Dyslexia Research

As we have started navigating around "Dyslexia", I have realized how little I know, how little people in general know (including teachers, speaking from both my training and Phil's) about Dyslexia.  I think there is a common idea that it means there is something wrong or that dyslexia might be as simple as "they reverse their letters".  I have been reading a fantastic book (well, trying to anyway LOL...both in time and in understanding something complex) called the Dyslexic Advantage that is teaching me so much about thinking processes.  

I have heard, "Oh...I am sorry."  I am NOT sorry at all, not in the slightest.  I have children with gifted thinking (and some flip side challenges that come with it), but who wouldn't want to unlock this great potential!!  It is scary and overwhelming for me and I feel unqualified but I have felt some renewed vigor in my mission to homeschool and I am excited to see where this takes us.  I can feel a passion beginning to brew about dyslexia and sharing my experiences and research with others...after all, as many as 1 in 5 people are dyslexic.  How many dyslexic children go unrecognized, think they aren't smart, struggle, but have something wonderful to contribute to the world!  

I think too, anytime I study/research/learn about creation, I am in AWE of the creator.  I mean, I am just learning about the difference in how a dyslexic versus a non dyslexic thinks and organizes information and what part of the brain they are using...barely touching the surface of what the brain can do.  How marvelously it is designed...and to think about every brain ever created, all with similar working parts, all with differences...and that is just the human brain...extend that to animal species.  OY, it makes my head swim.  NO WAY that is just an accidental freak of nature that spontaneously happened, it couldn't be.  The odds are mathematically impossible (not to mention there has NEVER been anything living generated by something that is inanimate).  How do scientist especially, not fall down on their knees in worship when they are studying so deeply God's creation and design and how it all interacts together.    

Below is an example of a dyslexic thinker and a non dyslexic thinker.  

Two products, generated from the same gene pool, the same learning environment, the same grade (though 18 months age difference), the same teacher.  Both generated spontaneously of their own accord (ie, it wasn't an assignment), their own thinking, their own interest.  

*Also, I don't teach "spelling".  Personally, I find abstractly memorizing a list of words out of context of real life to be a waste of time.  LOL!

Can't you just see how differently their brains are thinking (minus the subject matter of fire guns and birthday plans LOL) - how they hear/process sound,  how they understand and apply "rules",  how they organize information both in their brains and on paper, how they are able to put into words their thinking (Sawyer had a complex oral description to go with his when he shared it with me - what he can verbalize and what he can write are worlds apart), Jubilee just put hers on the table at my place for me to see.   How many people might glance at the two examples and assign a label of intelligence and ability?  How many children might look at their own work in comparison to someone else's and assume they aren't smart.  How may dyslexics went through my classroom and were assumed to just be "slower" than the other children?







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