The Day I Discovered My Daughter Was Dyslexic

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.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Yes! The Day I Realized She Was Dyslexic Changed My Life

Yes, The Day I Realized My Daughter is Dyslexic Changed My Life

In my last blog post, I shared with you the day I discovered that my daughter is dyslexic. That was the day that changed our lives forever.

That was the day we began our challenging journey together that turned out to be more rewarding than I could ever have imagined.

I knew we had our work cut out for us, but I never doubted that my daughter would successfully learn to read, write and spell!

I could not allow myself to doubt.

I became passionate about my research to learn how to best help struggling readers - in particular, dyslexic readers. I was not just learning for my students; now I was learning and mastering that knowledge for my daughter.

More than ever, I diligently asked my students and my daughter questions such as:

“What helps you learn to read, to write and to spell?

What did I do today that helped you learn?

What did I do that did not help you learn?

What made sense to you in today’s lesson?

What confused you in today’s lesson?

Are you still confused?

How can I teach differently to help you?”

I meticulously poured over all their answers, reshaping my reading, writing and spelling teaching strategies to meet the way they were learning.

As I reworked and reworked the way I was approaching my teaching, I began to see sweet success in both my daughter’s and my students’ learning.  I had shifted MY teaching to better meet ALL of their needs by teaching the way they learned.

Their answers to my continual questions, my research, my desire for their success, and my restructuring of my teaching guided my writing of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” to become the reading program that meets the need for a precise, sequential, language-based reading program ensuring that ALL children will develop automaticity and fluency in reading, writing and spelling by the end of second grade.

It took me years to learn what I have learned about teaching readers, writers and spellers with learning differences, in particular dyslexic readers! My daughter struggled through those years with me.

But all those struggles were worth it. I wouldn’t change a thing, because now Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” is here with longitudinal data of the success of profoundly dyslexic readers, ELL/ESL readers and others with learning differences.

Silent Elephant “e” is here ready to engage the children you love to learn to read, to write and to spell quickly and in a way that develops their knowledge of their own individual talents and frees them to learn the way they naturally learn!

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

Signs of Dyslexia – How would you know if someone is dyslexic?

Signs of Dyslexia – How would you know if someone is dyslexic? 

Over my many years as an educator, I have often been asked by parents and teaching colleagues how would they know if a person is dyslexic. 

Let me start where it started for me.  

Long ago I met a man who was genuinely warm, funny, sensitive, compassionate, gentle, kind, and loving, and I fell in love with him, my soul mate, midway through our first date. Of course, I married him! 

Soon after we were married, I started noticing little things as we began filling out written forms, writing checks, writing shopping lists, and writing cards to relatives and friends.  

I noticed how he wrote with a mixture of capital and lowercase letters, with many letters reversed: notably “a”, “b”, “d”, “p”, “q”, “F”, “P”, “E”, as well as many numbers.  I remember being rather surprised. I hadn’t known anyone who reversed so many letters.  

As time went along, I became used to being the one who did the writing; filling out forms for us and writing personal notes in cards, so all he had to do was sign his name.  

You might assume having only to sign his name would be quite simple, but the stress he feels to make all of the letters correctly causes him to make errors about 50% of the time.  

To this day when he writes, he has a “death grip” on his pencil. He complains to me that his hand and arm hurt badly after just writing a few words. He often says that he has always felt that pain. Further, his writing contains many errors forcing him to start over—a cause of much frustration. 

As you can imagine, his struggles in school began in Kindergarten. Unfortunately, he was retained in third grade. Emotionally he has never gotten over this feeling of failure. He often says, “If my teachers had just had your reading program when I was little, my whole life would have been different.” 

Once at one of his class reunions, I met many of his high school teachers His most loved teacher said to him that evening, “Frank, I often think of you. You are brilliant. I didn’t know about dyslexia when you were in my class, but now I know you are dyslexic. You always got every question correct that you completed on a test, but you never completed a test. If I had just given you enough time to complete each test, you would have had perfect scores. I’m so sorry I didn’t do that for you!” It was good for him to hear those words even after so many years.  

Today my husband is a highly skilled retired jet engine mechanic for the U.S. Air Force. During his training, he aced all of his practical tests but struggled completing the written exams. They were mostly multiple-choice tests.  

