Dyslexic Kids Learning to Read
emstrength3
Are there any links with examples of dyslexic kids learning to read? Someone on another message board has an 8.5 year old who is not yet reading and she is concerned because of his dyslexia. I'd like to give her a link if possible.
Emily
Emily
Sandra Dodd
http://sandradodd.com/reading
These are stories of kids learning to read without any diagnoses, without any comparisons to other readers in a classroom.
I know at least three of them (people I know personally) who could easily have been called dyslexic if they were in school, but it was better for them that their parents didn't mention that.
Any child, in school or not, figures out how to read in his own way.
Unfortunately any child, in school or not, who is told there is something wrong with him will have a harder time learning than if he hadn't been labelled slow or dyslexic.
Grown unschoolers read confidently and you would never be able to tell, when they're 18, which have been reading for twelve years and which for six.
Sandra
These are stories of kids learning to read without any diagnoses, without any comparisons to other readers in a classroom.
I know at least three of them (people I know personally) who could easily have been called dyslexic if they were in school, but it was better for them that their parents didn't mention that.
Any child, in school or not, figures out how to read in his own way.
Unfortunately any child, in school or not, who is told there is something wrong with him will have a harder time learning than if he hadn't been labelled slow or dyslexic.
Grown unschoolers read confidently and you would never be able to tell, when they're 18, which have been reading for twelve years and which for six.
Sandra
chris ester
I can give a personal testimony that my son would very probably have been
diagnosed dyslexic and did not read until he was about 13 and now reads
and, more importantly, comprehends highly technical computer programming
manuals as well as young adult fiction.
We invested in lots of books on tape and made sure that he had his own
library card to check out books on tape. We listened to lots of stuff as a
family, including some really good full cast radio show types of things
available from ZBS. We also did lots of reading aloud. Not to mention all
of the documentaries that we enjoyed on television and the videos and art
projects and crafts and cooking, etc.
We didn't stress about it, we didn't tell my son that he was 'late' to
read. We talked about how everybody learns different things at different
times and that each brain builds neural pathways at a different rate.
These conversations took place when he or my daughter noticed that there
were things that some other kids were doing that they weren't and they were
concerned. I think that maybe some schooled kid said something to one or
both about them not learning because they weren't in school, because about
the time they started playing with some new kids a lot of questions came up
about what they were learning and not learning and why aren't you teaching
us to read....
When we talked about learning and what learning is they realized how much
the actually knew and how none of it cause any discomfort, how it was all
'fun'. They also realized that they were reading some, it was just never
required that they stand up and read aloud to 'prove' themselves. We never
made reading a chore, sore spot or necessity. There was just always an
unspoken (and sometimes spoken) assumption that both of our children would
learn to read in their own time, just as they both learned everything else
in their own time.
My son did have some obvious (to me, a trained social worker/therapist)
perceptual issues that we worked on through play, kung fu, and some fun
dancing at home. Also, when they were watching me read aloud, I would
trace the text with my finger in the direction in which we write. I did
get a phonics book that gave a really good description of how to write well
(the physical act of writing, not style) so that I could model
appropriately and also to improve my own spelling.
There is also the book "Better Late than Early" which is old, but
reassuring about the so called 'milestones' by Dr and Mrs Moore.
Chris
diagnosed dyslexic and did not read until he was about 13 and now reads
and, more importantly, comprehends highly technical computer programming
manuals as well as young adult fiction.
We invested in lots of books on tape and made sure that he had his own
library card to check out books on tape. We listened to lots of stuff as a
family, including some really good full cast radio show types of things
available from ZBS. We also did lots of reading aloud. Not to mention all
of the documentaries that we enjoyed on television and the videos and art
projects and crafts and cooking, etc.
We didn't stress about it, we didn't tell my son that he was 'late' to
read. We talked about how everybody learns different things at different
times and that each brain builds neural pathways at a different rate.
These conversations took place when he or my daughter noticed that there
were things that some other kids were doing that they weren't and they were
concerned. I think that maybe some schooled kid said something to one or
both about them not learning because they weren't in school, because about
the time they started playing with some new kids a lot of questions came up
about what they were learning and not learning and why aren't you teaching
us to read....
