The Secret Super Powers of Dyslexia Continued

Chase and Dyslexic Super-Hero

Today I have more of the ongoing adventures of Dyslexic Super-Hero and his creator, and my friend, Chase.

Our story today goes like this:

Dyslexic Super-Hero has a team of super heroes who continue to guard our world using their armor of Dyslexia!

Who must they defend us from? Well, of course, evil Dr. File!
Our Super-Hero is joined today by his friend in armor, Alien-dyslexic-friend John! John can run faster and jump higher while thinking of great ideas better than others can.

Dr. File is out to destroy the heroes dyslexic abilities so they must be off now to fight evil and to defend our freedom in thinking! 

Super Hero Chase has some final words:

I plan on continuing to be a dyslexic super hero and in the end there will be others who have dyslexia who will also defend our world.  

And even more, he wants you to know that even though others don't have the same super powers he has, they too, have their own great powers.

Dr. File trying to defeat our Dyslexic Super-Hero

Super Powers of Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a super power,” my young friend and client Chase told me the other day.

Dyslexia is a good thing because I have fun with it.  I invent games and entertain my little brother with my dyslexia”

“I made up a game called ‘Junk Yard’. We pretend we’re in a fancy car that we restored from a junk yard and pretend we’re racing.”

He never ceases to amaze me with his creations.  By ‘creations’ I mean the inventions that appear after he grabs a chunk of clay; original characters and one-of-a-kind ideas take shape right before my eyes! I don’t know how many times I’ve looked away for a moment to find a pen or to jot down a thought only to look back and find he’s generated something new.

“My awesome dyslexic Super-Hero thinks fast, changes size and does things other people can’t,” he told me as he worked on a detail of his dyslexic machine.

In some ways, Chase is referring to the imagined super-powers of his clay figures. Here’s his collection of dyslexic characters with his dyslexic Super-Hero standing on top of it all!

In other ways he is referring to himself.

He is one of the most creative and talented people I’ve ever met. His ability to think creatively drives his world with ideas for playing, thoughts on life and new things to explore.

No, Chase can’t shrink from a nine year-old boy into an action figure like his fabricated super-hero can but he can do things that other people can’t. Like his dyslexic clay Super-Hero, Chase is a one-of-a kind!

aisle, ISLE, * I'll * explain dyslexia!

Do you always believe what your eyes are telling you? Here in the Midwest our fields and lawns are sporting that burnt-look.  Some of the scorch is a grass-fire burnt look (because it probably was a grass fire; they've been rampant.) Other scorch is a drought-burnt look (because we're in the middle of a serious drought!).

This Labor Day weekend while my husband and I were tooling around Boone and Audrain Counties here in Mid-Missouri, we passed Amish farms with rows of corn shocks already in place out in the fields.  And they've been there for some time. Reminded me of fall. (For non-farmer types, shocks are the remains of the harvested corn plant placed in the fields for livestock consumption.)

If I didn't know better (and if it wasn't going to be about 100 degrees F. today) I'd think it was late fall or early winter, if I was going to judge things on this drought-burnt look!

Yet other places, without rhyme or reason, have a lush-greenness that vividly declares 'Hey, it's still summer time here!'

Columnist Jan Wiese-Fales writes for the Columbia Tribune's  Lifestyle section with her weekly article called Fertile Mind.  Recently her column was about a heat-tolerant beauty of a plant called crape myrtle. Here's a description she wrote:

"clusters of frothy, raspberry sherbet-colored blooms...beyond gorgeous, especially in comparison to wilted browning and bloomless perennial flowers and shrubs...in other parts of the yard." 

Even this horrible drought cannot take the will to live away from the hardiest plants, like the crape myrtle. They thrive no matter what! At the same time other plants, ones that might even be in the same location, and have the same amount of fertilize and water, are fading away.

So, is it summer or fall?  Here in the United States it's the end of summer-time with the official start to autumn just around the corner. Look at a calendar and you'll have all the information you'll need.

Right?

Here's my point--it's not that easy!  I'm simply trying to draw a parallel to how words and symbols might look to a dyslexic learner. What one person sees unquestioningly, to how someone else, dyslexic of non-dyslexic, may see it in an opposite way. Some see fall when looking at a word, others see summer when looking at the same word...so to speak!

