Are we listening?

A few years ago I wrote about one of my first teaching experiences, which was waaaay back when I was a young mom. One fall our church's Sunday school director became insistent that I was the person who could fill the vacant position as the first grade teacher.

ME? I thought she was crazy!

To say I felt inadequate to fulfill that role is an understatement!  Eventually, I did agree to be the 'helper' for this class while three others agreed to rotate month-by-month to be 'the teacher'. Once we began the year I was grateful for my behind the scenes position, simply to support the teacher and help as needed.

I really don't remember how things began to change. Somewhere along the line I suddenly found that I was interested in the needs of the children. Their reading abilities were impressive for first grader's. Well for everyone except for one of child.

This child was a beautiful and sweet young girl who was quieter than the rest (possibly she grew quieter as her time to 'read' can along.) You see most weeks the teacher would ask the kids to take turns reading the lesson aloud. I can still get a picture of this one girl who would push back a bit from the long rectangular table as if she were separating herself from the group. I remember her chair being a little sideways from the table...wow, thinking back it seems so obvious now, but then I didn't know. She was just a normal little girl.

Normal. Yet today, I still hear adults who should know better, make statements about kids who look normal, and therefore should not have any issues.

Years have gone by and I've changed from being the classroom helper and the parent volunteer to often being the person in charge. Funny how things change!

Now, you probably will NOT find me sitting quietly in the back of the room observing!

Now I recognize that the child went to great lengths to avoid reading aloud, or to avoid reading at all.

Adults in this day and age have created a slew of methods to deal with dyslexia.  It really has become down right confusing. Funny -- confusion -- that is exactly what we're trying to avoid in the first place! not cause an increase! In my last post I introduced the basic tools used in a Davis Dyslexia correction programming --release, energy dial and focus.

Recently I worked with a young client who needed help maintaining focus. In fact in the past he had taken medication to deal with ADHD, and had needed help in class to stay on task and complete his work.
But when my job is to help someone who is struggling with dyslexia it also is important to instill in them the ability to use the tools of release, energy dial and focus independently.

So I've gone from observing back in my early days of helping with a first grade Sunday school class to giving clients in 2017 brain tools, tools they need for reading aloud if they choose to read aloud.

And what did I hear the other day from one of my clients?

"I got focused at my piano lesson and I did better than I usually do!"

After only a few hours of a Davis program, with absolutely no prompting from a parent or other adult my client was successful at applying tools to stay focused! No one reminded him to stay focused, no one told him what to do; he didn't take any medications to increase his focus, yet he applied what he had learned a few hours before, to playing the piano and he felt great about the end result!

Cathy Henkle Cook, M. Ed.
OnPoint Learning Center, LLC
Columbia, Missouri
(573) 819-6010
onpointlearning@gmail.com

Empower your life with the GIFT of Dyslexia!