When we talked about learning and what learning is they realized how much
the actually knew and how none of it cause any discomfort, how it was all
'fun'. They also realized that they were reading some, it was just never
required that they stand up and read aloud to 'prove' themselves. We never
made reading a chore, sore spot or necessity. There was just always an
unspoken (and sometimes spoken) assumption that both of our children would
learn to read in their own time, just as they both learned everything else
in their own time.
My son did have some obvious (to me, a trained social worker/therapist)
perceptual issues that we worked on through play, kung fu, and some fun
dancing at home. Also, when they were watching me read aloud, I would
trace the text with my finger in the direction in which we write. I did
get a phonics book that gave a really good description of how to write well
(the physical act of writing, not style) so that I could model
appropriately and also to improve my own spelling.
There is also the book "Better Late than Early" which is old, but
reassuring about the so called 'milestones' by Dr and Mrs Moore.
Chris
On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 3:00 PM, emstrength3 <emstrength@...> wrote:
> **
>
>
> Are there any links with examples of dyslexic kids learning to read?
> Someone on another message board has an 8.5 year old who is not yet reading
> and she is concerned because of his dyslexia. I'd like to give her a link
> if possible.
>
> Emily
>
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
megates
I was going to say almost everything that Chris said in message 65348.
My Jackie didn't read (fluently, independently) until about age 13, but she grew up in a houseful of reading, readers, audio books, magazines, library visits, attending live theater, watching TV/movies together, and lots of other things that were not reading-dependent, etc.
I think she was/is/has/had dyslexia, but will never know, because I never tried to get a professional opinion. Can people be cured of dyslexia? If you get over it, does it mean you never really had it?
One problem with answering your question is that dyslexia is rarely diagnosed in kids who don't go to school, so it will be hard to find sample kids who "officially" are dyslexic, yet learn to read without "intervention."
Our biggest struggle was how to navigate people (whether it be the girl scouts troop leader or a concerned relative) who thought it was a problem that she was not meeting their reading expectation.
We are beyond that now. She is 16 1/2 and reads just fine.
Mary Ellen
My Jackie didn't read (fluently, independently) until about age 13, but she grew up in a houseful of reading, readers, audio books, magazines, library visits, attending live theater, watching TV/movies together, and lots of other things that were not reading-dependent, etc.
I think she was/is/has/had dyslexia, but will never know, because I never tried to get a professional opinion. Can people be cured of dyslexia? If you get over it, does it mean you never really had it?
One problem with answering your question is that dyslexia is rarely diagnosed in kids who don't go to school, so it will be hard to find sample kids who "officially" are dyslexic, yet learn to read without "intervention."
Our biggest struggle was how to navigate people (whether it be the girl scouts troop leader or a concerned relative) who thought it was a problem that she was not meeting their reading expectation.
We are beyond that now. She is 16 1/2 and reads just fine.
Mary Ellen
Meredith
"megates" <goodlifehomeschool@...> wrote:
A lot of kids grow out of it - it's fairly normal for younger kids - up to 9 or 10 I think - to reverse letters and numbers. It's not so much a "cure" as something developmental for those kids. That's one of the (many) downsides of the trend to try and get kids reading earlier and earlier.
Mo's 10 and still reverses some letters and numbers. It's too soon to know if it's something she'll continue to do into adulthood or not. She read early, though. Dyslexia doesn't necessarily make it harder to learn to read.
---Meredith
>Can people be cured of dyslexia? If you get over it, does it mean you never really had it?****************
A lot of kids grow out of it - it's fairly normal for younger kids - up to 9 or 10 I think - to reverse letters and numbers. It's not so much a "cure" as something developmental for those kids. That's one of the (many) downsides of the trend to try and get kids reading earlier and earlier.
Mo's 10 and still reverses some letters and numbers. It's too soon to know if it's something she'll continue to do into adulthood or not. She read early, though. Dyslexia doesn't necessarily make it harder to learn to read.
---Meredith
Claire Darbaud
My son is 8. And he doesn't read yet.
