Sharing Good Practice
Teaching children with
Dyslexia or slower processing
By Lisa Fátimah Amorer
“Everyone is a genius. But if you
judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree, it will live its whole life believing
that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein
M
ost people think of dyslexia
as merely a case where there
is confusion with identifying
letters properly. Sadly, many
formally educated administrators
and teachers are also ignorant about
Dyslexia. A lack of knowledge about
Dyslexia causes many children to suffer
in classrooms worldwide. Dreams
are deferred. Shame is rampant and
greatness goes unrealized.
Many families are clueless about
Dyslexia, its cognitive challenges,
individuality and great gifts. For
these reasons, brilliant students are
cast aside because of their perceived
inability to learn within our fast paced,
“I needed it last week,” world.
26 | Mar - Apr 2016 |
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The International Dyslexia Association
states, “as many as 15-20% of the
population as a whole have some of
the symptoms of dyslexia, including
slow or inaccurate reading, poor
spelling, writing or mixing up similar
words.”
Dyslexia is often labeled as a disability,
disease, disorder or a form of
retardation. It is not. It is a brain type.
It is brilliance, yet wrongly defined
by those whose vision is limited by
timed standardized tests, so called
best practices, and the latest, greatest
curriculum craze.
“Everyone is a genius. But if you
judge a fish by its ability to climb a
tree, it will live its whole life believing
that it is stupid.” - Albert Einstein
In 2004, a top business school in
England sent out a press release
Class Time
with the headline:
'Entrepreneurs
five (5) times more likely to suffer
from dyslexia.' Its subheading went
on to ask, 'What makes Sir Richard
Branson, Sir Alan Sugar, and Sir
Norman Foster special?’ To this list I
will add Boxing Champion Muhammad
Ali and Micro-sculptor, Willard Wigan.
They are Dyslexic Diamonds.
For many years it has been my pleasure
to work with children who have
dysgraphia, dyscalculia and dyslexia.
As a Multi-sensory Bilingual Learning
Specialist, I teach English language
development and conversational
Spanish.
Like all children and adults, no two
students are alike. Dyslexia is not
caused by a single gene. Actually, no
one really knows where or how the
Dyslexic brain type is formed. While
many commonalities exist, no two
talented dyslexic scholars are alike.