More from "The Gift of Dyslexia"

Abby is still working through the program outlined in the book by Ronald D. Davis, "The Gift of Dyslexia". One of the curious things that happened once we went through the section on finding the "orientation point" was that Abby was able to articulate for the first time what makes it so difficult for her to read. (I had asked her many times over the years what the letters were doing on the page- jumping, turning, moving around? She always said that the words were still/not moving). For Abby, when she sees the words on the page, the letters seem pushed together and she cannot "see the spaces around the letters" to be able to tell which letters she is supposed to be reading. This was also the reason she had to give up piano lessons- she couldn't tell exactly what line the note was on, since all the notes seemed "squished together".

And the struggles with the different typesettings! Not being able to read a book whose type style was different! (She still struggles with this one). From the book:

"When disoriented, a dyslexic's "optical character recognition software" isn't getting a clear picture of the characters on the page- it's trying to read the equivalent of a poor copy, so it makes more mistakes." (page 33)

"Today, thanks to computerized typesetting, we have a wealth of styles to choose from. Graphic designers can express themselves even further by warping, bending and otherwise distorting type styles. This makes the printed page look more artistic but less legible, especially to dyslexics who are adding distortions of their own every time they come across a word or symbol that causes them to disorient." page 34

Here are a few more of Abby's clay figures:

again: a basket of laundry needed to be folded yet again

this: this is my house

these: these flowers

as: as the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee

For the first post on "The Gift of Dyslexia", click on the "school" category on the sidebar.