When Learning to Read is a Challenge--Part III

Dyslexic children tend to be "misunderestimated" by nearly everyone with whom they come in contact. Nevertheless, history provides an impressive list of dyslexic people whose accomplishments have significantly impacted society: Agatha Christie, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Hans Christian Andersen, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Walt Disney, Winston Churchill, and General George Patton are only a few of the notables who battled dyslexia. The problem is that those who suffer from dyslexia are not appreciated until long after they have found ways to overcome their differences, and many dyslexic children never receive the help they need to compete with their “normal” peers.

When George W. Bush was running for President, someone wrote an article saying that they could tell from observing him that he is dyslexic. When a reporter asked him about this, Bush responded by saying that he was glad that he had “finally been diagnosed.” I, of course, have no way of knowing whether our former president is dyslexic, but I do know that he displays many of the characteristics of a dyslexic person; interestingly, it is those same characteristics that endeared him to his supporters.

Dyslexic people tend to make up their own words, and often those words are so descriptive that they work better than their “correct” counterparts. For instance, when George W. Bush coined the word “misunderestimated,” he became the object of a lot of teasing. However, that word was so descriptive of the way the media perceived him that it became the title of several books written about him, including one authored by Bill Sammon that was published in 2005.

Not being an eloquent speaker is certainly not a reflection of one’s intelligence; yet, in this age of electronic media, anyone who is not able to ramble endlessly when the microphone is on is frequently dismissed as “dumb.” Conversely, some very stupid people who are able to speak easily have been mistakenly labeled as “smart.” Dyslexic people are excellent communicators, but they communicate less through speech than they do in other ways.

When George W. Bush was in the White House, he became known for his common “folksy” approach to people. This is typical behavior of people dealing with dyslexia. My ninth child stands close to anyone with whom he is speaking and almost always puts his arm around their shoulder. He studies a person’s body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice. He is at least as interested in how someone says something as he is in what they say. As a result, he is a better judge of whether someone is lying than most of his siblings. When he talks, which he does incessantly, he relies on body language and facial expressions to “tell the story” nearly as much as he does spoken language.

My ninth child will never be able to spell very well (thank goodness for spell check), and he will never excel at standing before a microphone making a dry speech. However, he has the ability to take the most mundane situation and make it outrageously funny. He also communicates a warmth and personal interest in those around them that draws people to him.

Fortunately for my ninth child and for the dyslexic overachievers that I listed at the beginning of this blog, they each had someone who helped them get past the very real problems that are part of living with dyslexia. That is the key; dyslexic children need someone who loves them enough to spend the many hours that are necessary to help them overcome their inability to see the world through the eyes of their “normal’ peers. It is wonderful when the story of a dyslexic child has a happy ending, but those happy endings are always the result of hard work and perseverance on the part of the child and their teacher.

This is the final blog in my three-part series. If you have a child who struggles to learn to read, I hope that these blogs have helped you understand better what your child is experiencing as well as to better understand what you can do to help him. If you have questions or comments, I will respond to them and give you my best advice based on my years of experience dealing with this very sensitive subject.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker.  Her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother, recounts her experiences teaching her own ten children from the first grade through master's degrees before their seventeenth birthdays.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

When Learning to Read is a Challenge--Part II

In Part I of "When Learning to Read is a Challenge", I discussed some of the differences in the way my ninth child processed images and written language compared to his non-dyslexic siblings. I wish that I had known early on just how differently he perceived the world. What I did realize early on was that he was unable to master reading in that almost effortless way that his siblings did.

Before I began teaching my oldest child, I created my own phonics program to teach her to read. I used this program for all of my children, and it worked beautifully. My method was simple. I took 3 x 5 cards and wrote one letter of the alphabet on each. I then wrote common combinations such as sh, ch, tr, etc. on other cards. First, I taught my students the name of each consonant and the sound it makes. I then taught them the name of each vowel and the long and short sound for each. After that I taught them the various common combinations. When they had mastered all of the cards, I showed them how these various sounds combine to make words.  I then introduced Dr. Seuss’ Hop on Pop as their first reader because it utilized many of the combinations that they had learned. Within six weeks after the day I first sat down and began teaching them using this method, they were reading.

Perhaps I should say that within six weeks after the day I first sat down and began teaching them using this method, nine out of ten of them were reading. For my ninth child, reading did not come easily. He had a great deal more difficulty recognizing the cards than his siblings did. It was not that he was not trying; he exerted enormous effort, and whenever he was able to complete an exercise correctly, I really heaped on the praise. Both of us wanted him succeed, but it was a slow process.

Years later one of my daughters told me that he had confided in her that he wished so much that he could read because “it would make Mom so happy.” When she told me that, I nearly cried because I was always aware of how difficult reading was for him. However, not learning to read was not an option. I knew that we both needed help, and I prayed continually about what I should do. After a while I developed a theory that I put into practice, and eventually it paid off.

I thought that a dyslexic child must lack the pathways to the brain that allow non-dyslexic children to learn to read easily. I reasoned that victims of stroke and brain injuries often have to re-learn to talk, read, and even walk by developing new pathways to allow the proper impulses to travel to the brain. Although my theory was strictly my own non-scientific opinion, I believed that this was the only way that I was going to be able to teach my ninth child to read. I would work with him utilizing hours of repetition until we were able to develop pathways that would allow him to process written language.

