Figuring Out My World: Alison May

The BDA Dyslexia Friendly Schools Pack for Teachers (2009) provides an overall guide of what dyslexia is and how a dyslexia friendly school should be delivering education to the dyslexic learner. The writers begin with a definition of dyslexia stating that “dyslexia is a learning difference, a combination of strengths and weaknesses”. This is an informative definition as opposed to the recommendation of Norwich et al (2005) that exemplary schools should promote an inclusive school system whereby dyslexia is considered but not in isolation. The BDA (2009) state that importance ought to be

Samantha Abeel’s memoir My Thirteenth Winter is a prodigious example of how a learning diablility can affect someone’s life. “You have a learing diability?But you can’t be learning diabled. . . . .I mean. . . . . you don’t look it at all!”Many teachers like in the sentence above don’t know or understand the enormity of what a learning disability is.When she started kindergarten she knew something was wrong.She was different from everyone else.She couldn’t tell time or remember her schedule.she slowly started to fall behind in school.Causing her feelings to be formidable about it.Her learning disability caused her aloofness to increase,as she gradually became less closer to her friends and family.Since she was a savent in most classes especially

First, Ruth’s presentation about dyslexia was very intriguing to me because it gave me the opportunity to dig deep into a topic that is currently very controversial at my school. That is, I have three students who are struggling readers that the Special Education teacher believes are showing signs of dyslexia. However, in my work with all three students, I noticed one or two struggles, but I don’t think it’s enough to start announcing that these students are dyslexic. For example, one common struggle is that they sometime replace the letter “d” with the letter “b.” But apart from that struggle, when I provide reading support to these students, they perform just as well as their peers in regards to sounding out words and phrases. Thus, after Ruth presented, I wanted to know more about dyslexia, so I asked, “is there different levels of dyslexia such as mild, moderate, and severe?” To my surprise, the professor responded, either you’re dyslexic or you’re not; there is no in-between. As I am now reflecting on this experience in class, I now have another question that is nagging at me: considering everything I’ve said about these three young ladies, do you think it’s possible that these students are dyslexic? Truth be told, I also struggled with distinguishing between the letters “d” and “b” as a child, but I don’t think I’m dyslexic; so what’s the next

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that makes it difficult to read, write and compensating speech. Many believe that having such a disorder is inherently an obstacle for success yet Gladwell proves otherwise: “Dyslexics are outsiders as well- they are forced to stand apart from everyone else at school because they can’t do the thing that school requires them to do” (81). This outsiderness causes some dyslexics to think creatively to keep up with their peers, which is where the advantage lies. David Boies, a prosperous lawyer with dyslexia, shows how an underdog can reach success with a desirable difficulty. Coming from a low income family and a rough city, Boies cheated. A lot. With only a high school diploma, Boies became a construction worker. Later, with motivation from his wife, he began to attend law school. His dyslexia made it difficult for him to do the amount of reading his peers did so instead he focused very intently every class, memorizing every word. When it came to trials, he had everything in his mind instead of in a book. Having difficulty reading made Boies listen more and push himself more to be recognized which became a blessing in disguise. Being an underdog is not always a disadvantage because it can help you reach your goals and find

Mary Emma Campbell, freshman human development and family life education major with a concentration in child life said, “This ended up being much more difficult than I expected, it gave me a glimpse of what dyslexic students deal with daily.”

It wasn’t until my bright seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Garver saw the signs of a dyslexic kid in me before the first quarter ended that I found out what dyslexia was. She told my mother what she thought I was dealing with and how we should go about learning if I even had dyslexia. After a week load of tests and my annoyance level raising, they told me I had dyslexia. I tried to ignore what they said, the help they tried to give me, and I decided I wasn’t going to believe them. I thought they were just making dyslexia up, that they were trying to make me look stupid. After long talks with my mother and my teachers where I told them I had no intention of going to special classes, they decide to instead give me extra time to finish assignments. The extra time to do assignments really did help, I would have to re-read any assignments given to me multiple times to understand them, and I would have my mother check any writing I did to make sure it made sense and wasn’t backwards.

There are many people suffering from dyslexia but most of them are considered dumb and parents do not take the alternative of taking their children to a medical checkup like Richard’s Wanderman parents did. That’s the reason why children are discriminated and many others don’t know the real problem of this child. It is difficult for a child with dyslexia to learn in a normal school because the teachers assume that the child is capable of learning, hence why the teacher do not give special attention to a child. Many children are going through the same problem, such as failure like Richard Wanderman. The reality is that children with such sickness deserve to be in a special school where they can have all the help needed to learn and improve their skills.

