I feel I have truly come full circle in my search for a better understanding of dyslexia. I have gained new information, yet I am eager to continue my search for answers.
When I reflect on how I have changed form the beginning of my search to now, a few thoughts press at the top of my mind:
1. I have learned that my son is unique. He is not just different from other children, he is different from other children with dyslexia.
2. I have learned that dyslexia is not a disability, although generally categorized as such. It is the ability to use many senses at once, which may be due to the enlarged and overactive right brain. This unique ability has frequently been connected to genius: Edison, Einstein, DaVinci, and many more.
3. In order to learn all I can, Aiden MUST be an integral part of my search for information. He is the only one that will be able to truly tell me how the research applies to his dyslexia.
4. I must continuoulsy evaluate new information, deciding what to assimilate and/or reject.
With these thoughts in mind, I have one piece of advice to anyone who is interested in following in my path...DIG IN.
You will only be able to evaluate how dyslexia will impact your life, by doing a thorough and independent search. This is not a topic that can be covered in one book, or with one internet search, or with the view point of one professional. This quest must be done with the individual in mind, not the dyslexia. Because of this, it is crucial that the individual with dyslexia, no matter the age, be unconditionally involved as a primary resource. Only then will you truly be able to understand the impact of dyslexia.
With the above understanding, I have compiled the following uncomprehensive, but Quick-Start List of resources to help you begin your journey. I stress that this list is only a starting point, and no one could predict where your research will end. What I can predict is that the bond between you and your loved one will be strengthened as you develope your own defininiton for dyslexiability.
Dyslexia Resources Quick Start List
Best wishes,
Melisa McCain
Monday, February 9, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Wrapping It Up
After digging through the resources, and assimilating new information with old, it is as though I have just given myself a gift. It is the gift of understanding.
Oh, do not misconstrue my meaning. I do not believe for a moment I have a complete understanding, just a much broader understanding than before.
Oh, do not misconstrue my meaning. I do not believe for a moment I have a complete understanding, just a much broader understanding than before.
I have torn away the paper and pushed the beautiful bow to the side, and now, the gift of a new understanding is mine forever more. Here are a few items I wrapped up in the box as a gift for myself.
- My son is unique: "Like the negative side of dyslexia, where no two people have the same disability, the gift of dyslexia is different for each person." (Davis) Because of this, the only way I can truly understand Aiden's dyslexia, is to continually involve him in my research. He is the key to understanding.
- All research lead back to multisensory. Nothing indicates that something is "broken" everything is just working at the same time, which leads to a lot of information at once. This can cause disorientation.
- Orton-Gillingham method seems to focus on memorizing what is not easily understood. This method, although proven effective in many cases, does not seem to match up with my personal beliefs of education, nor does it seem to coincide with past experiences I have had with Aiden. Obviously my knowledge of the program is very limited, and I may choose to revisit the method at a later date; but for now I am choosing to set this method aside.
- Brain Gym, has a connection to "treatment" of Dyslexia.
- Ritalin has not been recommended by Davis or O-G, and is highly discouraged by Ann Farris.
- Aiden reads pictures, and words he cannot picture can cause disorientation.
- Davis Orientation Counseling teaches a technique for turning off disorientation.
- Daydreaming is not only a good thing; it is a sign of genius. It is also a way for persons with dyslexia to process all the information coming from multiple sensories. This is information the average person would probably not even process on a subliminal level.
- "The eventual gift of dyslexia will be the gift of mastery. The dyslexic will be able to master many skills faster than the average person could comprehend or understand them." (Davis)
- The Davis Method seems to have a direct correlation to my understanding of my son's dyslexia.
- I have a lot more to learn about Dyslexia.
Wiggling and Weaving of Information
Wow!!!
I have been wiggling new information and weaving it into old, weaving the old information and then wiggling some new back into it. I am so grateful for the information I have found, excited about the way I have been able to connect the new information with prior knowledge, and concerned about the amount of information available. But, Let me start from the beginning…
After the last post, Searching for Answers, I went to the library in search of books specifically pertaining to Orton-Gillingham (O-G) and Davis methods for working with dyslexia. I began with the O-G method, because I had heard of it before. It was actually very difficult to find information on. A search in the catalog produced zero results. I thought that perhaps I had spelled it incorrectly or was doing something counterproductive to the search, so I went to the reference desk and asked for help. She too found zero results. Still, the catalog search was not completely a waste. I knew from the search that Dyslexia fell under 616 or 371 in Dewey, so that is where I went. After a thorough search of the indexes, I came up with three books referring to the O-G method.
- Hurford, Daphne. To Read or Not to Read: Answers to All Your Questions About Dyslexia. New York: Scribner, 1998.
- Landau, Elaine. Dyslexia. A First book. New York: F. Watts, 1991.
- Marshall, Abigail. The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Dyslexia: All You Need to Ensure Your Child's Success. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2004.
The catalog also brought a DVD to my attention:
- Farris, Ann, and Daniel Drasin. Dyslexia Taking Control of Your Confusion. San Francisco, CA: Dyslexia Discovery, 2004.
Something else that the catalog brought to my attention was the amount of literature available to children with dyslexia. I guess I never really thought of getting something for Aiden to read until I saw a book on dyslexia by his favorite author:
- Dahl, Roald. The Vicar of Nibbleswicke. New York: Viking, 1991.