Because I began teaching all of my children to read shortly before their fifth birthdays, I continued to go over my phonics flash cards with them once each school day for about six months. For my ninth child, I went through the flash cards with him every school day for several years. He made progress, but reading was slow and laborious.

To make things easier I sat with him during his reading assignments.  I would read one page aloud to him while he followed along in the book and, then, he would read one page aloud to me. This kept the assignments from being too tedious. It also gave him the advantage of reinforcing his reading by hearing himself read.

Today I am more convinced than ever that the only way that he could ever have learned to read was by reading, reading, and more reading. I am reminded of the Olympic athletes who became gold medalists because they had disabilities that they had to work hard to overcome. They did not set out to become outstanding athletes—they were just trying to overcome problems that were not problems for “normal” people.

Scott Hamilton developed a mysterious disease at the age of two that caused him to stop growing. He began to skate as a therapy to help him overcome what was originally thought to be a condition that was terminal. Not only did he get well, he ended up becoming one of the greatest male figure skaters of all time.

Likewise, Michael Phelps was diagnosed as ADHD and got involved in swimming partially to help him burn off some of the energy that kept him from being able to sit still for extended periods of time. Consequently, in the 2008 Summer Olympics he won six gold and two bronze medals.  

As I mentioned in Part I of this blog, my ninth child did learn to read. He made excellent grades and received his master’s degree soon after his seventeenth birthday. The methods that I used to help him overcome his difficulties learning to read were simple, but they were not easy. It took love, patience and hard work on both our parts to overcome a situation that often seemed as if it were insurmountable. 

Next week:  When Learning to Read is a Challenge Part III

For more by Joyce Swann, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup.

When Learning to Read is a Challenge Part I

Since reading is the foundation for all learning, when homeschooling parents are faced with a child who struggles with reading, we often are at a loss as to how to proceed. Among my ten children I had nine who learned to read almost effortlessly and one who struggled painfully. From that experience I learned a lot about how to work with a Dyslexic child.

A few months ago Donna commented on one of my posts and asked whether any of my children had struggled with reading. Her question sparked a flood of memories. I was reminded of how truly painful learning to read was for my ninth child, and how truly painful teaching him to read was for me. Because this is a problem that touches so many homeschoolers, I have decided to devote several blogs to this subject. In this first I will discuss some of the things that it took me years to discover about my child’s view of the world and how it differs from those of us who see the world “normally.” In future blogs I will discuss the reading theory that I developed and the method that I used to teach him to read.

By the time my ninth child was “ready” to learn to read, I was confident that teaching him would be a quick and easy process. After all, the other eight had learned to read in six weeks using the reading method that I had devised myself (more about this in a future blog). I was, therefore, completely unprepared for the years of hard work that lay ahead for both of us to accomplish something so “simple” as learning to read.

My child was never diagnosed as dyslexic, but I did not need a medical diagnosis to pinpoint the problem. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines dyslexic as follows: “A variable often familial learning disability involving difficulties in acquiring and processing language that is typically manifested by a lack of proficiency in reading, spelling, and writing.”

As we both struggled through those early years, I had no idea how my child saw the world. Since then I have read a little about how dyslexic children perceive written language, but what is written about dyslexia is written by people who are not dyslexic. I have discovered that most of their explanations do not even come close to the reality of how these people process both language and symbols.

My first genuine insights came when I accompanied my two youngest children to take their on-campus seminars to earn their bachelor’s degrees. During those seminars they met the professors with whom they had worked through their home study. They listened to lectures, completed seminar assignments, and were tested in every subject. They were completely on their own without the benefit of having Mom by their sides.

By this time my ninth child was fifteen and preparing to graduate from the university. He and his brother, who was ten months younger than he, were taking their seminars together, and when they came back to our apartment each evening, they completed the assignments that were due the following day.

One evening both boys were working on an art assignment that called for them to create a design that would look the same viewed from any angle. Within a few minutes my ninth child had drawn a very intricate design that looked exactly the same viewed from any angle while his non-dyslexic brother struggled for quite a while before drawing a very simple design that barely met the criteria.

I was impressed and asked number nine how he had managed to do such a complicated drawing in such a short time. He said that it was “easy.” He then began to show me other skills that I did not know he possessed. He picked up a pen and began to write very rapidly. When he was finished he handed me the sentence, which was written entirely backwards. He told me that if I would hold it up to a mirror that I could read it; he was right.

After further discussion, he told me that he had always been able to write backwards; the key was that he could not stop to think about it. If he would just let himself “go with it,” he would always write backwards. It was the “normal” writing that was a challenge.

I had always known that my ninth child was very creative, but as he entered his teens this creativity became increasingly evident. He was, and is, a talented artist. He is a wonderful story-teller and in his mid-twenties wrote several screen plays. He entered his first screen play in a global contest with fifty-thousand entries and, he placed in the top fifty entries.

Now twenty-eight years old, my ninth child reads and writes like a “normal” person, but he is not “normal.” The same things that kept him from processing language like everyone else have also given him the ability to see all of life through a prism that brings humor and creativity into just about every situation. He is interested in many subjects and is something of a political junkie. He also designs all of the covers for our books for our publishing company and has created some of the art work for them.

Yet, I know that the years of struggling to overcome his inability to read well presented challenges for him on a number of levels. That is why I have chosen to tackle this subject.

What I learned, I learned from experience. In subsequent blogs I will share with readers those things that worked for us so that you may apply them to your little students who are having difficulty learning to read. My hope is that these insights will make life easier for both you and them.

For books and updates by Joyce Swann, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup