My Story
As a young single mom, I became a coach, cheerleader, chef, comedian, and tutor to my son. I could handle just about anything, except the tutoring/homework.
I also became one more thing, that I am not proud of, a Drill Sergeant mom. When it came to homework help I barked out the commands and expected my 6-year-old to hit the mark. After all, I had been told by teachers that he wasn't working hard enough. His grades continued to slip and so did his self-esteem.
Do you want to guess what I did next? I pushed him harder...there were tears, frustration, anger, and hopelessness for both of us. I realized that he was working harder than most children and still not passing tests. Honestly, that was my primary focus, to make him successful he must pass tests, right?
I started to see a pattern with reading, writing, and spelling he was transposing letters, which can be common with young children. But after studying for a short time the words became more jumbled up, there were unusual word replacements, and the sound of letters didn't seem to make sense to him. It was time to request testing so I could understand how to help my son and get rid of my Drill Sergeant tactics. I also made a decison that a grade on a test or report card would not define my son.
It was confirmed, he was diagnosed with Dyslexia. I went to every workshop, became a fierce advocate, and started implementing new strategies. I can't say that any of this made things easy because, honestly, it was so hard, but I wasn't powerless anymore.
Remember, as a parent, you have a right to have your child tested/evaluated. You can make this request to their school or contact Ouachita Pupil Appraisal directly to learn more. Another great resource is Families Helping Families of Northeast Louisiana, Inc.
What is Dyslexia?
Reading is complex. It requires our brains to connect letters to sounds, put those sounds in the right order, and pull the words together into sentences and paragraphs we can read and comprehend.
As reported by The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, people with dyslexia have trouble matching the letters they see on the page with the sounds those letters and combinations of letters make. And when they have trouble with that step, all the other steps are harder.
Dyslexic children and adults struggle to read fluently, spell words correctly and learn a second language, among other challenges. But these difficulties have no connection to their overall intelligence. Dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty in reading in an individual who has the intelligence to be a much better reader. While people with dyslexia are slow readers, they often, paradoxically, are very fast and creative thinkers with strong reasoning abilities.
How Can You Support Your Child?
What I discovered was that while reading is a critical skill, self-esteem is more important. When my son couldn't perform in school like the other children he felt defeated, stupid, and had few friends. He wasn't allowed to participate in extracurricular activities such as choir because he had to maintain an A/B Average. He became isolated and alone until we requested testing.
Once the testing was complete a 504 Plan was written which was a guide for the teacher to better understand my child and includes strategies on how best to teach him. There were also accommodations such as additional time for tests if needed or as I did, I had an extracurricular activity written into the plan (my son joined the choir).
1. Get them tested.
2. It is critical to recognize their strengths and accomplishments, here are ten things you can do to help your child.
3. Familiarize yourself with (IDEA) Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the (ADA) Americans with Disabilities Act.
4. Work closely with your child's teacher, they are a resource and want your child to be successful.
5. Get the right accommodations for your child. For example, a creative writing assignment can be graded on content, NOT spelling.
6. Become an advocate for your child and have re-evaluations done as needed.
Other Strategies
1. Visual Aids (Flashcards)
2. Technology
3. Highlight Different Parts of Speech
4. Colored Transparencies Over Text
5. Bring the Lesson to Life with Creativity
6. Use Sensory Learning (writing words in shaving cream, tossing a beanbag to each other as a word is spelled, tapping, clapping, etc.)
New Hope for People with Dyslexia (Does It Work?)
A Dutch designer, Christian Boer, developed a font that is dark blue, letters are slanted differently, and the lines of the letters are weighted in different areas. Additionally, the letters are spaced further apart and Mr. Boer, who is dyslexic, claims that it is much easier for him to read using this font (OpenDyslexic).
While this font is not new, I have never heard of it until recently when it was shared with me by a special education teacher.
Does it work? My thought, it never hurts to try.
If you like this article, please SUBSCRIBE to the Macaroni Kid Monroe-West Monroe free weekly e-newsletter!