If he had stayed in school, teachers would be encouraging us to go to a
therapist for some kind of learning disorder... but we're unschooling and
we'll use the money and time for fun games and outings instead :-)
One of the thing that really helped me let go of my worries and trust that
my child would be ok was reading a lot of stuff about sudbury school. The
original Sudbury school in Massachusetts has been running for 44 years now,
they have around 200 students at a time. So they must have seen over 5000
student in all these years (my rough estimates). They don't teach reading
at all. And yet all the kids that come out of Sudbury are readers. All of
them. Some break the code really early, most start reading around age 7-8,
some don't read until well in their teens. But they ALL read by the time
they get out. And Greenberg says they have not had a single case of
Dyslexia in all those years!
It might be strange to use a school to prove the point of unschooling, but
it really helped me because, statistically, the "not a single case of
dyslexia" in over 40 years means it really works for all children. Before I
read about Sudbury, I had some vague "ok, it worked for Sandra... and
Pam... and Schuyler... and Deb and... but what if it doesn't work for my
particular child? Maybe it only worked because these women are
exceptionnaly dedicated and talented, what if I am not a good enough
unschooling mum and I ruin it all?" Reading about Sudbury helped me ease
these worries...
I have completely lost interest in finding out what kind of strange and
limiting label the school system might attach to my son's learning. And
feel really good about that :-)
My 2 cents.
Claire
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
If he had stayed in school, teachers would be encouraging us to go to a
therapist for some kind of learning disorder... but we're unschooling and
we'll use the money and time for fun games and outings instead :-)
One of the thing that really helped me let go of my worries and trust that
my child would be ok was reading a lot of stuff about sudbury school. The
original Sudbury school in Massachusetts has been running for 44 years now,
they have around 200 students at a time. So they must have seen over 5000
student in all these years (my rough estimates). They don't teach reading
at all. And yet all the kids that come out of Sudbury are readers. All of
them. Some break the code really early, most start reading around age 7-8,
some don't read until well in their teens. But they ALL read by the time
they get out. And Greenberg says they have not had a single case of
Dyslexia in all those years!
It might be strange to use a school to prove the point of unschooling, but
it really helped me because, statistically, the "not a single case of
dyslexia" in over 40 years means it really works for all children. Before I
read about Sudbury, I had some vague "ok, it worked for Sandra... and
Pam... and Schuyler... and Deb and... but what if it doesn't work for my
particular child? Maybe it only worked because these women are
exceptionnaly dedicated and talented, what if I am not a good enough
unschooling mum and I ruin it all?" Reading about Sudbury helped me ease
these worries...
I have completely lost interest in finding out what kind of strange and
limiting label the school system might attach to my son's learning. And
feel really good about that :-)
My 2 cents.
Claire
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Laureen
Heya
On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 4:00 AM, Claire Darbaud <cdarbaud@...> wrote:
> I have completely lost interest in finding out what kind of strange and
> limiting label the school system might attach to my son's learning. And
> feel really good about that :-)
>
When Rowan, my oldest, was 5 or 6, he was still exploring whether a letter
or number drawn in red crayon was the same as it was if drawn in purple,
whether on construction paper or on chalkboards or sidewalks... it really
mattered to him. In his mind, each one was different, and he was
consolidating.
One day, he was writing his brother's name, which is Kestrel. He was doing
it in block capitals. (this is a visual; you might want to go get a piece
of paper to do it yourself). He wrote K and then E and then S, but
backwards. My husband told him it was backwards. He sat and stared at the
paper for a long time, maybe five minutes. Then, with a big smile, he
rotated the paper 180, and wrote T-R-E-L, but also backwards.
For those of you who don't try it, what happens is you get the whole name
with all of the letters facing the same way, in mirror-writing.
Da Vinci did it that way. So did my son. Was he dyslexic? Technically, yes.
Does that mean anything at all? No, not really.
Our world doesn't give kids that critical five minutes. They need them.
--
~~L!
s/v Excellent Adventure
http://www.theexcellentadventure.com/
"The greatest expression of rebellion is *joy*."
— Joss Whedon
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
-=-Da Vinci did it that way. So did my son. Was he dyslexic? Technically, yes.
Does that mean anything at all? No, not really.-=-
No, not dyslexic.
Often children start learning direction from a mid point, and whichever way they go with the first letter, they know the next letter in relationship to that, so if the first letter is written backwards, they'll go to the left, writing things backwards. It's called something about midpoint lateral I-don't-know-what.
It's cool, but it's not dyslexia.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Does that mean anything at all? No, not really.-=-
No, not dyslexic.
Often children start learning direction from a mid point, and whichever way they go with the first letter, they know the next letter in relationship to that, so if the first letter is written backwards, they'll go to the left, writing things backwards. It's called something about midpoint lateral I-don't-know-what.
It's cool, but it's not dyslexia.
Sandra
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Sandra Dodd
I probably should've said dyslexia itself isn't "a disease" in my experience. It's just that some people aren't as particular about left to right as others. And those lefties who are good at mathematical reasoning (like my husband, like my son Marty) very often find it awkward to form letters by hand but can go like blazes with a keyboard.
Sandra
Sandra
sandralynndodd
-=- It's called something about midpoint lateral I-don't-know-what. -=-
Midline something, I remembered just as I hit send.
That gave me enough to look it up. There's a world of stuff like this online: "Before six or seven years of age, the vertical midline of the child is not fully integrated."
Guess what? EVERY child, in school or not, "integrates the vertical midline" in his own way, one way or another, and there's no hurry for homeschoolers.
Sandra
Midline something, I remembered just as I hit send.
That gave me enough to look it up. There's a world of stuff like this online: "Before six or seven years of age, the vertical midline of the child is not fully integrated."
Guess what? EVERY child, in school or not, "integrates the vertical midline" in his own way, one way or another, and there's no hurry for homeschoolers.
Sandra
chris ester
On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 7:00 AM, Claire Darbaud <cdarbaud@...> wrote:
f***ing up my kid?!?!?" fear that many parents have.
This is probably a source of anxiety for most parents at some time,
regardless of their lifestyle. I do think that getting the validation of
following the status quo probably makes things easier though.
It seems to take more mental energy to both engage in a conscious, mindful
relationship with your child and your family in a learning lifestyle
*AND*cope with the various Doubting Thomases in life that you either
meet along
the way or are related to by marriage or birth.
that can creep in from time to time. You have to continually examine how
life is going, and how you are all growing (everyone in your family)
together and separately as humans and as a family, but often there is
little outside support to give a fresh perspective. Hence why this list
(and some few others) are so great. There isn't so much judgement as a
clear, honest (and so occasionally uncomfortable) reflection of what you
bring to the group.
Chris
> **unschooling life is what I call the "Am I
>
>
> >>>>>>>>My son is 8. And he doesn't read yet.
>
> Before I read about Sudbury, I had some vague "ok, it worked for
> Sandra... and
> Pam... and Schuyler... and Deb and... but what if it doesn't work for my
> particular child? Maybe it only worked because these women are
> exceptionnaly dedicated and talented, what if I am not a good enough
> unschooling mum and I ruin it all?" Reading about Sudbury helped me ease
> these worries...<<<<<<<<<
>
> I think that one of the biggest barriers to a truly joyful radical
f***ing up my kid?!?!?" fear that many parents have.
This is probably a source of anxiety for most parents at some time,
regardless of their lifestyle. I do think that getting the validation of
following the status quo probably makes things easier though.
It seems to take more mental energy to both engage in a conscious, mindful
relationship with your child and your family in a learning lifestyle
*AND*cope with the various Doubting Thomases in life that you either
meet along
the way or are related to by marriage or birth.
> >>>>>I have completely lost interest in finding out what kind of strangeI think that this sort of confidence helps to combat all of the doubts
> and
> limiting label the school system might attach to my son's learning. And
> feel really good about that :-)
>
> My 2 cents.
> Claire<<<<<<
>
that can creep in from time to time. You have to continually examine how
life is going, and how you are all growing (everyone in your family)
together and separately as humans and as a family, but often there is
little outside support to give a fresh perspective. Hence why this list
(and some few others) are so great. There isn't so much judgement as a
clear, honest (and so occasionally uncomfortable) reflection of what you
bring to the group.
Chris
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
chris ester
This is an interesting article from the New York Times about the "Upside of
Dyslexia"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-upside-of-dyslexia.html
I cut and pasted the article in case you can't open it as the Times is
pretty tight about sharing.
I think that if anyone were willing to test the theory, they would find
that the majority of 'dyslexics' will learn to read, but at the later end
of the very large 'normal' curve of age of reading acquisition.
