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 Marcia did her best to cope with the challenges of attending school; however, she became sick and was forced to stop attending. She could not attend regular school due to her special needs and there were no suitable and affordable learning facilities in Jamaica that she could attend or that her parents could afford. Notwithstanding, mother read frequently to her and gave her coloring and notebooks. Marcia enjoyed coloring pictures; she knew her colors and would take great care in producing her own masterpieces. She would also look at the pictures, interpret and read the stories in her own way.

As Marcia grew, her special needs became more pronounced but so did her rare and admirable qualities. Although she was not formally diagnosed, she exhibited signs of two major language disorders: mixed receptive-expressive language disorder. She struggled to communicate meaning or messages clearly and she struggled to understand and process messages and information communicated to her by others. The DSM-5 outlines that children with language delays often struggle in social and academic situations. These problems can result in children acting out or being disruptive. Marcia would often cry when she had difficulty expressing herself, understanding or when she was yelled at.

Children with receptive language disorder may have some or all of the following symptoms:· Difficulty understanding what people have said to them· Struggle to follow directions that are spoken to them· Problems organizing their thoughts for speaking or writing whereas children with an expressive language disorder may have some or all of the following symptoms:

• Struggle to put words together into a sentence or may not string together words correctly in their sentences.
• Have difficulties finding the right words while speaking and use placeholder words like “um.”
• Have a low vocabulary level compared to other children the same age.
• Leave words out of sentences when talking.
• Use tenses (past, present, future) incorrectly.