Parents tend to become unraveled when they learn that their child has dyslexia as if it is some horrible uncorrectable condition.  Relax.  Look dyslexia up in any dictionary and you will find that it means “difficulty with reading.”  You knew your child had difficulty with reading before the diagnosis.

The diagnosis of dyslexia is given for a set of symptoms that are usually numerous and/or severe.  The school is not equipped to help severe reading difficulties and so this diagnosis qualifies the child for a modified program.  Not only are these children missing out on learning to read but also on a full education. This saddens me because all people can learn to read with the correct reading instruction program.

Reading is not a born ability. Most people did not read at all until about 100 years ago with the introduction of public schools and mandatory education.  Reading must be learned.  Some people take to it more easily and some struggle with it, just like some people more easily take to mechanics, assembling Ikea furniture, or setting VCR clocks.  Some people can easily figure out how to connect the new DVD, some will take days to get the thing working right, and others will completely give up and hire someone or get a friend to do it.  The mechanics of reading are far more complicated than these tasks and require a specialist to help the child through the process.

There is so much brain research that has been done on why some people can’t easily learn to read but very little research into the teaching methods.  Teachers are familiar with whole-language and phonics methods so those are what they purchase and so those are what the publishers produce.  Our education system is caught in a loop.

Linguistic reading programs work with everyone.  They aren’t used in schools because they require intensive one-on-one sessions for about four months.  The schools cannot afford to provide this so these methods are rarely considered.  They are, however, used in reading clinics throughout the world with great success.

A diagnosis of dyslexia is not a death-sentence.  It means your child needs a reading specialist and a linguistic-based or synthetic-phonics reading method.