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.

The Gift of Dyslexia

For the past two weeks Abby and I have been working through the dyslexia program outlined in the book "The Gift of Dyslexia- Why Some of the Smartest People Can't Read...and How They Can Learn." By Ronald D. Davis

One of the main points of the book is that people with dyslexia think in pictures, so as they come to words in reading that they have no mental pictures for (what is the picture that comes to mind when you think of "a" or "the"?), the running mental picture becomes confused and the mind disoriented. The program first works to help the person find their "orientation point" in the brain which helps them be able to make sense of the information the eyes are sending them, then to help give them the pictures they need to be able to read without becoming disoriented so often.

Abby has been making clay figures of the most common "trigger words" (words that trigger disorientation) to give her pictures so these words should be easier for her to read. I remember being so frustrated with her when she was seven years old and could never seem to read "the" or "and" or any number of small words. As I read through this book, I was filled with sympathy for Abby's struggles. I am always amazed that although reading has been such a challenge for her and it is so clear that she doesn't see the words the same way I do, she has never given into discouragement. I admire her gentle, patient persistence so much!

We are hopeful that this program will help Abby be able to read with more ease and fluidity.

A few of Abby's clay figures- the word "doesn't": clay figure of an oven- it doesn't work.

"a": a bunny

"isn't": It isn't cold outside (so why are you all bundled up?)

"the": the snakes

"into": It is turning into fall

"was": It was a beautiful flower (and now it's not)

We also made clay figures of all punctuation marks and math symbols. We looked up their meanings in the dictionary and reviewed everything several times. Last week Abby made the entire alphabet, upper and lower case, to see if she had any "trigger" letters- she triggered on "G". She had to say the alphabet backwards and forwards from memory smoothly without any mistakes (I still can't say the alphabet backwards without peeking!).

As we put more words into pictures for Abby, we hope to see her reading become easier for her. She feels that just being able to find her "orientation point" before reading or working on math has been helpful.

If nothing else, this program has shown me how creative and detailed Abby is with clay figures!