Something Learned

Something I Learned about Child Development

I just finished a week of professional development at my school.  So many things were brought up about technology, parental involvement, and our new magnet theme of “Bio-medical Engineering,” but what stood out to me the most was exposure to truths and myths about dyslexia.  We watched a 52 minute video on www.youtube.com called “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia.” 

I knew the myth that dyslexia is something that goes away, and that it affects people of all ages.  This video and this training exposed me to many more truths about dyslexia.  I did not know that dyslexia affects speech as much as it does.

This gave me pause to think about my brother in law, who has difficulty speaking in general when asked a direct question.  He is very convincing when he plays a major character in a play, and can read music and sing effectively in a choir, but when asked a direct question, he stutters quite a bit and struggles to get the thought out.  After learning more and more about how he processes things, his wife, my sister, discovered from him that he has been diagnosed with dyslexia later in his adult life.  Nobody knew while he was in school, because he does eventually read what reading assignments he is given.  I wonder what struggles he had to overcome in school, what methods he had to employ in order to learn and perform at the same rate as everyone else, and really how much of a genius he really is!  He had to be very smart to make it through school having this difficulty all along, and in such a way as to convince everyone else that he has no trouble learning, just trouble answering questions from time to time! 

Then I stopped and wondered where the line is drawn. How does that official diagnosis of dyslexia finally become a reality, a separation from just simple, normal every day struggles that everyone deals with?