Recently someone Tweeted:

"Seriously, how can you not tell the difference between isle and aisle?!"  <----- that hurts!

Alright, I do understand. Spelling errors can be annoying.  But believe me, as a dyslexic I don't make spelling errors intentionally. We don't commit all kinds of mistakes because we're stupid or because we don't care. Aisle isle I'll let you no now know more when I detrmin figure ti it out! Thnks.

May I suggest you give the idea of dyslexia a try? Check out the 37 common traits of dyslexia and let us know what you discover.

HIGH IN IQ...can't complete kindergarten

"There's no such thing as dyslexia," someone abruptly told me recently and it didn't go over very well with me! Statements like that tend to bring out my stubbornness! (Ask my Dad, he still reminds me I'm a fighter!)

But, when I meet someone who has been living at the blunt end of those kinds of statements--that sends me over the edge! I've heard the 'no such thing as dyslexia' proclamation more times than I care to remember, and that's exactly what they said about my young friend 'J'. 

Here's part of the story I learned when I first met J: Earlier, when he was about to start kindergarten and needed to complete a pre-school screening with his local school district, he had been asked to count from one to ten.  

"Yee, uhr, sahn, suh...," he said. 

What? The screeners were mystified.  Instantly they decided J obviously couldn't count! How could he possibly be ready for Kindergarten...he couldn't count!

To top it off, the new to him testing-room had brought on quite a bit of anxiety causing him to feel fearful. In the end, receiving negative responses from the adults in charge, after he'd tried to impress them with his counting skills, brought the event to an end.

You see he wasn't trying to count to ten, he had counted to ten... in Chinese! Unfortunately, he was the only one in that room who knew Chinese! And after the adults reacted in the way they had---

He shut down. 

"High in IQ, yet may not test well academically; tests well orally, but not written,"  is one of the general traits of dyslexia on Ron Davis' list of the 37 Common Characteristics of Dyslexia. 

For J the high in IQ part is correct.  Even though the test was given orally, he was not able to overcome his anxiety and successfully give the adults the information they considered necessary for him to be a good candidate for their school program.  When the idea of dyslexia was brought up, they had the 'no such thing as dyslexia' statement ready to go. 

When he came to OnPoint Learning Center it was a different story.  He quickly showed me his talents and Gift of dyslexia and I knew how to help him.  

In the course of the 30-hour week of his Davis Dyslexia Correction Program this young man taught me more than almost any other client has every taught me.  

Sometimes he used words and at other times he used clay. 

Wait, I just realized what I typed: 'he taught me more than almost any other client'.  Not bad for someone who couldn't complete a Kindergarten screening! 

For more on the 37 Common Traits: http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm#ixzz25VjZOdXh

*Think and Grow Positive*

Goal Setting
Bright and early one morning, toward the beginning of the year, my Master Mind group met to discuss goal setting.  Almost everyone I know thinks bigger, better and brighter at the beginning of a brand spank-in new year. My Master Mind friends are no different. It was 'Master Minder' Tom who stole the show that morning when he mentioned something simple.  Positive thinking. (I'm sure he really said much more, but that's all I really remember! Sorry, Tom.  Next time I'll bring the clay!)

"What a great way to think about life," I thought aloud at a stoplight at Broadway and Fairview Road after I left our group that morning. (Not a whole lot of options for entertainment at a stoplight but still, I remembered!)

For months, the thought of positive thinking clung to me. I diligently took moments like during stoplight-waiting and grocery-line-enduring to offer a prayer for a friend, to be thankful for something, to thank God for the blessings in my life or to notice something beautiful nearby.

A Little Discipline with those goals
 But here's an exert from the book  Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline by Becky A. Bailey, Ph,D that will help make my point:

A mother walked several days on a pilgrimage to see Gandhi.  She arrived and told Gandhi she was concerned about her son: 

"He eats only sugar---no other food.  I have tried everything to get him to eat healthfully, yet he refuses.  Please help me."  

Gandhi told her to go home, return in one week, and to bring her son back. 

One week later, again she walked three days to return to Gandhi.  

When the mother again found Gandhi, he took one look at the boy and said him, 

"Stop eating sugar."  

The mother was shocked. 

"I walked nine days and that is all you have to say? Could you not have said this last week?" 

