Everywhere I go I manage to find someone who wants to talk about dyslexia.  I'll admit, I'm not shy about bringing the subject up.  I'll also acknowledge, I do my fair share of the talking when it comes to the topic!  Okay, sometimes I even do more than my fair share of the talking!  But, I receive a slew of Google  Alert messages everyday on the topic of dyslexia so obviously I'm not the only one concerned about this subject! 


One Google alert I received yesterday came from the BBC and here are a few quotes (in bold) from the article:


Of 450 parents surveyed for the charity Dyslexia Action, 90% said teachers lacked awareness of the condition. (And I'd like to ask, of the 10% who were aware of the condition what did they actually know about dyslexia?)


More than half (56%) of the parents questioned by YouGov believed dyslexia was not given enough recognition within the education system. (I'd like to ask the other 54% of the parents "Did your child receive the appropriate kinds of services and help that they truly deserve?) 


The report, Dyslexia Still Matters, says that despite one in 10 children having the condition, there is no requirement for teachers to have any training in how to identify dyslexia or support a dyslexic child. (One in 10 could be a conservative estimation of the percentage of people with some form of dyslexia but it's a great place to start.)


I realize this article is from the UK but the same information applies to the US. There is one glitch in the article; it refers to the use of systematic phonics as the treatment best suited for dyslexia. Let's look at what the Davis Dyslexia approach is:

The problem with adding phonics to the mix is that it sends the brain down the wrong path. We are training the brain to use a vital short-cut that is the hallmark of all good readers (when we use Davis Spell Reading and Sweep-Sweep-Spell.) An efficient reader is able to recognize a familiar string of letters and match them almost instantaneously to a known word. This skill is sometimes referred to as "orthographic knowledge".

While Spell Reading and Sweep-Sweep-Spell are strategies for training the brain to visually scan letters and words that we're reading from left to right, we have another method that builds the vital information we need about words: 

Instead, we use Davis Symbol Mastery, which builds a strong mental connection linking the way a word sounds to what it means and the way the word looks. This simply is a more effective and permanent strategy for mastery of an essential reading vocabulary.

Here is an example of my friend A's symbol mastery work for the word "combustible" as in "capable of catching fire and burning."  While this example of symbol mastery might be a bit of a stretch in talking about the topic of dyslexia, I'd like to emphasize the idea that there's more than one way to deal with dyslexia other than using phonics.  (By the way, his clay model is of a building that became engulfed in flames.  The lines on the left side of the model are arrows showing the direction the flames moved.  As we were taking this picture the building caved in, which added to his understanding of the definition!)


I'll continue to be 'on fire' as I talk about dyslexia, and I know my friend A has some fuel to add to the discussion as well! Let me know what fuels your fire on this subject of dyslexia!

More at:http://www.dyslexia.com/library/spellread.htm#ixzz1z66JSMnj



To read the BBC article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18602782

A common phone call that I receive from parents goes something like this:
"My son (or daughter) is so bright but they just can't seem to learn how to read (or to get focused, or to write legibly, or spell...the list goes on and on.)

"We've tried everything.  Nothing seems to help," the parent continues to explain.

Sometimes, by the time I receive that phone call, a long list of things have occurred.  In can be summed up like this---the parents are exhausted, the kids are really tired of trying new and different techniques and they still feel stupid because they can't seem to learn.

But I'm not writing to tell you about therapies and treatments that do not work.  Today I'm telling you about what does work.

We get right to the point, and more precisely, we get to the root of the problem.  How? you ask?

We get to the root of the problem by showing our clients how to take charge of their own ability to focus.  That's only the beginning.

We can guide you or your child as you learn how to use simple tools after an initial assessment.  You can check out more about these methods on my website: http://www.onpointlearning.org/

But let's talk about what happens in the end; after all the work of the program has been accomplished.  Wait, great things do happen after a program but results can be seen long before the 30 hours are over.  Recently, after several hours of work with a wonderful young man, here's what he told me:

"The light bulb comes on easier now! Stuff makes more sense!"

And he wasn't just saying this to make us happy.  His reading scores backed him up.  In the beginning of the week he struggled to read at a early elementary level--his reading was full of errors, substitutions, pauses, reread words and self-corrections.  By the end of the week he had excellent comprehension and was reading at an end of elementary/early middle school level. Now his reading is characterized by one or two substituted words in a passage and almost perfect comprehension.  And the reason I'm not giving you more specific grade level equivalents is because his reading was so improved we didn't have time to finish the testing.  And really the scores are not what matters because now the:

"light bulb has been turned on!"

What about Genetics?

I've been in love with family genealogy since the day my Great-Aunt Mable came to visit our family after my little brother, John, was born.  I was seven years old but I still see the scene in my mind; I was standing on the couch, right next to where she sat, intently listening to every word she said, leaning in as close to her as I possibly could. She told the story of our ancestors coming to America, and building a fort in West Virginia during the Revolutionary War.  My mother surely recognized how deeply I was involved with Aunt Mable's discourse---that's the only way I can ever imagine she'd allow me to stand on the couch!


The other day I found a note that I'd jotted down from an archive.  (I'm still fascinated with family genealogy...thank you Aunt Mabel!) 


"1871--Jason Coke Henkle had been a director of the 1st National Bank, Springfield, Illinois for the past ten years.  He and his wife, Kate, had been some of the first settlers in the area. They kept as close to their friends and family as possible---the Kickapoo and Pottawatomie Indians were friendly but it was not always pleasant." 


The experiences of my ancestor's life's are intriguing, to me.  Genealogy allows me to vividly re-live the times those that came before me experienced but the historical information can lead us to discover dyslexic traits that our ancestors may have had.  Actually, you don't have to go back to the 1870's to find out traits about your family. You can examine the traits that you see in your own family--your parents, children, cousins, aunts, uncles....


According to Wikipedia there are three proposed cognitive sub-types of dyslexia:  auditory, visual and attentional.  And dyslexia, which is often called reading dyslexia, is the most common learning disability (although the term learning difference may more clearly describe what dyslexia truly is.)  Wikipedia describes dyslexia as "manifesting itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memories or rapid naming."  


What this all means is that we can find dyslexic traits within how we (or our ancestors) read, write, hear, speak and in the end, how we feel about ourselves.  So don't just brush aside the things you know about your self or a loved one.  Don't discount the difficulty that you might have with comprehending what you've read, having difficulty with writing or even remember people's names!


Here's the link to Wikipedia if you want to look it up for your self.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia