The Day I Discovered My Daughter is Dyslexic
My reading program, Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers, sprouted roots in my imagination long ago.
I became acutely aware that preschoolers to adults with dyslexia and/or other learning differences need a phonemic awareness and phonics program that teaches the way THEY learn!
I thought to myself those many years ago, “I could write that program! I know how to teach them the way THEY learn.”
My passion for teaching children with dyslexia was ignited thirty-six years ago when I discovered that my daughter is dyslexic.
I had already taught elementary education for twelve years and had my master’s degree for nine of those years. I did as any fledgling teacher does—I read books on how to teach reading, attended workshops and classes on how to teach reading and sought out advice from my colleagues for suggestions to help my struggling readers.
Some ideas were helpful, but I still felt extremely frustrated with my incompetence to successfully meet the needs of many of my students no matter how many techniques I tried and no matter how much individual time I gave each of my struggling readers.
Then when my daughter was three, my desire to understand how to help struggling readers became more personal.
While sitting in the cool shade of her favorite tree, she drew a picture of our family. You know the kind—round heads, jellybean tummies with bellybuttons, and stick arms and legs.
She came dashing across the yard to where I was weeding a flowerbed and proudly announced, “Mommy,I drew a picture of our family!”
I looked at the picture and kept my excited, joyful smile, but as I looked at it, I couldn’t help but ask with a light, happy voice, “How are we feeling?”
“We’re all happy!” she exclaimed with pride.
“How do you know that?”
“Look at our big smiles!”
I hugged her and told her how wonderful and beautiful her drawing was.
But she hadn’t drawn smiles—she had drawn frowns!
As I watched her skip away, I took a deep breath. My heart went out to her! It became very apparent in that moment that she wrestled with directionality.
My thoughts began to spin. My husband is dyslexic. I felt a little scared. How was I going to help her?
At that moment, standing in the yard watching her dance away, I promised myself that I would learn the best way to teach her, that I would learn how to make the long, difficult road ahead of her to learn to read, write and spell as easy, as fun, and as successful as I could.
I promised myself I WOULD understand how she, as a dyslexic, learns and I would teach her the way she learns.
During the next few weeks, we spent a lot of time in front of mirrors—playing with make-up and drawing our faces as we looked at ourselves in mirrors.
I guided her as we talked through what we were seeing and drawing. “Look how the corners of our mouths go UP so close to our eyes when we smile. Let’s FEEL the corners of our mouths going UP to our eyes.”
It took a long time before she could automatically draw a smiling face, but by three and a half she was winning many coloring and drawing contests in our city.
Today she is an award-winning landscape architect. I am infinitely proud of her.
The day she skipped across the yard to share her drawing will be a day I will always remember vividly.
That day changed my world.
If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.