She's anything but typical...

At first glance, Amanda Gale is a typical high-energy, fun loving Southern California teenager. A sophomore at Mira Costa High School, Amanda is a varsity squad cheerleader and is passionate about dancing--especially hip hop.

But one doesn’t need to spend too much time with her to realize that she is anything but typical.

“I met Amanda her first day of school at Manhattan Beach Middle School—and my first day as a teacher,” said Melissa Pattullo assistive technology specialist in the San Dieguito School District. “It was 93 degrees in my classroom, absolutely stifling. Despite the heat and the first day jitters Amanda sat in the front row absolutely beaming. Right away, I knew she was extraordinary. She was smiling ear to ear as I was reading and explaining the class syllabus. Who does that?”

Amanda does.

Seeing adventure in most everything she does, Amanda’s enthusiasm is infectious.

“Everything about her is absolutely charming and exquisite,” Melissa added. “She is bright, kind, upbeat, involved. Amanda is the type of person who wants to help others—sometimes those in our society whom others aren’t always kind to.”

Amanda’s star quality only begins with her upbeat personality and willingness to help others. She is full of energy and channels it to her cheerleading.

In high school Amanda accomplished a rare feat: she made the varsity cheerleading squad--as a freshman. For 18 evenings in the summer and early fall Amanda performs at the Staples Center in Los Angeles cheering for the WNBA LA Sparks. She has just completed her third season as part of the SparKids, the Sparks’ official youth cheerleading squad.

It’s dancing though, that has truly captured Amanda’s heart and most of her time. She began dancing at age nine, starting with ballet and moving to more modern forms of dance including hip hop--her favorite style.

“Dance is natural for Amanda. She feels the rhythm and knows how to move with the beat,” said Amanda’s dance coach Dani Clement. “She is a natural performer and brings an ease to every style she performs.”

When Amanda began dancing, according to her father Michael Gale, it wasn’t long before she was spending three to five evenings a week either rehearsing in a dance studio or performing.

The hard work paid off as Amanda has been signed for a variety of professional performance opportunities including appearances on a television commercial for Disney’s “Camp Rock 2” and a “Kung Fu Panda” music video with Jack Black and Cee Lo Green.

“Every time she performs people take notice and have to have her included in their work,” Dani said.

To look at Amanda you’d think her life is storybook and you’d never know that she has trouble reading and writing.

“Amanda has specific learning disabilities that affect her ability to comprehend and advance through the general curriculum in all subject areas that includes reading, writing, math and anything language-based” said Melissa, a practicing assistive technology specialist in San Diego, CA who has remained involved in Amanda’s educational progress.

In short, understanding and completing her school work is really hard for Amanda. How hard? Amanda has a more difficult time with her school work than about 95 percent of kids her age.

“I never realized that I had a learning disability,” Amanda said. “It was my parents and teachers that noticed that I was having trouble reading and not keeping up with the rest of the class.”

Amanda’s reading and writing disabilities began to surface in about second grade. According to Michael, it wasn’t until after fifth grade that the full extent of Amanda’s learning disabilities were uncovered.

“In the beginning there was great deal of concern about her ability to read and write,” Michael said. “Where would she be when she becomes a teenager?” It was around that time that Amanda took up dance.

“Amanda was able to develop her ability to dance as one way to overcome her disability—it’s a mind frame,” Michael said. “She empowered it. It was one of the few things she could do on her own.”

But for Amanda dance became an escape.

“Dancing is really important to me, because when I dance it takes my reading disability away,” Amanda said. “Dancing was the place where I could just forget about all of that.”

When Amanda first started dancing, it was her natural talent that got her through. But according to Dani, talent will only get you so far. “As we worked together she overcame challenges with memorization and technique,” she said. “The confidence she has gained through overcoming all obstacles in her life is applied in her performance and she gives you a full story in every dance.”

In turn, dance became a learning vehicle for Amanda. “I’m certain her dance background, the planning, counting ahead, remembering steps, routines, where she needs to begin and end a routine on the floor, has substantially contributed to her ability to remember, plan and organize for the purposes of school,” Melissa said. “She is able to remain calm under pressure and make outstanding decisions—those that even an adult would be challenged by.”

Dance alone however was not going to help Amanda overcome her learning challenges. Assistive technology has also been a part of the strategies used to help her progress with her reading and writing.

“Technology, in particular assistive technology like wordQ, helps Amanda to be more independent,” Melissa said. “She learns by doing, and can generally pick up something within a matter of minutes well enough to not only benefit from it, but teach it to others.”

In speech, Amanda works and gets direct instruction vocabulary, analogies, similes, metaphors and conversational speech. “In this way wordQ is of great benefit to Amanda,” Melissa said. “Because words can be read aloud, checked for meaning, spell checked with a more sophisticated system than traditional spell check, quickly and with ease.”

“wordQ helps me to hear my mistakes and then I’m able to correct them,” Amanda said. “It has helped me take reading and writing—something that for my entire life has been really hard—and turn it into something much easier and fun.”

“wordQ has helped me to get through school.”

Now, success for Amanda isn’t defined by which grade level she reads and writes at but by how much better she is at knowing her limitations and how to manage them.

“Two years ago we were looking for alternatives for her to completing high school,” Melissa said. “Now with the help of technologies like wordQ and the learning strategies she’s adopted, she is planning to graduate on time, at her home high school, with her class--the kids she’s gone to school with since kindergarten.”

“For me everyone should go after their dream and don’t give up,” Amanda said. “Don’t let anyone talk them out of doing anything.”

She’s anything but typical ...