Jamilyn Cole

For our second episode of Synaptic Sarahs, we're joined by Jamilyn Cole, a learning specialist in Memphis who brings something rare to her work: she has walked this path herself. Jamilyn didn't start in education, but she found her way there out of a deep conviction that her own experiences could help other people — and they do, every day. Jamilyn's story begins remarkably early. She had an IEP in 1981, back when the culture around learning differences was "you're either not working hard enough or this just isn't for you." After trauma led her to stop talking around age two, she was evaluated as a young child and began years of intervention — seven years of speech therapy, five years of physical therapy, special scissors, pencil-grip work, and the therapeutic riding program whose favorite horse, Red Wing, she can still name 45 years later. Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and learning disabilities were identified through elementary school; her ADHD wouldn't be diagnosed until adulthood, a story all too familiar for girls of her generation who weren't "bouncing off the walls." She's candid about the hard parts: repeating second grade, the shame of a spelling test taken over and over in the corner, the feeling of being "dumb," and turning down the chance to study with Pulitzer winners in college because she was too afraid of her own writing. She's just as candid about what turned it around — a cousin who put the right book in her hands and unlocked reading as joy and escape, teachers who became lifelong touchstones, and a winding path through history, museums, grad school at Tufts, and Teach for America that finally landed her in a Memphis classroom. In this conversation, Jamilyn and the Sarahs dig into the topics that matter most to families navigating this world: why assistive technology is a supplement and never a substitute for retraining the brain, the power of early intervention, executive function coaching and why struggles there have nothing to do with intelligence, "spiky profiles" and interest-driven hyperfocus, and the enduring value of Orton-Gillingham and structured literacy — because it is never, ever too late to learn. They also talk honestly about the parts that are still hard, like a lifetime of battling spellcheck, and why Jamilyn shares her own diagnoses so openly with the students and families she serves. At its heart, this episode is about resourcefulness, finding the people and environments that allow us to thrive, and refusing to let neurodiversity be a word anyone has to whisper. As Jamilyn puts it, she’s not an “after picture”,  these things aren’t cured, they’re supported. With the right instruction, tools, relationships, and environments, there is real hope, and you can absolutely build a successful, meaningful life with these diagnoses. Whether you're a parent, an educator, or someone who saw a little of yourself in Jamilyn's story, this one will leave you encouraged.