Dyslexia, a Life Changer
Dyslexia, a Life Changer
We all have defining moments in our lives, and the choices that we make in that moment can and will affect our future in some way. For me, it was the day that I realized my third-grade daughter was struggling in reading and spelling.
Lots of children struggle in reading and spelling, but this was different. It was personal.
I had been teaching for about 17 years before I gave birth to my only child. I had referred many of my students for testing to see what could be done to help them read better, and most of the time the answer that came back was “they need to practice more,” “they need to work on comprehension,” or “obviously, the parent isn’t doing their job at home by helping them.”
I had never felt that these answers from the “professionals” were very helpful, because, if I read a story to the class, these same children who struggled to read always knew the answers. Better comprehension was not the answer. Most of these children were very good in math computation. It was the story problems that gave them trouble, but if I read the question, they were the quickest to know how to solve the problem.
Up until the year my daughter was in third grade, I had been teaching mostly in upper elementary or junior high. I had several students who were really struggling, but no answers to give parents. I was doing everything I knew to do to help these students succeed. My daughter’s third grade year, everything changed. The principal asked me to teach a 2/3 Combo class. Parents were upset, because second grade for most of the students had been a wasted year. They hadn’t learned much, and their test scores proved it. I could identify with the frustrated parents because I was one of them. The parents had specifically requested that I move to third grade.
I was hesitant; however, I took the class. It wasn’t long before I was able to catch the class up academically; but, my daughter and two other students were still struggling. They were paying attention in class, were well-behaved, and were trying their best, but it didn’t matter. Reading progress was not being made, and spelling was a struggle for all three of them.
When taking a spelling test, all three would write out the word correctly (or close), but if if didn’t look right, they would add 2 or 3 random letters to the end of the word, and, of course, misspell it. If I let them spell the word orally to me, many times they could spell the word correctly. Reading was becoming increasingly difficult for all three of them, which made all subjects harder than they should have been.
The break-through for me came that November when the teachers from our school participated in the ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) teachers convention in Orange County, California. Our staff attended every year, and I had always attended seminars surrounding a specific subject, to hone my skills in that area. I had already determined that I was going to attend some seminars that were more fun and less stressful.
And then it happened! We started out our first day in a general assembly with a keynote speaker, who, in the past, was always excellent and very inspiring. This year’s particular speaker was a philosopher. Not my thing. I was totally bored as he droned on and on in a monotone voice. I started flipping through my inch-thick book of seminars that were available to attend, although I had already chosen which ones I planned to take. The words on one page jumped out at me and caught my attention almost immediately. It was describing a child with reading difficulties. It could have been talking about my daughter. The description perfectly fit her and the other two students in my class.
I changed my schedule and attended all the seminars offered by this speaker. Before the day was done, I realized that my daughter was dyslexic, and more importantly, what I needed to do to help her really learn to read and spell.
I thought back to other struggling students that I had tried to teach in past years. They had exhibited so many of the signs of dyslexia, but at that time in California, I was told that dyslexia was basically considered a discipline problem. I knew then, that from that point on, it would be my mission to learn everything I could about dyslexia, teach my daughter to read, and help as many others as possible along the way. My journey began that day!
The following summer, I took a week-long, 48-hour graduate course called Diagnosing Dyslexia, taught by Susan Barton. She was and still is an important voice in advocating for dyslexics. She wrote the Barton Reading and Spelling System, which is an Orton-Gillingham based system, to teach dyslexics to read and spell. It works!
In 2017, my daughter graduated from a four-year university (in four years) with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology. Several of the other students that I tutored during those years also graduated from four-year colleges or universities.
Dyslexia is not an indicator of intelligence or the lack thereof. It affects how a person processes language, and when the right actions are taken to help them, the sky’s the limit. So don’t be discouraged if your child, grandchild, or someone else you know struggles with reading. There is help available.
My next blog will deal with the first step to teaching a dyslexic child or adult, or anyone for that matter, to read.
