by Mary Robinson
People with dyslexia are born with brains that think with images and ideas instead of words and phrases. They are born with a natural aptitude for three dimensional thought but not a natural tendency toward recognizing letters and words. This makes learning to read and spell especially difficult; but not impossible. A person with dyslexia can become literate with great amounts of good instruction, much effort, patients, support, and faith.
The good news is the silver lining in the dyslexic cloud: Many of the world's most awesome artists, auto mechanics, engineers, plumbers, inventors, scientists, architects, and more are and were dyslexic. It's important to overcome the disability by learning to read and write effectively; it's essential to discover and develop the unique aptitude the disability often provides. Be sure to look for, research, and develop that silver lining in yourself or your child.
To learn more about dyslexia get the excellent book The Gift of Dyslexia written by the severely dyslexic happy and successful author named -------.
The Tutorial Center works with students who are struggling with reading and with math. I've noticed some common traits among challenged math students also. Struggling math students have difficulty thinking with numbers. Many have to use pencil and paper to compute even as simple a math exercise as twelve take away two. Most have to use their fingers to calculate seven plus four. I've seen seven year olds as well as twelve year olds pull out their fingers to compute nine take away five.
Students who struggle in math also need great amounts of good instruction, much effort, patients, support, and faith. They need to spend more time thinking with numbers, they literally need to exercise and strengthen that chunk of gray matter, that section of their brains, that is specifically designated to compute math. Students who struggle with math invariably lack the fundamentals; they've never really learned the "alphabet" of math. For what ever reason they haven't and still need to commit to memory addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts . The time and energy spent learning these facts will strengthen and develop their ability to think with numbers. Students will have a much better chance of understanding and successfully participating in higher levels of math if their fundamentals are solid.
Another common trait of students who struggle in math is an inability to recognize and use the many useful math patterns that naturally become obvious and accessible to the more intuitive math student. Knowing what eight plus eight is doesn't mean a struggling student will recognize that she also knows what two times eight is. Knowing that two times eight is sixteen gives the intuitive math student easy access to the answer of sixteen divided by eight and sixteen divided by two. Making these and other math associations is a no-brainer to the intuitive math student yet a difficult leap for the challenged.
Math instruction must and often does include the teaching of these patterns and math facts, sometimes called math families, early in elementary schools. However, the challenged learners require much repetition and great amounts of practice in order to internalize these important patterns and concepts. You can't go on until the basics are solid and the patterns become second nature.
Long division, fractions, working with decimals, and algebra become insurmountable tasks when the basics have not been respected.
Ask your child a few age appropriate math facts. Be gentle and know that exposing a child's inadequacy is embarrassing to him. One's ability to think with numbers and succeed in math class is usually comparable. Talk to your child's teacher and the principal if you think there's a problem. The good news is that the problem can be corrected with good instruction, lots of effort, patience, support and faith. Always keep the faith!
