“Children who are not good at singing are not seen as underachievers.”
UNKNOWN
My journey with dyslexia began long before I was old enough to know what to call it. My real journey began at mid-life, when in 2009 my daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. I had always struggled with reading, writing and spelling, but it had never occurred to me to see myself as someone with dyslexia. Since then, I have learned that is a common story.
For my part, as a dyslexic and parent of a dyslexic, I've seen how hard it is to find substantive information and support. My research for this book is guided by what I would have loved to have discovered in 2009. What I didn't find then, as I sorted through the nearly 2,500 books available on dyslexia was this: Dyslexia is a gift.
What is dyslexia?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines dyslexia as “word-blindness.” For a long time, this is how people were best able to describe it – the inability to see words. But it is now known to be a specific learning difficulty which makes it challenging for some people to process the written word.
Who is dyslexic?
Famous dyslexics include actresses like Whoopi Goldberg, renowned doctors, investment broker Charles Shwab, polar explorer Ann Bancroft, palaeontologist Jack Horner, inventors Thomas Edison, brilliant physicist Albert Einstein and more. Surprisingly enough, people acclaimed in the art of letters can also be dyslexic, such as Boston Globe journalist Gareth Cook, who won a Pulitzer prize, and teacher David Schenck, who founded a school for dyslexics in Atlanta, Georgia, on the core belief that “schools should not frighten children.”
One pattern is consistent in this list: Dyslexics are brilliant people. It is often said that dyslexic people have high IQs. Could this be why some teachers get cross with dyslexic students – because they seem to be bright, yet underperform in class? In Chapter 2, we look inside the ways dyslexic and non-dyslexic brains function. Many studies show a high level of activity in the right side of the brains of dyslexic people, and many experts see that it provides them with advantages, even as dyslexic people experience disadvantages in the current educational system.
Perhaps their intelligence is locked inside, encoded in ways that researchers, psychologists and educators are only just beginning to understand. Once you break the code, you can see the gift. That is what this book is about.
My journey
Growing up in South Africa, I had always struggled with reading, writing and spelling, but managed. In secondary school my two eldest brothers were one and two years ahead of me. They were fantastic at languages. We are Afrikaners. Afrikaans is our first language, and we had English for about thirty minutes per day. For English, I had an elderly teacher we called “Mam” who taught my two brothers.
The first time I arrived in Mam’s class, she said, “Karl where did you go wrong?”
Yet my real journey with dyslexia began at mid-life, when in 2009 my daughter was taken out of class for learning support and soon thereafter diagnosed with dyslexia. Before this I did not really think too much about it.
As a parent of a dyslexic, I had to focus on the subject and realised how hard it is to find substantive information and support to assist your loved ones. Where do you start?
One critic cautioned me against writing a book, saying so many others with Ph.D.s have written on the subject. How can I be writing on this topic? I do not have that qualification. That was true. My critic was highly qualified but not dyslexic. And there came the insight: Most books on dyslexia are by non-dyslexic people. I am not a psychologist or a therapist. But I am a dyslexic and a parent. And I had a big advantage: I was a clean slate.
My youngest daughter’s life
My youngest daughter had a normal life in Dublin, Ireland. There was nothing to suggest she was different in any way. At preschool she was slow and homework was hard work, far more for her than our older daughter.
"Don't worry," I said to my then-wife, "she is exactly as I am." At age nine my youngest daughter was taken out of the mainstream class so she could get special assistance, and unfortunately, although it was beneficial, it had a stigma attached to it where other kids think you are dumb. Fortunately, the learning support teacher convinced us to get her tested by an educational psychologist.
Whilst testing my daughter, I chatted with the psychologist, whose name was Deidre. My daughter was present for this conversation, and that's when, for the first time, I opened up. When I had to sign a cheque for the psychologist, I admitted that I could not spell her name. Before that day, I would have chosen to hide it, like leaving the cheque blank for her to fill in the name.
We used a method on my daughter that worked wonders for her English. We asked her if she would like to go back into the mainstream class and she said yes. She is now back in the class and is fine.
Please note that no two dyslexics are the same. Not all methods work on all people, and I want to be clear that the method we used on our daughter may not be the right fit for you.
When she was first diagnosed, we used a questionnaire to measure her confidence. We were astonished that this happy child of ours could have such low confidence in herself. That soon changed.
The label of dyslexia
I didn't get labelled, and I didn't get taken out of class. My daughter did get the label.
To be labelled with dyslexia has the advantage (as in my daughter’s case) that you don’t have to hide the fact that you are dyslexic for your whole life. However, on the flip side, unfortunately, in today’s society there is still a stigma attached to dyslexia. It can be a huge negative unless you embrace the gift of dyslexia.
I never had a method used on me. Basically, I had reading, writing and spelling drummed into me by repetition. As the years went on, it got easier. Today things are very different as there are many dyslexia resources on the market. This is also positive but causes confusion.
To best assist your child, the parents' self-esteem needs to be at the right level. Parents need to understand that the advantages of dyslexia outweigh the negatives. Once parents truly understand dyslexia is a gift it can unlock new resources for their child. Before putting the label on, I would say first, only label your child if you believe dyslexia is a gift and you are ready to truly embrace the gift of dyslexia.
The purpose of this book
About ten percent of the world's population is dyslexic. A study conducted at Cass Business School in London found that dyslexic people are four times more likely to be innovators than non-dyslexic people.
The book will, amongst other topics, show that:
For the other chapters go to http://lightsurfers.me/the-dyslexia-code.html
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