Chris
The Upside of Dyslexia By ANNIE MURPHY PAUL
THE word �dyslexia� evokes painful struggles with reading, and indeed this
learning disability causes much difficulty for the estimated 15 percent of
Americans affected by it. Since the phenomenon of �word blindness� was
first documented more than a century ago, scientists have searched for the
causes of dyslexia, and for therapies to treat it. In recent years,
however, dyslexia research has taken a surprising turn: identifying the
ways in which people with dyslexia have skills that are superior to those
of typical readers. The latest findings on dyslexia are leading to a new
way of looking at the condition: not just as an impediment, but as an
advantage, especially in certain artistic and scientific fields.
Enlarge This Image
Tucker Nichols
Dyslexia is a complex disorder, and there is much that is still not
understood about it. But a series of ingenious experiments have shown that
many people with dyslexia possess distinctive perceptual abilities. For
example, scientists have produced a growing body of evidence that people
with the condition have sharper peripheral vision than others. Gadi
Geiger<http://cbcl.mit.edu/people/geiger/geiger-new.html>and Jerome
Lettvin, cognitive scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, used a mechanical shutter, called a tachistoscope, to briefly
flash a row of letters extending from the center of a subject�s field of
vision out to its perimeter. Typical readers identified the letters in the
middle of the row with greater accuracy. Those with dyslexia triumphed,
however, when asked to identify letters located in the row�s outer reaches.
Mr. Geiger and Mr. Lettvin�s findings, which have been confirmed in several
subsequent studies, provide a striking demonstration of the fact that the
brain separately processes information that streams from the central and
the peripheral areas of the visual field. Moreover, these capacities appear
to trade off: if you�re adept at focusing on details located in the center
of the visual field, which is key to reading, you�re likely to be less
proficient at recognizing features and patterns in the broad regions of the
periphery.
The opposite is also the case. People with dyslexia, who have a bias in
favor of the visual periphery, can rapidly take in a scene as a whole �
what researchers call absorbing the �visual gist.�
Intriguing evidence that those with dyslexia process information from the
visual periphery more quickly also comes from the study of �impossible
figures,� like those sketched by the artist M. C. Escher. A focus on just
one element of his complicated drawings can lead the viewer to believe that
the picture represents a plausible physical arrangement.
A more capacious view that takes in the entire scene at once, however,
reveals that Escher�s staircases really lead nowhere, that the water in his
fountains is flowing up rather than down � that they are, in a word,
impossible. Dr. Catya von
K�rolyi<http://www.uwec.edu/Psyc/faculty/vonkarolyi.htm>,
an associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Eau
Claire, found that people with dyslexia identified simplified Escher-like
pictures as impossible or possible in an average of 2.26 seconds; typical
viewers tend to take a third longer. �The compelling implication of this
finding,� wrote Dr. Von K�rolyi and her co-authors in the journal Brain and
Language, �is that dyslexia should not be characterized only by deficit,
but also by talent.�
The discovery of such talents inevitably raises questions about whether
these faculties translate into real-life skills. Although people with
dyslexia are found in every profession, including law, medicine and
science, observers have long noted that they populate fields like art and
design in unusually high numbers. Five years ago, the Yale Center for
Dyslexia and Creativity <http://dyslexia.yale.edu/> was founded to
investigate and illuminate the strengths of those with dyslexia, while the
seven-year-old Laboratory for Visual
Learning<http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/dyslexia/LVL/>,
located within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is
exploring the advantages conferred by dyslexia in visually intensive
branches of science. The director of the laboratory, the astrophysicist Matthew
Schneps <http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/dyslexia/LVL/People/Matt.html>, notes
that scientists in his line of work must make sense of enormous quantities
of visual data and accurately detect patterns that signal the presence of
entities like black holes.
A pair of experiments conducted by Mr. Schneps and his colleagues,
published in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society in 2011,
suggests that dyslexia may enhance the ability to carry out such tasks. In
the first study, Mr. Schneps reported that when shown radio signatures �
graphs of radio-wave emissions from outer space � astrophysicists with
dyslexia at times outperformed their nondyslexic colleagues in identifying
the distinctive characteristics of black holes.
In the second study, Mr. Schneps deliberately blurred a set of photographs,
reducing high-frequency detail in a manner that made them resemble
astronomical images. He then presented these pictures to groups of dyslexic
and nondyslexic undergraduates. The students with dyslexia were able to
learn and make use of the information in the images, while the typical
readers failed to catch on.
