Over the years I have had to learn a lot about what it means to be a non traditional learner in a traditional learners academic world of children. Bottom line, it inevitably causes a lot of angst for the majority of children. Self esteem literally becomes chipped away. One of my incredibly bright daughters began saying she was stupid in grade 1. Self confidence plummeted. As a 6 year old. The only thing she looked forward to at school was PE.
People with dyslexia have at least average if not above average intelligence. One of my daughters with dyslexia has an IQ in the superior range, far brighter than me, that is for sure. It's this unexpected difficulty with reading and spelling (given that there is average or above average intelligence) that is the hallmark of dyslexia.
Interestingly, in talking to people, many think kids with dyslexia are unable to read at all. That is not the case. All of my daughters were able to read to some degree in their prospective grades when they were diagnosed. Yet, their reading was slow and laborious. Often there were word errors. Sometimes they would guess. Dyslexia researches say kids without dyslexia become able to look at the letters of a word an automatically know what that word is. They don't need to think about it. They can read quickly which enables the brain to focus on the meaning of what is being read. Kids with dyslexia have to think it through and use the rules that they learned to figure out what a word is. Reading then becomes slowed down. Meaning can be lost. Asking schools for timed tested "cold" (never read before) reading results (such as those used by the DIBELS which many school districts give to elementary aged children) can be helpful in discerning if a child is having reading difficulty.
For two of my daughters, early on I knew something wasn't quite right for them. One was very slow to pick up language and for the other there was some difficulty in remembering the right word when speaking. For both, pronunciation was off. There was difficulty learning days of week and months of the year, or the names of classmates. One had difficulty following multistep directions. As they got older and into elementary school, there were difficulties reading and spelling words. For my other daughter (the third to be diagnosed), I was absolutely caught off guard by her diagnosis. She didn't have articulation issues. She could rhyme. Her vocabulary was precocious, so much so that her pediatrician even remarked about it at her 4 year old physical. She sometimes forgot a word (knowing as word finding) or remembering the name of a classmate but it was subtle. Her biggest issue was with learning sight words. Oh, those dreaded sight words. It was this difficulty that should have raised my guard with her in kindergarten as it was part torture to memorize them. Many kids with dyslexia have difficulties with memory for sight words or math facts.
In order to make the best progress possible, children with dyslexia need a explicitly taught scientifically based multi sensory program for reading which basically means a proven program using all of the senses to directly teach the skills necessary for reading. The window for the best outcome is when the child is very young-kindergarten and first grade. Watching, waiting, or hoping for things to improve is not the way to go. By the time kids are in 3rd grade, they are expected to read to learn. In 3rd grade if a child reads slowly, or is not reading at grade level, significant academic challenges arise which almost always lead to emotional symptoms. Research shows it becomes almost impossible to catch up once there are reading gaps in 3rd grade. Because the treatment for dyslexia is so specific and the window for optimal results is so young (kindergarten and first grade), we as parents need to be asking our teachers and school systems what they are doing to identify kids who are showing signs of reading difficulty. We cannot trust subjective measures (like Fountas and Pinnell A-Z levels) but must look for objective screenings such as DIBELS.
Two of my daughters are incredibly blessed and lucky to go to the Carroll School. Carroll was started 51 years ago and uses a complete researched based scientific framework for teaching children with dyslexia. The premise of Carroll is to "give each child what he or she most needs". This means that the child's ENTIRE academic program is tailored to his or her learning profile. At Carroll, children are not plugged into available programs. Rather, a program is developed directly for the child. For my daughters, this has been nothing short of life changing. My second grader, who as a first grader believed she was stupid, just remarked "I am good at reading" for the first time ever. She has only had a month of school at Carroll. For both girls, being at a place where all of the students have dyslexia has enabled anxiety around school to subside. The gains in confidence they both show is beyond measure. The love of school and learning has been restored. And they are learning to advocate for what they need as learners, a skill that will help them throughout their lives. I cannot even express the gratitude I have for Carroll school for changing the course of my daughters' lives. It is worth every sacrifice we have made in order for their attendance at this exceptional academic facility.
Winning the dyslexia lottery means my daughters have joined the ranks of other incredible minds with dyslexia. People such as Steven Spielberg, Charles Schwab, Henry Ford, Greg Louganis, Thomas Edison, Tommy Hilfiger, Erin Brokovich, George Washington, Nelson Rockefeller, Cher, Billy Bob Thornton, Danny Glover, Jennifer Aniston, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Ansel Adams, Leonardo da Vinci, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Agatha Christie, Hans Christian Andersen, and the list goes on and on. Winning the dyslexia lottery does not mean that my goals for each of my girls has changed; goals of knowing God, being kind to others, and contributing in a meaningful way to society. It just means that they might take a non traditional route to get there.