Gandhi responded, 

"I could not tell the boy to stop doing something that I was still doing.  It took me one week to stop eating sugar." 

Every week I receive phone calls, emails, Tweets, Facebook messages and have one-on-one conversations with parents, teachers and grandparents who are asking how I can help their child or how they themselves can overcome something. They are struggling to read/write/focus/speak...and I say *stop eating sugar*.

Okay, I don't say that. I'm making a joke of the academic, language, and behavioral disorders that can make positive thinking excruciatingly hard, but remember Gandhi's words: we must start with ourselves.

Are there any New Year's resolutions that you've long since forgotten?  I raised my hand to that one!  You see, I'm at fault for not always remembering to use my tools of release, focusing and dial setting, the one-in-the-same tools I expect my client's to master.

Thinking positive everyday
One last thing I must tell you. It's about my friend Tom. You see a while back Tom was diagnosed with cancer.  Cancer is not a word that brings along much of a positive thought. And we would understand if Tom wasn't feeling too positive.

But that's not happening here! Tom, the one who set the think positive idea in my head back in January has remained true to his spirit: Thinking positive everyday.  In fact, we all think--we all know!-- hands-down he will beat this cancer thing!

Positive thinking, has a lot to do with it.  But, please, if could honor just one request for me, when you come upon those little moments like stoplight-waiting, and grocery-line-enduring, to lift up a prayer or send a positive thought for my friend Tom. It would be greatly appreciated.

And then *stop eating sugar*! Now don't you feel a little better?

Did you ever feel like this?

The other day one of the grandsons and I were in the car. Whizzing along we sang, "HI HO, HI HO, it's off to work we go", you know, the song from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.



It's the same song his mom and I sang years ago as we marched out to the clothesline, to hang up fleshly laundered clothes on sunny, summer, Monday mornings. (We had lots of clothes to hang up!)

When my kids were little (and since they've grown-up and when they were in-between!) they commonly said, "Mom, can you please not sing!" So when the grandsons are willing to tolerate my singing, I take it for all it's worth.

This day though, we weren't off to the back-forty to hang up clothes in the summer breeze, we were in town heading for my office, preparing to work on the tools of a Young Learner's Reading Program.

As we drove along, passed through an intersection, and then began to move down-hill, (going to pick up a little speed here, I thought to myself!) a truck pulls in front of our line of cars.  A large... slow ...truck.

So we sang a little more!

The car windows are rolled down because instead of a roasting 110ish-degree day, as we've had for the past 40 some days, it was a wonderful 90 degree morning. (Hum, just right for clothesline hanging-out.)

Instead of whizzing now we're creeping, but no matter, because everything was pretty perfect in that moment. Beautiful sky, lovely temperatures, cool breeze and great company.  What more could I ask for!

A nice Columbia, Missouri police officer monitoring my speed? Rather, non-speed!

As we hit the bottom of the hill and cruised past the black-and-white car casually pulled to the side of the road, I looked right at him, and laughed. My eyes could barely stay open I laughed so hard. I was close to crying.  "I'm, a grown woman singing "HI HO, HI HO it's off to work we go" at the top of my lungs, with the windows open, whizzing down the hill...um, wanting to whiz down the hill, creeping along like a turtle because of a huge, boxy very convenient truck.

The quote from the English poet and playwright William Shakespeare's work "all's well that ends well" sums it up. All was well.  I wasn't trying to mock the police officer, no way, I was so relieved that I wasn't speeding that I was overcome with joy and well-ness!

The feeling that I had in that moment was perfect. Just right.  I was relieved, happy and joyful all rolled into one knowing that if not for the truck I could have rolled along into a speeding ticket!

That, my friends, is how it feels to be "focused", to be"on-point"; that's how I would explain the feeling the tool of focusing gives to me when correctly using the Davis Dyslexia tool technically called 'Orientation Counseling'.

Children and adults who work with the Davis Dyslexia Correction Program and Davis Autism Approach experience this feeling, as soon as possible, at the beginning of a program. After all, it's a very important tool.

Don't all teachers expect their students to have the ability to listen and participate in the classroom; to be able to take in information they can later apply in other settings, in other ways?

Don't all employers expect their employees to know how to pay attention so they can be productive; to be on top of what they're making, creating, explaining, selling, moving, promoting....?