The book “Can’t Read, Can’t Write, Can’t Talk Too Good Either: How To Recognize And Overcome Dyslexia In Your Child,” discusses the difficulties a child faces when they have dyslexia. The book is broken down into three parts. In particular the book focuses on the difficulties of a child named Mike and his struggle with dyslexia from childhood to adulthood. Mike agreed to have some of the most difficult parts of his life told in hopes that it will help others in their struggle with dyslexia. The book then goes on to give insight on how parents deal with a child that has dyslexia and also gives information on how recognize the signs of dyslexia in children. The book is

Every good teacher knows her job is to support the whole child, not just the academic one. This is even more important for students with dyslexia. They experience significant struggles in school as compared to their peers and are often keenly aware of it. This is especially true if they have not been provided with appropriate early intervention (Eide & Eide 205). They can be frustrated with themselves and with the system as a whole, leading to stress, a negative self-image, and a negative perspective of school. Parents and teachers must work together to assure students with dyslexia develop confidence, a healthy self-esteem, and a realistic and positive understanding of their strengths and struggles. Research suggests that the best way to do this includes both internal and

As an individual with dyslexia, both Jonathan Mooney’s book and lecture were incredibly meaningful to me. Much of what he said really hit home because I experienced similar prejudices as a kid. During elementary school, I was in the “special” reading group and everyone knew it. It made me feel so terrible about myself that from elementary school on I just completely hid the fact that I was dyslexic all together. I didn’t tell teachers and I never asked for more time to complete exams. I didn’t want to be the dumb kid that need more time or attention from the teacher. I also didn’t ever want an excuse for my poor performance. I wanted to own my failures and not just pass it off to being dyslexic. So, I mostly hid my “disability”.

LD had LS join afterschool homework help for additional tutoring, saw the school psychologist once a week in school. Her support consisted of the school accommodations with test taking, note taking, and essay writing within the IEP. After school LS saw a private psychologist once a week, and received minimal homework help outside of school, due to the high demands of the family. Due to the tensions between the school and family, communication was limited. LS always received her accommodations without objections from the school. She took modified tests in a resource room with the guidance of Special Education teachers. The tests were read aloud to LS, and the test format was predominantly multiple choice. When LS took notes in class they were photocopied, and occasionally had to fill in the blanks. On days that LS had to write extended response or short answer tests, the teacher wouldn’t grade the spelling errors due to the dyslexia. Instead, circled the miss spelled words to show LS what she was doing. The test taking accommodations worked well for her, and helped accommodate the dyslexia. Her class behavior got worse over 9th grade. LS wanted to fit in the student body, and was continuously seeking negative attention. Due to LS being in school in the 1970s the use of assistive technology wasn’t available for

I knew a person who went to school with me was born with a communication disorder and she couldn’t say her first words until she was in the 1st grade. The doctors told her parents that she had a neurological lag, but she was unsure what that meant. As of today she is 23 years old and she said that she doesn’t know what her diagnosis would be in today’s world but she does know the impact of what these early struggles had on her life. By the time she reached elementary school, she felt her differences. She felt like an outsider and that her school performances were poor, But it’s clear to her that she had both an expressive and receptive language disorder that impacted the way she processed and organized information. She said that when teachers

A girl named Alison grew up in a small town with both her parents and had several siblings. She was able to go to school and hang out with her friends whenever she wanted, but there was always something in the back of her head bothering her, the thought that her life was missing something, her life was incomplete. She lived a normal life, she grew up to be a nice young woman, and she even married the love of her life and had three beautiful girls with him. Alison never went through any hardships in life. Although Alison’s life seemed to be better than most, she still felt incomplete. Her, her husband and three daughters always went out and did many things as a family. They went to parties, went on camping trips, and even went to

Dyslexia is often thought of as a disability that makes something dumb or incompetent of reading, but this is far from the truth, it is not a disability that effects one’s intellectual knowledge. So what exactly is dyslexia? Dyslexia by definition is, “a General term for disorders that involve difficulty learning to read of interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect one’s general intelligence.” Dyslexia is more common then you make think, 70-80% of people with poor reading skills are likely to have dyslexia. It was found that one out of every five students, equivalent to 15-20% of the population has a reading based learning disability, only a quarter of these students actually receive the help that they need. Why am I bringing up dyslexia? Simply because it is a large issue in the school system. Students who suffer from this disability are not being

I have Dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. However, it doesn’t affect a person’s general intelligence. Living with Dyslexia is an everyday struggle. When I was younger, learning was something that I considered to be a nuisance; especially when I entered into middle school and high school. I noticed that there were things that I had trouble with that my peers didn’t seem to have a problem with.