He shared one exasperating testing experience. He was working on the written multiple-choice portion of an exam one day. His commanding officer was standing over his shoulder. “Frank,” he said, “what’s wrong? You know the answer. You just did everything perfectly in the cockpit.” 

He did know which sentence contained the correct answer, but he was not able to visually line up the “a.”, “b.”, “c.”, and “d.” with the sentences that were the possible answer choices, so he didn’t know which letter to pick. He explained this to his commanding officer who encouraged him to do what he needed to do to line up the answers. He placed a piece of paper under the sentences so his brain would line them up.  

Today my gifted husband is a river guide, a designer of custom-built homes, an amazing finish carpenter, a construction manager, and a pilot building a four-seater plane for our kids. Who would doubt his intelligence with his astounding vocabulary and abilities and success at everything he has turned his mind to? Yet all his life, he has had to work around and work with his dyslexia.  

Even at home while reading to our children, he had to think to process what he was reading. I remember listening to him read to our kids every night, as he would cuddle them before bedtime. He read slowly but comprehended everything and used beautiful expression. They loved it, as did he. 

My purpose for sharing these personal stories about my dyslexic husband is to help guide you in discovering possible signs of dyslexia in your family members and students.  

Often times, the subtle signs of dyslexia are hard to pinpoint, even though they are right in front of us. As with my husband, some of the more obvious signs are:

·       Ability to give intelligent clear articulate answers to oral questions.

·       Need to read and reread until words are thoroughly decoded in order to comprehend what they are reading.

·       Struggles with spelling.

·       Struggles with writing.

·       Letter and/or number reversals past the age of 9.

·       Difficulty with multiple choice and true/false test formats but given as essay format with ample time or if given the option of an oral exam, will generally score very high.

Thoughts to keep in mind:

·       People with dyslexia are extremely intelligent.

·       Dyslexia is very individual in each dyslexic person. For instance, some dyslexics do not reverse letters. 

I’m hoping that as you read this, it may explain experiences you’ve had with family members and students and that it may help you gain a new perspective on observations that you previously did not realize may actually have been signs of dyslexia. 

I want to end by sharing that I’ve found living with a dyslexic person can have amusing moments. One time my husband and our son were off to a construction convention in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Before he left, my husband had written down their motel’s phone number in case I needed to reach him. 

He called me each night to share what they had been learning, but on the last day, I decided to call him. To my shock, I reached a lady on the East coast. “Isn’t this a motel in Jackson Hole, Wyoming?” I asked.          

“Oh, heaven’s no!” she said. “I live in South Carolina.” 

“Wow. I’m trying to reach 555-555-5555.”  

There was a long pause. “That’s so interesting,” she said. “That’s my phone number exactly reversed!” 

“Well, that explains it.” I giggled. “My husband is dyslexic!”

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Signs of Dyslexia in My Daughter, She Drew The Map Perfectly - Upside Down

Signs of Dyslexia in My Daughter 

After sharing signs of dyslexia in my husband in my last email, I want to share signs of dyslexia in my daughter. I do hope that my sharing will help you in discovering the subtle signs of dyslexia that may be going unnoticed in your family members, your students, and possibly in yourself.  

I want to preface this piece by saying that my daughter always had excellent and caring teachers—always! To this day, I truly appreciate their expertise, hard work, compassion and the love they gave my daughter! 

I shared before that I realized our daughter was dyslexic long before she began school. As you will recall, my first clue was her difficulty with directionality as she drew happy (actually frowning) faces of our family. Another clue in her drawings were birds sitting upside down on branches and upside down in their nests in trees!  

Knowing she was dyslexic, we enrolled her in full day Montessori preschool and Kindergarten. After two years in Montessori school, we met with her Kindergarten teacher to discuss placement for the following year. 

Our daughter struggled in Kindergarten! She had barely learned any letter names and sounds in two years; she had no interest in reading or spelling. She loved to “write” long stories filled with wonderfully creative ideas and illustrated with the most detailed, exquisite drawings, but the only recognizable words in all of her stories were “mom”, “dad”, her brother’s name, and her name. The rest of her “words” looked like squiggles with a few actual letters. We decided that she would benefit from another year of full day Montessori Kindergarten. 

