Breaking Free From Dyslexia

If you’re a dyslexic, at least moderate to severe, you know what it’s like to feel… ashamed of your intelligence.  To feel… like you’re the only one who doesn’t get what everyone else is talking about.  To feel… like an idiot at work because the customer has told you their phone number 3 times and you’re still not sure if you have it right.  That happened to me more than once and it was so embarrassing.  Mainly because the customer was squinting their eyes at me, head tilted, looking at me as if they were wondering how I didn’t fall down more… (you know, from my lack of intelligence).
      

But that wasn’t the worst work experience for me.  I’d have to say, it was when the cash registers were down and I actually had to count money back to a customer.  Oh the horror….  It was one thing to write down a phone number incorrectly but a whole different ballgame when you give a customer incorrect change.  The stress of having a line a mile long with customers was normal but this anxiety was due to the fact, that you know numbers get all jumbled in your head.  Yes, even the simplest of math problems. 

I felt as though I was being transported back to school.  I was standing there, completely dazed, just like I did when I was looking at a math problem on the board.  My mind went blank as I thought about the numbers.  I remembered how I hated being called on to work out a math problem in front of the whole class.  I could “feel” everyone’s eyes on me. Everyone laughing at me.  My only saving grace was my allergies to the chalk or markers.  A sneezing fit would hit me and I would be asked to sit down.  What a relief!  That was the only time I was thankful for my allergies.

Despite my dyslexia and allergies, I did make good grades believe or not.  But that was all thanks to my Mom who worked tirelessly helping me do homework to truly get it in my head.  

Unfortunately making good grades didn’t help me feel any less stupid.  Thanks to certain people, like my first grade teacher, who gave me a 0 on a math worksheet.  Every answer was correct but transposed.  If only she would have taken a moment to see that the answers were only transposed.  She could have let me write them down again, but instead, she left the 0 on my record.  It’s sad that so many students still face this. 

Through bad experiences such as these, your child may never feel smart.  They too may feel ashamed and bound to their dyslexia.

So how can you help your child break free from feeling so ashamed?  How can you help them unscramble words, letters and numbers?  How can you keep them from letting dyslexia define them?

1)  Breaking free from dyslexia… for a child starts with knowing someone believes in them.  Someone showing them they are smart in many different ways.  Trust me, they are being shown all day how others view their intelligence whether it’s by a look, by being told “it’s not that hard” or by being punished because they couldn’t understand what was being taught. 

2)  Breaking free from dyslexia… isn’t about “curing” it.  It’s about being allowed to learn in your own way.  Knowing that’s it’s ok to learn it that way.  Help them understand why they struggle.  Henry Winkler has children’s books that may help your child understand why they think differently.  Most likely, they’ll struggle their whole life with dyslexia but understanding why, makes a huge difference. 

3)  Breaking free from dyslexia… isn’t about never feeling vulnerable about ones intelligence.  It is understanding that EVERYONE is smart, in their own way.  Only the sky is the limit!

4)  Breaking free from dyslexia… IS about being brave enough to try again and again until you get it!  I know as a Mom, I want to just kiss them and make it go away but thankfully my husband is great at encouraging our kids to keep trying.  To let them learn on their own at times.  He let go of the bicycle.  Don’t be afraid to do the same. 

Stop worrying…

look at the big picture and remember...
 they will learn… 

they WILL be ok... 
keep cheering them on!