Where do they go? The at least 15% of dyslexic children who don’t learn to read, write and spell like the rest. What do they do? How do you think they feel after being misunderstood and therefore treated poorly again and again? Do they all end up just like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson? What happens to the struggling readers who have neither support in school nor at home? Can we help them? I’ve heard of the School to Prison Pipeline, isn’t is sad that we actually have a term for letting down our students? Isn’t it time to seal off that pipeline and invest in all of our children?
I don’t pretend to have the answers to the questions above, I’m just a mom and I work with children that are in this vicious, messed up cycle and I have a few thoughts to share. When you work with children whose numerical age hasn’t even hit the double digit range and they already have behavioral issues in school, that’s sad. It’s sad because when children come to you who can’t write their name, write the alphabet, can’t rhyme, etc., common sense would dictate that the fact that they can’t read, write or spell very well is most likely the reason for the behavioral issues. Can you imagine the frustration of it all?
Am I pointing at the school system and blaming them? Nope. Am I pointing at the parents and blaming them? Nope. It’s time to stop blaming each other and start focusing on our children that are struggling in school because they struggle to read. It just seems like such a common sense thing, get it together and start working with one another.
Sometimes pushing for change and understanding can feel like, getting slapped upside the head, turning to see who did it and then getting slapped upside the head again. It’s frustrating working toward change when you find a member of the state legislature who is willing to listen and introduce legislation that will help to bring awareness, screening and training into our schools for our dyslexic children just to be forwarded a letter that they’ve received telling them that the bill is redundant. Just a tip, nothing about helping children is redundant and if the help was already there, we wouldn’t have bothered a legislator for a bill. However, things are now slowly changing with the help of the introduction of the legislation and that is awesome, you have to start somewhere. My optimistic side believes it is possible to get it done without legislation as well, but that would take a whole lot of organizations and people putting their own interests, agendas and egos aside in favor of our children's futures.
What is dyslexia? Google it. What is Orton-Gillingham? Google it. What isStructured Language Approach? Google it. It’s just that simple.
I don’t pretend to have the answers to the questions above, I’m just a mom and I work with children that are in this vicious, messed up cycle and I have a few thoughts to share. When you work with children whose numerical age hasn’t even hit the double digit range and they already have behavioral issues in school, that’s sad. It’s sad because when children come to you who can’t write their name, write the alphabet, can’t rhyme, etc., common sense would dictate that the fact that they can’t read, write or spell very well is most likely the reason for the behavioral issues. Can you imagine the frustration of it all?
Am I pointing at the school system and blaming them? Nope. Am I pointing at the parents and blaming them? Nope. It’s time to stop blaming each other and start focusing on our children that are struggling in school because they struggle to read. It just seems like such a common sense thing, get it together and start working with one another.
Sometimes pushing for change and understanding can feel like, getting slapped upside the head, turning to see who did it and then getting slapped upside the head again. It’s frustrating working toward change when you find a member of the state legislature who is willing to listen and introduce legislation that will help to bring awareness, screening and training into our schools for our dyslexic children just to be forwarded a letter that they’ve received telling them that the bill is redundant. Just a tip, nothing about helping children is redundant and if the help was already there, we wouldn’t have bothered a legislator for a bill. However, things are now slowly changing with the help of the introduction of the legislation and that is awesome, you have to start somewhere. My optimistic side believes it is possible to get it done without legislation as well, but that would take a whole lot of organizations and people putting their own interests, agendas and egos aside in favor of our children's futures.
What is dyslexia? Google it. What is Orton-Gillingham? Google it. What isStructured Language Approach? Google it. It’s just that simple.