Lastly, the catalog led me right to one of the books I came in search of:
- Davis, Ronald D., and Eldon M. Braun. The Gift of Dyslexia: Why Some of the Smartest People Can't Read and How They Can Learn. New York: Berkley Pub. Group, 1997.
Now that I had resources in hand, I took them home and began to evaluate and synthesize the information. In other words, I began to take notes on what I read/viewed and how it related to my prior knowledge of my son and dyslexia.
See my notes:
(These notes are possible thanks to a really cool piece of technology, The Pulse Smart Pen. It was a Christmas gift I bought myself and I LOVE IT!!! Every student should have one.)
Searching for Answers
For the last several days I have been searching for answers. In the last post, I narrowed my search to the characteristics and accommodations for dyslexia.
Having very little background knowledge, and even less time available, I decided to begin my quest for answers with a general google search using the keyword, "Dyslexia."
Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia was the first result. I decided to go ahead and give it a look, just to gather some general information, and maybe pickup on a few more keywords that I could use. From Wikipedia I learned that there are two types of Dyslexia, Developmental or Acquired. (Although Aiden may have been dropped on his head at some point during infancy, I feel pretty safe in assuming he would fall under the developmental dyslexia category.)
As far as accomodations, Orton-Gillingham was also reffered to in the encyclopedia entry. I have heard this program before and would like to do some additonal research on it.
The next result on my Google search list was Dyslexia.com. The shopping cart icon at the top left corner swayed my interest in the site, but one link immediatley caught my attention: A forum for networking and sharing information about creative thinking, dyslexia, and other learning differences. This lead me to Answers to Common Questions about Dyslexia. I found this site to be very informaional and helpful in answering my questions of accomodations for dyslexia.
The link to What a Dyslexic_Person_Sees_When_She_Reads was very interesting to me; and linked me to the following passage at http://www.dyslexia-australia.com.au/What%20they%20see.htm
At this point I asked my son, who has been following along with me in my search for answers, if this was truly what he saw. He scrutenized the second section, and then concluded that it was close. He went on to explain that to make it more realistic, the bold black words would need to move around as you are reading. Then he drew me his own rendetion of how print looks to him.
Obviously the first thing that hit me was his beautiful message. When I finished reciprocating the message, he continue to stress that the words move when he looks at them. He gave the example that in this picture you can tell that I is bigger than YOU. When he looks at it, sometimes the I is bigger and sometimes the YOU is bigger, and sometimes they trade places.
I also started to notice another pattern in the details. The first example of the Dyslexia.com passage talks about reading pictures (I had not shared this information with Aiden). "As dyslexics are generally picture thinkers, they only see words that they can place a picture to." Notice in Aiden's picture that the large words are the concrete nouns, and the abstract verb of LOVE is almost unseen in the background. I thought this was very interesting, so I decided to continue reviewing this site.
The review lead me to a new curiosity of the of the Davis Methods, hence the shopping cart icon for purchasing The Gify of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis.
After a short period of searching for answers, I now find myself in a state of recursion. My questions have changed. I have gone from the general inquiry of characteristics and accomodations for dyslexia, to a more specific interest in two philosophis for addressing dyslexia, The Davis Methods and Orton-Gillingham.
In my next post, I will share my findings as a go in search for answers to these new questions.
Having very little background knowledge, and even less time available, I decided to begin my quest for answers with a general google search using the keyword, "Dyslexia."
Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia was the first result. I decided to go ahead and give it a look, just to gather some general information, and maybe pickup on a few more keywords that I could use. From Wikipedia I learned that there are two types of Dyslexia, Developmental or Acquired. (Although Aiden may have been dropped on his head at some point during infancy, I feel pretty safe in assuming he would fall under the developmental dyslexia category.)
Wikipedia also shared some insight into the history of dyslexia. I assumed that this section would not be of assistance in answering my question related to characteristics and accommodations; but, a quick glance surprisingly gave me a wide range of interesting information on perceived characteristics of dyslexia:
- reading-specific learning disorder
- severe impairment in learning to read and write in spite of showing typical intellectual and physical abilities in all other respects
At this point I asked my son, who has been following along with me in my search for answers, if this was truly what he saw. He scrutenized the second section, and then concluded that it was close. He went on to explain that to make it more realistic, the bold black words would need to move around as you are reading. Then he drew me his own rendetion of how print looks to him.Obviously the first thing that hit me was his beautiful message. When I finished reciprocating the message, he continue to stress that the words move when he looks at them. He gave the example that in this picture you can tell that I is bigger than YOU. When he looks at it, sometimes the I is bigger and sometimes the YOU is bigger, and sometimes they trade places.
I also started to notice another pattern in the details. The first example of the Dyslexia.com passage talks about reading pictures (I had not shared this information with Aiden). "As dyslexics are generally picture thinkers, they only see words that they can place a picture to." Notice in Aiden's picture that the large words are the concrete nouns, and the abstract verb of LOVE is almost unseen in the background. I thought this was very interesting, so I decided to continue reviewing this site.
The review lead me to a new curiosity of the of the Davis Methods, hence the shopping cart icon for purchasing The Gify of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis.
After a short period of searching for answers, I now find myself in a state of recursion. My questions have changed. I have gone from the general inquiry of characteristics and accomodations for dyslexia, to a more specific interest in two philosophis for addressing dyslexia, The Davis Methods and Orton-Gillingham.
In my next post, I will share my findings as a go in search for answers to these new questions.
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