Given that dyslexia is universally referred to as a �learning disability,�
the latter experiment is especially remarkable: in some situations, it
turns out, those with dyslexia are actually the superior learners.
Mr. Schneps�s study is not the only one of its kind. In 2006, James Howard
Jr. <http://psychology.cua.edu/faculty/howard.cfm>, a professor of
psychology at the Catholic University of America, described in the journal
Neuropsychologia an experiment in which participants were asked to pick out
the letter T from a sea of L�s floating on a computer screen. Those with
dyslexia learned to identify the letter more quickly.
Whatever special abilities dyslexia may bestow, difficulty with reading
still imposes a handicap. Glib talk about appreciating dyslexia as a �gift�
is unhelpful at best and patronizing at worst. But identifying the
distinctive aptitudes of those with dyslexia will permit us to understand
this condition more completely, and perhaps orient their education in a
direction that not only remediates weaknesses, but builds on strengths.
Annie Murphy Paul is the
author<http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Annie-Murphy-Paul/18895973>of
�Origins.� She is at work on a book about the science of learning.
Dyslexia"
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-upside-of-dyslexia.html
I cut and pasted the article in case you can't open it as the Times is
pretty tight about sharing.
I think that if anyone were willing to test the theory, they would find
that the majority of 'dyslexics' will learn to read, but at the later end
of the very large 'normal' curve of age of reading acquisition.
Chris
The Upside of Dyslexia By ANNIE MURPHY PAUL
THE word �dyslexia� evokes painful struggles with reading, and indeed this
learning disability causes much difficulty for the estimated 15 percent of
Americans affected by it. Since the phenomenon of �word blindness� was
first documented more than a century ago, scientists have searched for the
causes of dyslexia, and for therapies to treat it. In recent years,
however, dyslexia research has taken a surprising turn: identifying the
ways in which people with dyslexia have skills that are superior to those
of typical readers. The latest findings on dyslexia are leading to a new
way of looking at the condition: not just as an impediment, but as an
advantage, especially in certain artistic and scientific fields.
Enlarge This Image
Tucker Nichols
Dyslexia is a complex disorder, and there is much that is still not
understood about it. But a series of ingenious experiments have shown that
many people with dyslexia possess distinctive perceptual abilities. For
example, scientists have produced a growing body of evidence that people
with the condition have sharper peripheral vision than others. Gadi
Geiger<http://cbcl.mit.edu/people/geiger/geiger-new.html>and Jerome
Lettvin, cognitive scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, used a mechanical shutter, called a tachistoscope, to briefly
flash a row of letters extending from the center of a subject�s field of
vision out to its perimeter. Typical readers identified the letters in the
middle of the row with greater accuracy. Those with dyslexia triumphed,
however, when asked to identify letters located in the row�s outer reaches.
Mr. Geiger and Mr. Lettvin�s findings, which have been confirmed in several
subsequent studies, provide a striking demonstration of the fact that the
brain separately processes information that streams from the central and
the peripheral areas of the visual field. Moreover, these capacities appear
to trade off: if you�re adept at focusing on details located in the center
of the visual field, which is key to reading, you�re likely to be less
proficient at recognizing features and patterns in the broad regions of the
periphery.
The opposite is also the case. People with dyslexia, who have a bias in
favor of the visual periphery, can rapidly take in a scene as a whole �
what researchers call absorbing the �visual gist.�
Intriguing evidence that those with dyslexia process information from the
visual periphery more quickly also comes from the study of �impossible
figures,� like those sketched by the artist M. C. Escher. A focus on just
one element of his complicated drawings can lead the viewer to believe that
the picture represents a plausible physical arrangement.