In her second year, she again barely made any progress in language arts, but as that Montessori school did not offer first grade, we enrolled her in our neighborhood public school.  

Grades 1-3 were an endless struggle for her. Homework was a necessity every evening and weekend; it took her hours and hours. Practicing spelling words was a nightly affair, but even with nightly practice, spelling tests remained a challenge! 

My husband and I read to her daily. We used enriching vocabulary in our family discussions. We had her explain everything that she was doing and what she understood and why. She quickly and easily understood concepts, but she still struggled with reading, spelling and writing. 

As she grew, she continued to grapple with directionality, once in third grade, she brought home a learning packet on map skills. She had failed it. The vast majority of her answers were the opposite of what they should have been—north was south, east was west. It was obvious to us what was going on.  

We started playing an adding and a multiplication game using license plates on cars ahead us when she was in 4th grade. Most of the time her answers were correct. However, too many times her answers were incorrect. It took me months to figure out that 50% of the time she was vertically reversing 6’s and 9’s! 

In 5th grade, she drew a most beautiful, yet unusual map of the U.S. on poster board and labeled the states and their capitals for a Social Studies project. All I could do was smile. Washington was where Florida was supposed to be; Maine was where California was supposed to be. However, all of the names of the states and their capitals were written correctly, and in the correct direction. Can you visualize this! 

When she was in 6th grade, I picked her up from school to go to viola lessons. She is a talented musician. One day she was standing on the front sidewalk looking very concerned. She was staring up at the individually cemented letters displaying her school’s name on the front of the building. 

I rolled down the window and called to her, “Come on. Let’s get going.” 

She turned to me and emphatically said, “I am not going to school tomorrow!” 

“Are you ill?” I asked. 

“No,” she said. “Mr. C. (the principal) is going to be SO mad!” 

 “Why?” 

“Someone took out all of the letters in our school’s name and put them all back in backwards!” 

I almost laughed aloud but caught myself in time. “Honey, the letters are cemented into the cement blocks in the building. No one could take them out without bending and breaking them. Your dyslexia is causing you to see them backwards.” 

“No!” she insisted. “They really are backwards!” 

I got out of the car and told her to stand under the first letter in her school’s name and I stood under the “L” in “school”. It took her several minutes of looking at the letters and looking at where we were standing for her brain to finally reverse the letters and process them correctly. Suddenly she happily exclaimed, “Ok! They’re in the right order now! Mr. C. won’t be mad! Let’s go to viola lesson.” She jumped into the car and off we went! 

In high school, she exasperatedly walked in the door after her government class. “Why do teachers do that?” she demanded.

“Do what?” I asked. 

“Expect students to correct other students’ papers. 

We had to pass our paper to the person sitting behind us, so I had to correct the paper of the boy sitting in front of me. The top of the paper was True/False. I couldn’t tell if he’d written a “t” or an “f” for number 2. I marked it wrong, because his handwriting was messy! 

The bottom of the paper was multiple choice. For number 8, I couldn’t tell if he’d written a “b” or a “d”. I didn’t mark it wrong though, because at least he wrote it neatly!”  

“Sweetie,” I said, “You need to be an advocate for yourself, and explain to teachers that you are dyslexic and should not be correcting other students’ papers.” 

A few weeks later, she became upset with me and tried to express her anger by showing me the hand signal of “Loser” to form an “L”. She used her left hand, so I didn’t see an “L”. I giggled and tried to explain to her that if she was going to call me a “Loser”, she had to use her right hand to do it. She burst into tears and stomped to her room. Later we hugged and had a good laugh! 

Even today while riding in cars, I am continually reminded of her dyslexia as she tries to rapidly read street signs and storefront signs. She makes countless errors, because she does not have adequate time to process the words. 

To say being dyslexic is a challenge is an understatement!  

In my next post, I want to share the flip side of dyslexia.

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

There ARE Many Blessings to Being Dyslexic

There ARE Many Blessings to Being Dyslexic 

My daughter often says to me, “Mom, dyslexia is NOT a GIFT!” I feel her pain. 

Over the years, I’ve watched the daily struggles my daughter and husband experience in reading, writing and spelling. When they present me with a greeting card that they’ve written a couple of personal sentences in, I treasure it! Not only are their words heartfelt, but I know it took them literally two or more hours to write! First, they wrote two or more rough drafts and then ever so carefully and painstakingly wrote their feelings about me on the actual cards. 

