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Dyslexia is hereditary, but many parents don’t ‘connect the dots’ until their own child is diagnosed.
One of my parents, a German man who does hydraulics research, told me recently that he is dyslexic. His son, who is a new student of mine, attends a German immersion school, which is going to make things interesting with his Barton instruction. While in school, the dad had to work with his native German, English, and French – sounds like a nightmare scenario for someone with dyslexia. I always maintain professional boundaries and do not ask too many questions, but it was obvious that this man, who is brilliant in math and science, had a rough go of it.
So in honor of this back-to-school time of year, which my students are not happily anticipating, I am sharing some thoughts written by my husband of 25 years. Chris is an avid lover of 70s and 80s rock music which serves as the inspiration for what you’re about to read. Although he can’t remember where he put his water bottle, shoes, etc., the information he can recall about the bands he loves is mind-boggling. People with dyslexia have no issue with memory when the information is personally meaningful.
In Chris’s words…
What do Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Noel Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Lennon and Lou Reed have in common? Other than being great musicians and guitarists? They all had dyslexia. Dyslexia made them super-creative, and hate school so much that John Lennon wrote in Working Class Hero:
‘They hurt you at home, and they hit you at school
They hate you if you’re clever, and they despise a fool
Till you’re so fucking crazy, you can’t follow their rules….
When they’ve tortured and scared you for twenty-odd years
Then they expect you to pick a career
When you can’t really function, you’re so full of fear’
Only about eight years ago, I discovered that I’m dyslexic. Suddenly, everything I hated about school made sense. I figured this out through my wife’s work remediating our son’s dyslexia. Now, he spells better and reads faster than I do.
Here are the warning signs of dyslexia. Those warning signs are important because the schools do everything wrong when it comes to teaching reading and spelling. Even expensive private schools make a confused mess of it.
Even if you don’t think your child has an issue with reading, 10-20% do, so it’s worth taking a quick look at the warning signs.
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My son was pegged a behavior problem from kindergarten on in his Fairfax County Public Schools classroom. The teacher, who has a Masters degree in reading, didn’t believe there was an issue.
The majority of schools are still failing dyslexic students. The best way to improve their educational experience is to get them the RIGHT type of reading instruction.
Rising fifth grader C was struggling with every academic subject. The student’s mother was told staff had not only ‘run out of ideas’, but they went so far as to insinuate that ‘she was borderline intellectually disabled’.
At least one in five of us in the United States is dyslexic — maybe more. And if you’re reading this, it’s most likely because you believe someone close to you could be among them.
If they’re showing three or more of these warning signs and haven’t had a diagnosis yet, we highly recommend completing NeuroLearning’s Dyslexia Screening Test for a fast, accurate, assessment.
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