A more capacious view that takes in the entire scene at once, however,
reveals that Escher�s staircases really lead nowhere, that the water in his
fountains is flowing up rather than down � that they are, in a word,
impossible. Dr. Catya von
K�rolyi<http://www.uwec.edu/Psyc/faculty/vonkarolyi.htm>,
an associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Eau
Claire, found that people with dyslexia identified simplified Escher-like
pictures as impossible or possible in an average of 2.26 seconds; typical
viewers tend to take a third longer. �The compelling implication of this
finding,� wrote Dr. Von K�rolyi and her co-authors in the journal Brain and
Language, �is that dyslexia should not be characterized only by deficit,
but also by talent.�
The discovery of such talents inevitably raises questions about whether
these faculties translate into real-life skills. Although people with
dyslexia are found in every profession, including law, medicine and
science, observers have long noted that they populate fields like art and
design in unusually high numbers. Five years ago, the Yale Center for
Dyslexia and Creativity <http://dyslexia.yale.edu/> was founded to
investigate and illuminate the strengths of those with dyslexia, while the
seven-year-old Laboratory for Visual
Learning<http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/dyslexia/LVL/>,
located within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, is
exploring the advantages conferred by dyslexia in visually intensive
branches of science. The director of the laboratory, the astrophysicist Matthew
Schneps <http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/dyslexia/LVL/People/Matt.html>, notes
that scientists in his line of work must make sense of enormous quantities
of visual data and accurately detect patterns that signal the presence of
entities like black holes.
A pair of experiments conducted by Mr. Schneps and his colleagues,
published in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society in 2011,
suggests that dyslexia may enhance the ability to carry out such tasks. In
the first study, Mr. Schneps reported that when shown radio signatures �
graphs of radio-wave emissions from outer space � astrophysicists with
dyslexia at times outperformed their nondyslexic colleagues in identifying
the distinctive characteristics of black holes.
In the second study, Mr. Schneps deliberately blurred a set of photographs,
reducing high-frequency detail in a manner that made them resemble
astronomical images. He then presented these pictures to groups of dyslexic
and nondyslexic undergraduates. The students with dyslexia were able to
learn and make use of the information in the images, while the typical
readers failed to catch on.
Given that dyslexia is universally referred to as a �learning disability,�
the latter experiment is especially remarkable: in some situations, it
turns out, those with dyslexia are actually the superior learners.
Mr. Schneps�s study is not the only one of its kind. In 2006, James Howard
Jr. <http://psychology.cua.edu/faculty/howard.cfm>, a professor of
psychology at the Catholic University of America, described in the journal
Neuropsychologia an experiment in which participants were asked to pick out
the letter T from a sea of L�s floating on a computer screen. Those with
dyslexia learned to identify the letter more quickly.
Whatever special abilities dyslexia may bestow, difficulty with reading
still imposes a handicap. Glib talk about appreciating dyslexia as a �gift�
is unhelpful at best and patronizing at worst. But identifying the
distinctive aptitudes of those with dyslexia will permit us to understand
this condition more completely, and perhaps orient their education in a
direction that not only remediates weaknesses, but builds on strengths.
Annie Murphy Paul is the
author<http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Annie-Murphy-Paul/18895973>of
�Origins.� She is at work on a book about the science of learning.
On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 11:59 PM, megates <goodlifehomeschool@...>wrote:
> **
>
>
> I was going to say almost everything that Chris said in message 65348.
>
> My Jackie didn't read (fluently, independently) until about age 13, but
> she grew up in a houseful of reading, readers, audio books, magazines,
> library visits, attending live theater, watching TV/movies together, and
> lots of other things that were not reading-dependent, etc.
>
> I think she was/is/has/had dyslexia, but will never know, because I never
> tried to get a professional opinion. Can people be cured of dyslexia? If
> you get over it, does it mean you never really had it?
>
> One problem with answering your question is that dyslexia is rarely
> diagnosed in kids who don't go to school, so it will be hard to find sample
> kids who "officially" are dyslexic, yet learn to read without
> "intervention."
>
> Our biggest struggle was how to navigate people (whether it be the girl
> scouts troop leader or a concerned relative) who thought it was a problem
> that she was not meeting their reading expectation.
>
> We are beyond that now. She is 16 1/2 and reads just fine.
>
> Mary Ellen
>
>
>
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sheeboo2
----Guess what? EVERY child, in school or not, "integrates the vertical midline" in
his own way, one way or another, and there's no hurry for homeschoolers.-----
After my mom died, while I was cleaning and packing up her house, I found notebooks with all kinds of backward writing. Lists mostly: grocery, 'to-do,' notes for class (she was a professor).
Pages and pages of words, sometimes even complete sentences, written in perfect handwriting, backwards.
