1. Kevin Lausier April 6, 2016
My decision my five years ago.
Five years ago I left my job as a provisional special
education teacher to become the primary care provider
for my daughter with special needs. A decision that has
been extremely challenging at times but also incredibly
rewarding and fulfilling. My wife and I have two children,
a 10 year old girl and 6 year old boy. We knew that our
daughter was developmentally delayed but we felt that
she would grow and eventually begin reaching her
developmental benchmarks. As time passed our concerns
grew deeper, we began looking for answers from our
1
What is Central
Auditory Processing
Disorder?
Auditory Processing Disorder
(APD) is a neurological defect
that affects how the brain
processes auditory information.
It is exceptionally challenging
for the child to process verbal
instructions or even to filter out
background noise in the
classroom.
Becoming a parent
advocate.
Parenting a child with a
disability is a journey of
acceptance of the things you
can’t change and then changing
yourself to accept the things you
can change.
Becoming an
instructional
designer.
Earning a MS in instructional
design and technology in 2015
helped me to plan the next steps
in my life and reinvent myself
on a new career path.
The Last Five Years
Leaving my job, becoming a parent advocate, and an
earning a master’s degree in instructional design.
Instructional Designer | Parent Advocate

2. Kevin Lausier April 6, 2016
pediatrician who referred us to an audiologist. My wife,
who is an occupational therapist, was the first to suggest
that our daughter may have Central Auditory Processing
Disorder (CAPD). We reached out to Dr. Jay Lucker, Ed.D.,
CCC-A/SLP, FAAA, at Howard University who specializes
in auditory processing disorders. We scheduled an
appointment with him and he agreed to do an
assessment. The findings of his analysis were conclusive,
Patricia was diagnosed with Central Auditory Processing
Disorder in February 2011 at the age of 5 years old. Our
experience with Dr. Lucker was so positive and just what
we needed it to be, educational and empowering. It was
positive because Dr. Lucker reassured us that there were
interventions for Patricia that could help. It was
2
In 2013 I began working on my
master’s degree in instructional
design and technology at Old
Dominion University. I
transferred to Walden University
because it fit with my
responsibilities at home more
conveniently.Although it is an
online program, I found it to be
rigorous and rewarding. The
foundations of learning theory
and instructional theory were
imbued into my knowledge base
while enrolled in the teacher
endorsement program at
ODU’ s Darden School of
Education and then greatly
expanded upon while enrolled at
Walden.
I really enjoyed Walden’s project
based focus. My student design
portfolio found at http://
www.kevinlausier-e portfolio.
com/my-resume.html showcase
some of the learning projects I
worked on.
After graduation I took on some
volunteer projects in order to gain
experience. I reached out to
adjunct faculty members at Old
Dominion University and offered
to develop learning objects for
their online courses. I conducted
an analysis for Human Growth
and Development, (SPED 313),
then developed and designed
collaborative learning objects and
recored a video lecture series.
“The findings of his analysis
were conclusive, Patricia was
diagnosed with Central Auditory
Processing Disorder in February
2011 at the age of 5 years old.”

3. Kevin Lausier April 6, 2016
educational because he helped us to understand the nature of Patricia’s disability and it was
empowering because we were armed with an official diagnosis that we could take to the
school system and demand specific interventions and services.
When you first discover that your child has a disability like CAPD you experience a
range of emotions. For me, it was denial and anxiety. My denial was not about her diagnosis
but rather the extent to which she would need help. The reality is that CAPD is a
developmental disorder pervasive across all other developmental areas. It affects the the
way Patricia hears and processes auditory information. It affects the development of her
expressive language, literacy, and social emotional development. Many times, children with
CAPD have co-morbidities and are also challenged with other disabilities such as attention
deficit disorder (ADD), and or specific learning disability (SLD). In Patricia’s case she
presents characteristics of all three with CAPD being the most dominant. My denial faded
and the only thing that was left was the acceptance that our daughter needed full-time
support from one of us. My education and experience as a special education teacher told me
that this was going to be a long and difficult journey. The anxiety I experienced came in the
realization that she would be faced with overcoming a myriad of obstacles and challenges
throughout her entire life.
In the months that followed Patricia’s initial diagnosis my wife and I planned and
discussed what we needed to do in order to provide our daughter with the support and
resources she needed. We knew that sacrifices would have to made and whatever our future
plans might have been that everything had to change. After about three months of
coordinating speech therapy appointments, researching academic interventions and
3

4. Kevin Lausier April 6, 2016
negotiating the development of her individual education program (IEP) with the school, we
decided that one of us need to be available as a full-time support to help facilitate and
coordinate all that Patricia needs.
Leaving my job should not have been difficult of a decision, but it was. With my
background as a special education teacher we felt that I was best suited to communicate
with the school system and build the network of support services that Patricia needed. The
decision was difficult for two reasons, first was the burden it placed on my wife for all of our
financial needs. Secondly, I was concerned about how it would reflect on me professionally.
I worried about the repercussions of breaking my teaching contract and giving up my
provisional teaching license, teachers who break contract are barred from teaching for three
years, not to mention the position it placed my administrators in. I also worried that it left
us without a means for me to provide for my family. In the end the needs of our daughter
outweighed any other concerns, so I tendered my resignation in April of 2011 and
committed myself to providing my daughter with as much help and as many resources as
possible.
In the last five years Patrica has grown tremendously. Now that she is almost 11 and
we have developed a very strong network of resources and advocates it is time for me to get
back into the workforce. My wife and I realize that our journey is not over yet, but we are
much more informed and much more prepared to facilitate our daughter’s continued growth
and development. I am eager to apply what I have learned and share all that I have become.
I know that the gap in my work history might cause some to overlook my resume. Hopefully
the narrative I have shared here may help to explain some of that.
4