My daughter with dyslexia felt “invisible.” I intended to change that.

Not long before COVID-19 forced us into social isolation, I watched my daughter leave school mopey-eyed and dragging her backpack.

As she sat in the back seat of my car, she crossed her arms and sighed heavily. She’d clearly had a bad day. Typically tight-lipped about anything that happened at school, she sat back and waited for me to ask what had happened.

She told me she’d had a disagreement with her best friend. Her friend didn’t want to play anything she’d suggested. My daughter’s feelings were hurt.

She looked up and said to me, “I felt invisible.”

Invisible.

She didn’t mean it in a profound, isolating way, but her words highlighted how we all have a deep-seated need to feel seen, even at a young age.

There was always something a little different about my daughter. She shied away from adults — even the ones she knew — and preferred me over anyone else. She had weird quirks, like playing with her iPad while standing on her head. And she was a destructive force of nature around the house, making larger-than-life messes and rarely sitting still for longer than a few minutes.

She made friends easily. But she was already noticing that the world might not fully embrace her…