The New Narrative: a new vision of the first grader with dyslexia
The New Narrative: a new vision of the first grader with dyslexia
Students with dyslexia start school with good abilities, but research shows that after they start school, they experience declines in vocabulary, IQ, and general knowledge. We believe it’s because they’re not reading as much as other students. And that’s important because research shows that reading is where children acquire most of their new words. Let’s think about it, if your child is only reading 20% of the words in a day as the other students, they’re missing out on a lot of reading. They’re reading 80% fewer words than their classmates. They’re missing out on 80% of the opportunities for growing that vocabulary, as well as their general knowledge, and mental ability. It doesn’t have to be this way.
We can’t change the neurological makeup of our children with dyslexia, but we can change how we see them and their problems. We could have a new vision of that first grader with dyslexia. Instead of seeing a child who is about to start a long and difficult journey, struggling to overcome a disability, we could see a child with two small fixable problems, sounding out and spelling words. We could rejoice that like poor vision is corrected with glasses, our child’s poor ability for sounding out words can be corrected with reading by listening, and their poor ability for spelling words can be corrected with writing by speaking. They will learn to read visually, but since it won’t be rapid and automatic, they will have another reading option to stay caught up with everyone else.
Parents, instead of saying to your child, you can learn to sound out and spell words like everyone else, tell them the truth. And tell them that you will fix that problem at the get-go so that they will read and write along with their friends. Say you’re smart, you read better with your ears in your eyes, and you’re going to learn like everyone else. Tell them they won’t miss out on any class activity and won’t get stuck or behind the class struggling to keep up with reading or writing activities because they will be reading by listening at 250 to 350+ words per minute and writing by speaking as fast as they can speak. Tell them that they may have to be at the bottom of the class for sounding out and spelling words, but they could be at the top of the class for science, social studies, reading, writing, and learning. Remember, you can’t change the neurological makeup of your child, but you can change how you expect them to function in the classroom. And take it from me, that can change their life forever.
