From Miami to New Jersey

October is Learning Disabilities/Dyslexia/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Awareness Month


Veronica and Myriam Alizo

Veronica and Myriam Alizo

When my first child was born I was a young and inexperienced new mother. My husband and I had just moved to the United States from Venezuela, and we were far away from our relatives.

I wasn’t sure if I should speak English or Spanish to our first daughter, and felt really perplexed. Everyone told us to stick to one language because children might get confused when they were spoken several languages at a time.

Once I realized my daughter had a speech delay and attention issues, I started to read everything I could about early child development. I felt very overwhelmed and isolated.

The pediatrician referred our child to an evaluation center in Miami where we lived. All our concerns and intuition were confirmed: our four-year-old child had some type of learning disability. The year was 1994, and I didn’t know anything about Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Veronica’s private speech therapy sessions were conducted in Spanish. Since we lived in Miami, a very bilingual community, the Spanish-speaking speech therapist recommended us to enroll our daughter in a bilingual cooperative preschool that existed in the community. The preschool teacher referred our daughter to our school district to have a series of tests. Then, Veronica had her first IEP. A few IEPs later, it was determined that Veronica not only had a learning disability, but she also had “pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified.” In other words, she had a form of autism.

When Veronica was in the fourth grade, I found a flyer in her book bag about an organization that would assist parents of children with IEPs understand their rights. That flyer changed my life!

The organization was Parent to Parent of Miami, a federally funded Community Parent Resource Center in South Florida. I contacted them and got all the information and assistance I needed at the time. Then, I decided that I wanted to work there! I wanted to help other parents, especially immigrant parents like me, understand their rights and get involved in their kids’ IEP process.

My lucky day came a couple of months later when I found another flyer in Veronica’s book bag. This time the flyer said that Parent to Parent of Miami was looking for bilingual parents of children with IEPs to work helping other parents. The year was 2000, I got the job, and I have been working within the Parent Center Network since.

Another big move awaited us, and we ended up living in New Jersey. As soon as I knew we were going to live in NJ, I contacted the SPAN Parent Advocacy Network, the New Jersey Parent Training and Information Center, to get information about the school system in our new state and to get a job or a volunteer position at the parent center. I started working at SPAN in 2003.

During my 15 years at SPAN, I have worked on several different projects from helping parents organize advisory groups to training parent mentors under New Jersey Parent to Parent to coordinating the OSEP English to Spanish Translation Glossary project to working on two national projects assisting parent centers across the regions.

My trajectory at SPAN has helped me empower my daughters to speak up, fight for their rights and have high expectations in their lives. It also has made me appreciate the impact of the civil rights and the disability movements in our society at the local and national level as well as globally as an international community.

Veronica attended a public high school in northern New Jersey where students with and without IEPs share the same building; and for most of the students, they also share classrooms and after-school activities. Veronica grew up in a naturally inclusive environment and was part of her high school basketball team. She participated in several SPAN transition-to-adulthood trainings and workshops. In addition to her high school academic courses, Veronica sampled jobs in the community, volunteered for several years at a summer camp for younger children in the spectrum, and learned to use public transportation as part of her IEP goals.

Now, Veronica is an adult who takes classes at the local community college and has a very active social life that includes a fiancée. Recently she got her driver’s permit and was admitted into the 2018-2019 New Jersey Partners in Policy Making cohort.

As for speaking English and Spanish with my daughters, I speak both languages with them, and it’s wonderful.


Blog articles provide insights on the activities of schools, programs, grantees, and other education stakeholders to promote continuing discussion of educational innovation and reform. Articles do not endorse any educational product, service, curriculum or pedagogy.

Posted by
Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR) at the SPAN Parent Advocacy Network

2 Comments

  1. It’s lovely to see a student become a master of knowledge. Thank you for not only helping your child but all of our children.

  2. Bless you and your wonderful daughter, Its the dedicated parents like you who pour there heart and soul out to help their child achieve, by being so determined. Thank you for sharing your story.

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