Don't all parents appreciate a child who hears what they're saying, not a child who seems to selectively misinterpret everything they say?

And, when I truly learned how to get "focused" that's exactly how it felt for me...like everything had just fallen exactly into place and it was "just right!" 

"HI HO, HI HO, it's off to school/work/ home we go!"





For more information on the program offered at OnPoint Learning Center, LLC contact Cathy Cook at
http://www.onpointlearning.org/, or call her directly at 573-819-6010 or email her at cathy@onpointlearning.org.











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WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Ron Davis has a list called the 37 Common Characteristics of Dyslexia. These 37 common traits are like a strong bridge that begin a safe journey across a mighty, rushing river. Sounds a bit dramatic, I know, but in truth, that's what they really are.  

Many people don't even know this 'bridge' exists; they only know about the dangerous waters that fill their life. They feel lost, and maybe even feel like they're drowning.  Still sound too dramatic? 

Okay, think back to a time when you had to do something, but had no idea how to even get started. Think about learning a new skill, stopping an old habit, or making a change in your life and you have no idea where to even begin.  You may not even know a problem exists but you have a feeling something has to change.

Ron's 37 Common Characteristic begins with: 

Appears bright, highly intelligent, and articulate but unable to read, write, or spell at grade level.

"I get it", you might be thinking, "it's about someone who's struggling to read...something along those lines."

You might think that, of course, "it's rather easy to spot a reading problem because, well, they can't read!"  Yes, it is about someone who may appear to be struggling but let me tell you a little story. 

Over 30 years ago, long before I was an educator, I was a young mother.  It was in the fall and our church was recruiting for new teachers. The Sunday School Superintendent, Cindy McKee, asked me to consider being a teacher for a 1st Grade Sunday School class.  

"I'm a horticulture major," I replied, "I can't teach Sunday School!"  
Was she crazy? Asking me to teach a class! 

What Cindy knew was she needed a teacher, for one hour on Sunday, for first graders.  But it felt like she was asking me "Can you swim across the mighty Mississippi without a boat, or a life-jacket, in the middle of a driving storm, in a matter of minutes?"
Utterly impossible, I thought! 

What I eventually agreed to do was to be the 'helper' each and every Sunday while a team of women took turns teaching the class. I would be there to give support each Sunday. Easy, all I had to do was show up! I can do that. 

And show up I did.  In fact I was there every single Sunday, sitting at the little table helping the students and the teachers.  At first I sat back and watched.  Soon I realized that with a series of people coming in to lead the class each week, I was the only one who really knew the kids, at least as well as one could get to know them over one hour a week. What I began to noticed was that one little girl was different from the rest.  

Did she dress differently? No. 

Did she speak a different language? No. 

She was different because she never wanted to read. Every time the teachers asked the class to take turns reading the lesson she would not read.  At first I tried to help her and she seemed to be trying.  Quickly, though, I realized that she simply couldn't read and the more the teachers asked her to read, the harder it became.  

One morning as I sat with the students, and I knew the little girl's turn would soon come up to read, I had a fleeting thought:  there really shouldn't be a problem here. She's too cute to have a problem, I told myself.   

Hard to believe that thought floated through my brain, but I did.  I remember my thoughts, about that little, cute, adorable child, because now I realize I'm not alone.  In my ignorance, I had equated not being able to read to not being cute, to not being smart.

I began to feel that it was best to let her choose whether or not she wanted to read.  She always declined.  I decided to advocate for her, asking the teachers to give her the choice to read or not to read.  I could only ask them because, after all, I had thought this teaching thing was entirely in uncharted waters, too difficult to dive into, therefore I really couldn't ask too much of them! 

Well, 30 years later I've crossed many bridges in my life and teaching has been one of them. 

Now I know that appears bright, highly intelligent, and articulate but unable to read, write, or spell at grade level, happens all the time in public schools, private schools, in the home-church-work place-campus-office-store-community....and now I do know what to do for those who appear smart but struggle in reading...

Thank you, Cindy McKee, for asking me to be a teacher.  Even though I did a whale of a job protesting that I was not a "teacher" it gave me the start of a lifetime to swim where I could never have expected to go! 

Read more: http://www.dyslexia.com/library/symptoms.htm#ixzz23cs9r0Bb