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I am a dyslexic adult and I have thought long and hard about the abuse that children, and especially boys suffer throughout their school years.  According to the Institute of Child Health and Human Development, there are over one million learning disabled children most of whom are dyslexic. They are bright, intelligent, and sometimes brilliant, but there is a great difference in the way their brains process information.   Their learning channels different from the norm and they experience failure in reading and spelling when taught by the Whole Word teaching method.  Our school systems are locked into this method for teaching children reading and writing skills. The Whole Word method is see the word, say the word, read the word.  Then if one cannot read it, use the context of the sentence and fill in a logical word.  For a dyslexic child, this is where reading failure begins.  Boys in particular suffer damaging self-image and peer hostilities against them.   A boy’s defensive behavior can often turn hostile. There is an alternative teaching method that is multi-sensory and phonics based in which one sees, says and then writes the sounds in words.  This is reviewed through dictation as teaching lessons progress.
 
I was a private tutor for dyslexic children for 25 years and taught a class for adult dyslexics who could not read, write or spell above the fifth-grade level for an additional 14 years.  The majority of these students where boys.  Letters from these individuals tell in dramatic terms how their lives were changed as their literacy skills improved.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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