Will I Always be Dyslexic?
In my previous post, I shared a scenario about talking with your child about their dyslexia. I’m hoping that a combination of my suggestions along with your own personal memoirs, observations, explanations and celebrations of them provided a compassionate, loving, positive, hopeful experience for you and your child. I’d love to have you share your experience with me and others.
Learning that your child has dyslexia is an important milestone in your extensive search for answers for your child and possibly even for yourself.
Your journey will continue when your young one looks you in your eyes and asks, “Mom, Dad, will I always have dyslexia?”
Your answer has to be, “Yes, you will, but now that we know you have dyslexia, we have become a strong team with a quest to help you find the best solutions for making reading, spelling and writing easier, quicker and more successful for you in the classroom, with your Silent Elephant “e” tutor and at home.”
Share with them that their strong team includes you, them, their teacher and school and that together as a team you will begin by getting a 504 Plan in place for them. Explain what a 504 Plan is, how you are going to go about initiating it, and how it is going to benefit them. (See our post entitled What’s a 504 Plan, Why You Want One and How to Begin.)
It’s very important that they know steps are being taken and a plan is being put in place, and, equally as important that they are an integral part of getting that plan underway.
As they, and you, begin to relax knowing what your next steps are, possibly begin to share your own experiences as a dyslexic learner and how you have had to work hard to be successful and that now you are very glad that it will be different for them. (See post entitled Explaining Dyslexia to a Child.)
You might share that you never felt like there was a plan in motion to help you succeed and that you felt you had to work very hard on your own every step of the way.
This lets your child know that you felt similar frustrations which helps them relax even more into being dyslexic. Afterall, here you are in front of them being successful.
Now that a plan is getting started, and they realize that you are in it with them and that you know their frustration, it’s time to get on Google and research famous successful dyslexics. Realizing the multitude of successful and famous dyslexic people in the past and today, will help them begin to see an even broader picture of success for themselves.
You may even be surprised to realize who is on the lists. There are many successful people including Albert Einstein, Richard Branson and Leonardo DaVinci. Einstein struggled with spelling all of his life and Richard Branson left school around the age of 10 because he was never successful and was told he never would be. He started his first successful business shortly after leaving school.
There are successful dyslexics in every field: exploring, acting, politics, military, the sciences and all the rest.
The renowned paleontologist John Horner credits being dyslexic for his most famous dinosaurs finds. Horner has said that dyslexia taught him patience when he was young. it taught him how to take things slowly, because every word he reads is slow.
How did being dyslexic help him find fossils? He patiently and slowly walked over what appeared to be rock shards until he realized what he was walking on were fragments of dinosaur eggs. He was walking on an ancient dinosaur nest, one that many, many people had thought were just rock shards.
When you answer their question, “Will I always be dyslexic?” in this way, it will help to take away any stigma they may be feeling about having a learning difference. It sets them and you up to know the future will be successful and that together you have it handled.
Contact us if you have any questions and to share your experiences. We look forward to hearing where you are in the process and how it’s going.
If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.