My sister was – actually still is – dyslexic.
When she was growing up a lot of teachers thought she was what used to term ‘backward’ in the UK. A ’slow’ learner. Actually, she’s very intelligent and has degrees in nursing, psychology and computing to prove it.
But her reading is still slow compared to ‘average’ and back then, some 30 odd years ago, it was almost non-existent.
In the end she virtually learned to read overnight. She had a motivation that was incredibly strong: she fell in love with Starsky and Hutch. I’m not kidding. And since there was a Starsky and Hutch magazine with information about her favourite characters on tv she started reading almost overnight. She was about 12, I think.
We didn’t know anything about dyslexia back then, even if the experts did. So we just thought it was the way it was.
I’ve been reading up a little on a website that aims to help treat dyslexia. What I’ve read astonishes me. Seems that one of the keys to overcoming dyslexia – or perhaps even avoiding it in the first place – is to teach children all the vowel sounds in the English language. I know when I was a child I was taught the five, a,e,i,o,u. But when you speak English there are many more actual vowels than that. You can hear them, but we don’t teach them to children. That has got to confuse them. Why is a sometimes eh? and sometimes a (short ah), for example?
Doesn’t really make sense, does it?
Dyslexiadecoded have an online course you can access for free to help train anyone who has dyslexia.
You can get Free Help for Dyslexia by clicking the link.
Here’s their press release
Dyslexia? Now there is Free Help
Now there is free online help for people who have dyslexia or simply did not learn to read well while going to school. It is a click-‘n-learn program. Students and adults may learn decoding, basic reading skills, and advanced reading skills all with the click of a mouse.
The program is called ReadingBySix. It provides a systematic approach to helping people defeat dyslexia and related reading problems. You will notice measurable progress from week to week provided participants are active in their studies and do their assignments. The online courses are virtually free when you give a small donation. If you choose not to donate, they are completely free.
Dyslexia is a distinct learning disability characterized by difficulties in decoding individual words. These difficulties may not show up in other cognitive and academic abilities. Dyslexia results from the confusion caused by the brain’s inability to associate abstract symbols with abstract ideas. This includes associating letters and words with the sounds they represent. The key to defeating dyslexia is learning to decode English sounds.
You are invited to review the website and take a few of the courses for practice and learn how the program works. Then use it to teach your children or students to read. It can be used for preschool, home school, grade school, or high school. Students, adults, and children can use it. It teaches reading 100% of the time and it’s all electronic. If you know of people who need help, please tell them about ReadingBySix: http://www.dyslexiadecoded.com/
Source: Dyslexia Decoded
As I said at the beginning, I wish my sister had access to something like this when she was young. I know she suffered at school because of it. Teachers weren’t always as sensitive back then as they are now.
I read from a very early age so I’ve never understood what it’s like not to be able to. I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a sea of letters swimming in front of your eyes, making no sense, and a teacher treating you as if you’re a simpleton because of it.
I just know that my sister has had to work unbelievably hard to overcome her initial reading problems. What I don’t know, because we don’t really discuss it, is what personal cost to her occurred just because she had dyslexia.
Fatal error: Call to undefined function the_bookmark_links() in /home/writenow/public_html/wp-content/themes/Cutline 1.1/single.php on line 17