George Archer, an American golfer won 12 tournaments on the PGA tour including one Master champion, which is one of golf;s four major championships in 1969. He came in tenth place in the US Open in 1969, 5th in 1971, and in 1968 he took 4th place in the PGA Championship.
George was a true golfing legand. He died in 2005 with a secret that his widow announced in Golf Magazine, that George was illiterate.
Dyslexia is real and we can prove it.
I have a pet peeve that I will share with you. It bothers me when a child has difficulty in school and it appears to me that someone should have the child tested to see what is going on and instead the teachers and parents all think the kid is lazy or a discipline problem. As a friend I find a way to help the child using academic compensating tricks to get them interested enough in the subject so they can finally grasp how they too can learn to learn. For me it isn’t about memorizing spelling words for one test and then forget them five minutes later. What has made the biggest difference in my life is that I learned to love to discover the answers. I love to figure out different ways to solve a problem. I love to learn and that is what we need to be sure each child leaves the academic system with.
Have you ever joined a group or a club and you just don’t feel welcome? Even adults that gather together can at times appear rude because they are excluding someone. This is usually not intentional, it could be totally Innocent.
Ask the adult or child that is not included if it makes a difference to them if the other participants did not realize their actions were being hurtful or not and that it is in ignorance that they are effectively not including them? Does this make the hurt any less?
The careless behavior of individuals whether it be teenage girls, young bullies or adults can have a profound effect on an individual that has self esteem issues to begin with. No one enjoys being bullied however the child that already has low self-esteem issues usually has thin skin and the pain cuts deeper than most. Even if they do not show this pain or admit how deeply it hurts.
The multiplication tables have been impossible for me to learn. I have a friend who
can’t memorize their facts either. My parents say do your best and learn some tricks
to help you get by.
My friends parents offered her $100 to learn through the 12 times table. We both tried to memorize the facts together so she could earn the money but it did not work. Neither of us learned the multiplication tables.
Just a few days after memorizing the facts neither of us were able to recall them. I was sad
that I couldn’t memorize the multiplication tables but worse than that now every
one knows that my friend and I don’t know the multiplication tables. My friend’s parents told everyone they
offered their daughter money to learn the math facts and still can’t do it.
They are even threatening to hold her back a grade until she memorizes the facts.
My friend is in 9th grade.
My neighbor just loaned my parents a kindergarten tape with the multiplication
tables sung to baby tunes. That didn’t make my day. I had to confess I knew each song
on the tape and can sing the songs when I play them, I am just unable to recall the songs
or the facts without the tape playing.
Everyone is worried about me. People have asked my parents if I might have a closed
head injury. They really think I am stupid.
Will I Ever memorize the multiplication tables?
I now know I may never memorize my multiplication facts and I will still be a productive member of society. I can use my fingers, or sing a song in my head , write down on paper or use a calculator. Dyslexia makes it very difficult to memorize random facts (like multiplication tables, your phone number, address, the months of the year, days of the week, the ABC’s or to memorize a sequence).
If your young child has these difficulties as well they should be tested for Dyslexia, including phonemic awareness.
According to Wikopedia.com:
“Phonemic awareness is needed because it can determine more than IQ, vocabulary and listening comprehension, how well a child will learn to read (Sensenbaugh, 1999). Phonemic awareness is needed not only for reading but spelling and writing also. If a child has complete phonemic awareness not only should they be able read, including words they have not seen before, but also they should be able to spell correctly without memorizing. Writing is another benefit of phonemic awareness; children should be able to express their thoughts using phonemic awareness even if he has never seen the word in print before. This can give a child a great satisfaction and higher self-esteem (McCulloch, 2001).”
Just as exercise regimens help our muscles become stronger and perform better, Carnegie Mellon scientists say specialized workouts for the brain can boost cognitive skills.
A new study of local fifth-graders found that 100 hours of remedial instruction not only improved the skills of struggling readers but also changed the way their brains activated when they comprehended written sentences.
Researchers say poor readers initially have less activation than good readers in the parietotemporal area of the brain. That’s the region responsible for decoding the sounds of written language and assembling them into words and phrases that make up a sentence.
However, remedial instruction increases the struggling readers’ activation to nearly normal levels.
The poor readers worked in groups of three for an hour a day with a “personal trainer” — a teacher specialized in administering a remedial reading program. The training included both word-decoding exercises — in which students were asked to recognize the word in its written form — and tasks in using reading comprehension strategies.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Ann Meyler and Tim Keller — research fellows at Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging (CCBI) — measured blood flow to all of the different parts of the brain while study participants were reading to arrive at their results.
“This study demonstrates how the plasticity of the human brain can work for the benefit of remedial learning,” said neuroscientist Marcel Just, director of the CCBI and senior author of the new study currently available on the website of the journal Neuropsychologia. “We are at the beginning of a new era of neuro-education.”
The study also showed that the increases in activation of the brain’s previously underactivating areas remained evident well after the intensive instruction had ended. And, when the children’s brains were scanned one year after instruction, their neural gains were not only maintained but became more solidified.
“With the right kind of intensive instruction, the brain can begin to permanently rewire itself and overcome reading deficits, even if it can’t entirely eliminate them,” Just said.
The brain imaging research was supported by a grant from the R.K. Mellon Foundation, as well as the National Institute of Mental Health and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In addition to Meyler and Keller, other study co-authors included Vladimir Cherkassky, of the CCBI, and John D.E. Gabriel, of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Carnegie Mellon University (2008, August 7). Remedial Instruction Rewires Dyslexic Brains, Provides Lasting Results, Study Shows.
Related Links: Download the Article | CCBI
Some Dyslexics may reverse letters or words but this is not the case with all individuals. A child may see the letter “b” as a “d” and may see words such as “ton” as “not.” Most of the reversals disapear by first grade even if they have dyslexia. Some children with dyslexia continue to reverse letters and words as they grow older. People with dyslexia have difficulty seeing the similarities and differences in letters and words and may struggle to pronounce new or unfamiliar words.
Dyslexia may result in difficulty communicating, and those affected may learn coping skills that make it difficult for others to know they are struggling. For instance dyslexics have difficulty selecting the right vocabulary to express their thoughts or ideas so they use words that are not their first choice in describing a particular situation. They may select easier words than they would have liked to. They may even choose not to comment because they can’t think of the right words.
Dyslexics may have trouble understanding instructions that are verbal or written that cannot be controlled at their own speed of processing. This leads others to fill in what they believe are the blanks. They have particular problems with lengthy instructions and complex ideas.They may not get the latest jokes being told but you would not know that because they are laughing as if they understand just so they can feel like they fit in.
Learning names of people, who they are related to, and in what profession can make for uncomfortable moments in a social setting. You are introducing your next to neighbor whom you talk to almost every day to your friend from school and you can’t think of your neighbors first name. While introducing them the neighbor seeing you don’t know her well enough to introduce her jumps in and tells your school friend her name. They chat for awhile and the entire time your feeling stupid or mad because you knew if given just a few more seconds could have remembered. Now your neighbor doesn’t think you like her and may even be mad at you.
Most dyslexics will have a challenging time learning a foreign language. It is important that the dyslexic be exposed to a second language early in life to help them begin the long process of learning another language. With most colleges now requiring a second language to graduate it is important to give your children a head start. Spanish and sign language are usually easier for dyslexics to learn as opposed to French or Japanese.
By treating your symptoms instead of the person a dyslexic can be a great asset to society. Without proper treatment for their dyslexia many dyslexics have low self-esteem, depression or anxiety. They also choose what college to go to based on if the dyslexia has been treated or not.
Untreated dyslexia will affect more than just their reading. It will effect their social skills, mathmatics and science. They many never discover what their true gifts are. All because someone did not want to properly diagnose and treat dyslexia.
Dyslexia is nothing to be shamed about in reverse most dyslexics are super gifted and creative in other areas. Society just hasn’t shown the value of these traits by kindergarten.
Many teenagers have asked; I feel stupid, I think I have dyslexia, I feel dumb when I can’t understand something, is this dyslexia? My parents think I am “stupid” and they are not afraid to tell me. Somehow they think by saying that you must be really dumb if you don’t know that; is somehow going to motivate me to try even harder. It is not working.
By telling a dyslexic they are stupid or dumb even when talking to a neighbor., “Yep my boy is not able to read yet and he is nine. I wonder if he should be in a special school.” This is embarrassing not motivating to anyone who hears these kinds of statements.
Many parents think their child is being lazy and use insults, punishments and bribery to get the children to just “do it”. This could be you if:
- Your parents grounded you to your room until you have finished writing your one page journal in first or second grade. After hours of tears and raised voices you finally finish the page. Your parents are thrilled and you celebrate with ice cream. You eat the ice cream and feel great they are proud of you but you feel exhausted from the mental effort required to write that one paper.
- Your parents have a stash of bribes to help you read or write a certain amount. Your parents just do not understand that rewards do not help. You just are not being taught the way you learn. It is like asking your parents who have never been in a pilots seat to sit behind a 747 turbo jet and having them just take it for a slow trip down the run way and back again. When they have successfully parked the airplane they can have free flights for a year for their entire family. But they have to do this in exactly one hour and the passengers could die if they do it wrong.
- They paid you a large amount of money to memorize your multiplication facts up to twelve or even to the tens. Other kids memorized their multiplication facts in second or third grade in what seemed like a weekend. I now know that anyone can memorize the facts to collect the $100.00 bill. However within a day they will have forgotten all the facts if they are a dyslexic. Most dyslexics will never memorize their multiplication facts, even as adults. It’s OK most adult dyslexics never need the skill of memorizing the multiplication tables. They can still do the math just not in their heads. They can use paper and pencil or a calculator. Many just trust what someone else tells them. The dyslexic will feel dumb inside but will try to hide that feeling from the rest of society.
- Being told that you will never make it in college because you can’t type, can’t take the harder English and math classes that are required to get you into college. By having a current evaluation from a Psycologist on file you can level the playing field. You can take the ACT or SAT with extra help, you can get into good colleges that are required by federal law to accommodate you and you can learn to type with the aid of the proper teaching method. Hey Mom and Dad, you need to learn Chinese from a Russian instructor and if you can’t do it then guess what; you must be really stupid. Don’t make a dyslexic learn the way you did because it is very difficult for them to do this.
Learning Disability is not a specific term; it is a category containing many specific disabilities, all of which cause learning to be difficult. The following definition of “learning disability” is used for legislative, financial, and educational purposes only. It is NOT a definition of dyslexia, which is one specific learning disability.
The term ‘learning disability’ means a disorder in one or more of the basic processes involved in understanding spoken or written language. It may show up as a problem in listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, or spelling or in a person’s ability to do math, despite at least average intelligence.
The term does not include children who have learning problems which are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or physical handicaps, or mental retardation, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
Dyslexia is a neurologically-based, often familial, disorder which interferes with the acquisition and processing of language. Varying in degrees of severity, it is manifested by difficulties in receptive and expressive language, including phonological processing, in reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and sometimes in arithmetic.
Dyslexia is not the result of lack of motivation, sensory impairment, inadequate instructional or environmental opportunities, or other limiting conditions, but may occur together with these conditions.
Although dyslexia is lifelong, individuals with dyslexia frequently respond successfully to timely and appropriate intervention.
Becomes visibly tired after reading for only a short time
