In today’s world, Dyslexia is thought to be a common learning disorder; it is characterized by individuals who have difficulty in reading and spelling. Other symptoms of Dyslexia may include poor memory of spoken and written words, and a tendency to jumble or mix up letters.
Experts have varied opinions on what constructs the population of people with dyslexia. Some experts believe that the population of dyslexics make up 20% of the population while others who tend to be experienced, define this disorder as a very rare condition.
With many years of experience in Dyslexia tutoring, I have found a link between family members. The Dyslexia condition could be mild or very severe within the same family structure. Dyslexia is thought to be a lifelong condition and through my experiences, the majority of students have resolved the problem through our specific Dyslexia programming.
In the past, the experts that once proclaimed Dyslexia as a lifelong condition, are now realizing that this condition is correctable.
It has been my experience with 42 years of working with Dyslexics, that the majority of students have relief of all of their symptoms with appropriate training. During the repair process for Dyslexia, skills need to be carefully assessed, sequenced, and intensified. These skill sets are missing in today’s educational delivery of the training with the Dyslexia condition.
A few months ago, a very scared second grade student came to Educational Resource Associates for Dyslexia testing. She had seen a private therapist who diagnosed her with dyslexia. The child was aware of this as she was present with her parents during the Dyslexia testing report.
The therapist spent months forcing her dyslexia diagnosis upon the student. She read Dyslexia related books and verbally attempted to train this very sensitive youngster to “celebrate” the condition of dyslexia. Her parents eventually pulled their daughter from the dyslexia therapy program after she cried and protested this “therapy” for months. Her parents were perplexed and in attempting to do the best for their daughter, and then sought my Dyslexia services.
Initial Dyslexic evaluations found word reversals, letter scrambling and visual tracking issues. Difficulty in auditory processing was evident. After 75 hours in systematic intensive phonics, visual training and oral language, all of these students’ dyslexia symptoms were alleviated and her reading scored two years above grade level.
The student left a confident and happy child as she was now dyslexia free apparently!! Why??? It was determined that the child never had dyslexia.
In addition to the dyslexia determination, a parent may hear that the child also has Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Dysnomia. Parents may panic but in my experience, these are not brain disorders but only labels. These labels represent needed language, math and writing skills.
Recently, the State of Iowa trained nearly 1000 teachers in screening for “dyslexia”. I cringe when I think of all the mislabeling and continued placement into special education. This is the kiss of death for students.
Choosing a private learning center can be overwhelming. Asking for references may be your first step in helping your child succeed.
Parents need to check the credentials of an experienced and Masters Degreed professional who has many years of testing experience in all areas. If professionals make claims of Dyslexia consultants, make sure to check carefully the type of training they have completed on Dyslexia. The difference between if it is a college degree, or a simple one day workshop is paramount. The critical step is taking the time to do the research in order to make the best decision possible when it comes to the mislabeling of Dyslexia.
Finding a program that makes the most sense is always recommended. If you don’t understand it, your child will not understand it, therefore don’t do it.
The core curriculum of education in public schools within the United States be of the opinion that sight reading methods are the proper technique of which a student should learn to read. The intensive phonics methods of “rote, recall, and drill” have been abandoned by educators many years ago. Educators have no other choice but to blame the student for the lack of reading and using excuses such as Dyslexia condition diagnosis.
Within the educational system of the United States funding has only been increased exponentially to continue to reward failure as a motivator in our educational system. This increase in educational spending has been proved to be highly inefficient for the tax payer and for the students themselves in learning to read.
In our blog above, we discussed the cautions of Dyslexia and how to reach the proper way to have your student tested for this condition. You can contact Educational Resources Associates today to get started on your Dyslexia programming.