“The greatest stumbling block preventing a dyslexic child from realizing her potential is widespread ignorance about the true nature of dyslexia.”
“In a dyslexic student, so-called average scores on reading tests cannot measure the extraordinary effort that went into reading each word, to laboriously pronouncing it syllable by syllable, to rereading it over and over again until it began to sound right and make sense. ”
“… dyslexic readers are not automatic; to them reading remains effortful. …”
“Just how helpful it is for dyslexic students to be able to listen to digitized or recorded text is exemplified by stories of dyslexic students who endured years of struggle before they began using text-to-speech technology. For example, as one relieved dyslexic college senior explained:
I could remember just about everything I heard, but read too slowly to keep up, and so much effort was put into trying to get the words out that I had little comprehension afterwards. Once I began using text-to-speech technology, everything changed. I started to feel much better about myself. I really was learning the material and I no longer made excuses to avoid doing my work because it made me feel bad. The audio changed my life. For the first time ever, I got straight A’s.”
“Listening to the digitized books allows the student to participate in courses and to study at his level of understanding rather than be held back by his slow reading. Furthermore, digitized texts and text-to-speech technology introduce him to vocabulary words that he may not have encountered in his otherwise limited reading.”
“Having his texts digitized and available for text-to-speech technology helps give the student back his sense of independence. Accordingly, once a dyslexic child is in middle school or high school, plans should be made to have his textbooks digitized.”
” The automatic route to reading is unavailable to him [the dyslexic reader]. “
“Remember the goal: Maximize your strengths, minimize your weakness.”
“If you are a dyslexic reader, accommodations represent the bridge that connects you to your strengths and in the process allows you to reach your full potential.”
“Lack of fluency is the only true index of dyslexia in a bright adult.”
(2) From (Shaywitz, Sally. Overcoming Dyslexia, Penguin Random House, 2003, 338)
Vintage ISBN: 0-679-78159-5
“You will remember what you have heard much better than material you have read.”
“HOW EARLY SHOULD ACCOMMODATIONS BEGIN? Once a child is expected to write, to complete time-consuming class or homework assignments, and to take standardized tests, consideration should be given to providing accommodations. … By second or third grade, children struggling to read can be introduced to Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic [now Learning Ally]”
“Parents and students should contact RFB&D [Learning Ally] … , as soon as a reading difficulty is detected.”
“The recordings can be a student’s passport to the world of the reader.”
“Listening to books … allows the student to participate in courses and study at his level of understanding rather than be held back by his slow reading”
(3) From Dyslexia and the Americans With Disabilities Act: A Q&A with Dr. Sally Shaywitz
Putting Science before Mythology and Misunderstandings (11/8/2008)
“Educators have learned how to help children and young adults to read more accurately… However, no one has figured out how to overcome the lack of fluency. As a consequence, for dyslexic children and adults, instead of its being rapid and automatic, reading remains slow and effortful”
(4) From Shaywitz, Sally E., M.D., The New England Journal of Medicine: DYSLEXIA, v 338, #5, pp 307-312 )
“The developmental course of dyslexia has now been characterized. First, dyslexia is persistent; it does not go away.”
“The skills of readers with dyslexia, too, become more accurate over time, but they do not become automatic.”
“Residua of the phonologic deficit persist, so that reading remains effortful, even for the brightest people with childhood histories of dyslexia. (51)”
“In our current society when you can’t read quickly, that’s a disability.”
“students who are struggling to read should be given this wonderful gift [of audiobooks] early on because their friends are reading books and talking about them and reading newspapers. And this Child’s left out when they could participate if only they can hear it.”
“…our mission…Is to make sure that all this wonderful science is translated into policy and practice and part of that practice is to make sure that students who can think quickly but can’t read quickly have assistive technology…”
2029 A.D.(6) From [Kilpatrick, David A.] ISBN-10: 1118845242, Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Publication date: September 8, 2015
Kilpatrick emphasizes the critical and foundational role of phonemic awareness in reading acquisition and success.
(7) (other) From Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
In Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell says that we pay too much attention to what people are like and too little attention to the circumstances they’re born into.
