Guess What?
If you have dyslexia, you may be confused by simple tasks...b's may look like d's and p's may look like q's.
Eleanor Roosevelt was confused, too, and so was Nelson Rockefeller and Thomas Edison and Auguste Rodin and Albert Einstein and Cher and Tom Cruise, just to name a few.
Yet, all of these people are very gifted. People with dyslexia are very intelligent. People with dyslexia can be very successful. But children with dyslexia may not do well in school.
Why?
...because symbols are confusing. Not only do children confuse the way letters look, they confuse the way letters sound.
..."birthday" may sound like "birfday", "animal" may sound like "aminal".
... and children are confused by directions, given both verbally and visually.
We read from left to right, we add from right to left. What is automatic for you and me becomes painfully frustrating for the learner with dyslexia.
So...
Reading becomes a difficult process. Spelling is even more frustrating. Writing can be impossible and math can be confusing, too.
So What is Dyslexia?
The word dyslexia means difficulty with words. For some children, these words are spoken and written. For others, it is only the written word. For still others, it is the listening of words and translating them in a meaningful way to spoken or written form. Just as every person is unique, so is every person with a learning problem unique. This is why learning problems are so difficult to diagnose and why there is no one way to teach.
What Can People with Dyslexia Do?
People with dyslexia are smart people. They usually are very analytical. They can mentally understand a mathematical equation, yet be unable to prove and sequence the formula on paper. They may listen to a story and understand the meaning yet be unable to read simple words. "There" becomes "three", "who" becomes "how", "was" becomes "saw", or "invented" becomes "invited". Once these patterns are corrected, people with dyslexia can do anything. In fact, the highest incidence of dyslexia is seen in surgeons, engineers, architects, and builders.
What Can Be Done to Help Learners with Dyslexia?
The answer to this question depends upon the degree of the difficulty. Some learners are mildly affected, and are able to compensate within traditional school programs. Some need the assistance of a tutor to help compensate for the difficulties, but some need an entire school program devoted to the individual needs of their learning patterns. That is the purpose of The Summit School; our program is specifically designed to meet the youngster whose patterns of learning require a multi-sensory approach to learning. Our language arts program is based upon several structured, systematic approaches to teaching reading which include Orton-Gillingham, Lindamood-Bell, PhonoGraphix®, and Wilson. All of these approaches have been documented in the research as effective and necessary methodologies for the disabled reader. We use systematic approaches in all content areas: math, written language, social studies and science, too.
"A Little About Dyslexia" is provided courtesy of the International Dyslexia Association.