My mom and I were very close, although she drove me crazy, and as an adult I lived 5000-10000 miles away. I never knew she could write backwards with what seemed like probable ease. I wish I would have known, and been able to ask her about it. It feels like a huge piece of her that I missed.
I realize that being a mother - knowing a daughter, is different than the other way around, being a daughter - knowing a mother. But I'm glad that I'm not missing out on knowing all the big and little pieces of how Noor experiences the world. I'm glad I've learned not to judge or despair how she processes information.
My mom was a special-education teacher and a speech therapist. My brother considers himself severely dyslexic. I wonder how much of both of those things were influenced by what may have been a need to hide fulfillment in writing backwards.
Brie
his own way, one way or another, and there's no hurry for homeschoolers.-----
After my mom died, while I was cleaning and packing up her house, I found notebooks with all kinds of backward writing. Lists mostly: grocery, 'to-do,' notes for class (she was a professor).
Pages and pages of words, sometimes even complete sentences, written in perfect handwriting, backwards.
My mom and I were very close, although she drove me crazy, and as an adult I lived 5000-10000 miles away. I never knew she could write backwards with what seemed like probable ease. I wish I would have known, and been able to ask her about it. It feels like a huge piece of her that I missed.
I realize that being a mother - knowing a daughter, is different than the other way around, being a daughter - knowing a mother. But I'm glad that I'm not missing out on knowing all the big and little pieces of how Noor experiences the world. I'm glad I've learned not to judge or despair how she processes information.
My mom was a special-education teacher and a speech therapist. My brother considers himself severely dyslexic. I wonder how much of both of those things were influenced by what may have been a need to hide fulfillment in writing backwards.
Brie
Sandra Dodd
In Jr. High when I was bored I learned to write backwards. I would write out song lyrics. I would take requests from my friends, write them out backwards, and they would take them home and either tape them to a window so the light shone through, or by a mirror.
My handwriting evolved, and I adopted the kinds of capital letters my high school boyfriend did (I really liked his handwriting), and years passed. My own handwriting changed, but my backward handwriting still looks like my 12 and 13 year old hand.
http://sandradodd.com/handwriting
My handwriting evolved, and I adopted the kinds of capital letters my high school boyfriend did (I really liked his handwriting), and years passed. My own handwriting changed, but my backward handwriting still looks like my 12 and 13 year old hand.
http://sandradodd.com/handwriting
Colleen
***In Jr. High when I was bored I learned to write backwards. I would write out song lyrics. ***
When I was in junior high, I broke my right arm (I'm right handed). So I tried to learn to write with my left hand - and I quickly discovered that my left hand naturally wanted to write in mirror image. It took conscious effort to write "frontwards" with my left hand, but no effort whatsoever to write backwards with my left hand.
When my right arm was done being in a cast, I discovered that I could write the same words/sentences/etc. simultaneously frontwards with my right hand and backwards with my left hand.
I don't know what exactly this says about left- and right-brains and handwriting and such, but I found it super interesting - and super fun to experiment with :-)
Colleen
When I was in junior high, I broke my right arm (I'm right handed). So I tried to learn to write with my left hand - and I quickly discovered that my left hand naturally wanted to write in mirror image. It took conscious effort to write "frontwards" with my left hand, but no effort whatsoever to write backwards with my left hand.
When my right arm was done being in a cast, I discovered that I could write the same words/sentences/etc. simultaneously frontwards with my right hand and backwards with my left hand.
I don't know what exactly this says about left- and right-brains and handwriting and such, but I found it super interesting - and super fun to experiment with :-)
Colleen
Sandra Dodd
-=-When my right arm was done being in a cast, I discovered that I could write the same words/sentences/etc. simultaneously frontwards with my right hand and backwards with my left hand.-=-
I loved piano exercises that went like that, both hands working the same patterns from the middle out toward either end.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I loved piano exercises that went like that, both hands working the same patterns from the middle out toward either end.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Ed Wendell
I saw a video yesterday on YouTube of a news cast where a girl could say any word backwards - they would throw out words and she would immediately say it backwards. She said she could see it backwards in her mind and then say it backwards - all that fast. She said it was just fun and really had no other use other than to have fun.
Lisa W.
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Lisa W.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]