But there are many blessings to being dyslexic. There are so many unique qualities in them, because of their dyslexia, that I hold dear. 

My daughter excels in art and music, although learning to read music was a challenge. In her early years of piano lessons, I had to rewrite all of her music on larger 12” X 18” music staff paper. As soon as she had a piece of music memorized, she never looked at the paper again! 

Further her ability to use muscle memory in her fingers helped her excel in performing on the piano, viola, cello, and guitar! She quickly learned to play the viola at school. Her teacher suggested she learn the cello to challenge herself. We met him at the music store one Saturday, as he offered to help us pick out an instrument. When they had chosen an instrument, my daughter asked him, “How do I play the cello?” 

He briefly shared that the cello was basically the same as the viola, except you had to learn to read a new clef in the music, to bow sideways, and the strings were in the reverse order. 

She sat down and played the exact song that she had just mastered on the viola on the cello! Although I wasn’t too surprised, her stunned teacher sat down. “I have never seen a music student do that before!” he exclaimed. She is an accomplished musician. She understands music deep in her whole body. 

And there are many times my daughter being dyslexic has made me smile. One such time was when she went to Japan during the winter and spring of 2001 and then that fall, I went to Japan as a Fulbright recipient. She was so excited that I would have the opportunity to see some of her favorite places in Tokyo.

As I packed for Japan, she said, “Mom, you need to know the long-distance number so you can call us. I’ll write it down for you.”  I was skeptical that she’d write it in its correct sequence. I watched her tap out the numbers on her imagined calculator on her thigh.  

In the same way her body knows the “feeling”, muscle memory, of a song on the piano, viola or cello once she’s learned it, her body, and therefore her brain, easily translates the imagined calculator on her thigh correctly. She was feeling the numbers and the phone number she wrote for me was correct! 

She drew three maps to share some of her favorite places in Tokyo with me. Two maps were perfect, and I found every place she was so excited for me to see. The third map was not as helpful. I got off the subway at the correct location and began following the third map. I walked for a few miles and didn’t see any site that was on her map. I began asking people if they could help me. Everyone said, “I cannot read English.” 

I kept walking. Unexpectedly a man that I had previously asked for help came up from behind and tapped me on the shoulder. As I turned to face him, he said, “I read little English. I try.” After looking at the map for more than a minute, he said, “Ah, so!” Then he turned it upside down! 

“Not this way. That way.” As I thanked him, I smiled knowing exactly what had happened. 

It took me quite a while to get back to the subway station and continue on in the OPPOSITE direction to find every special place on her map plus get some yummy cookies at her favorite bakery!         

I can only imagine how challenging dyslexia makes learning! I love my husband and daughter with all of my heart. I feel their pain as I watch them struggle. I also appreciate their talents and love trying to see the world in their talented, unique way.   

AND now, because of the struggles of my husband and daughter, we have an answer to the reading, writing and spelling challenges every dyslexic person faces.  

We have Silent Elephant “e”, and we can teach dyslexic children and adults how to read, write and spell with effective, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness followed by precise, sequential, language-based instruction using “Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, A Phonetic Reading Program for ALL Learners of Any Age Particularly Dyslexic or Struggling Readers” reading program utilizing “whole body”, multi-sensory instruction.

Silent Elephant “e” frees them of the struggle. Being free from the struggle lets them more easily recognize the talents and gifts their unique perspective brings to the world.  (See Will I Always Be Dyslexic? Yes! And Many Famous People Are)

Every dyslexic and parent of a dyslexic child can breathe easier.

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

OKAY?? Now What do I Do When I have a Diagnosis of Dyslexia?

OKAY?? Now What do I Do When I have a Diagnosis of Dyslexia?

Hmmm…you’re beginning to suspect dyslexia in your child or in one of your students. You have observed them closely as they’re struggling to read, write and spell. You’re wondering just exactly what are the early signs of dyslexia? 

While reading my blog posts, you may even be suspecting that you’re dyslexic. You may be beginning to find some clarity about yourself and your process of learning. 

The question that might be forming in your mind is: “What do I do now?”  

It has been my experience that too often parents and educators wait too long to ask this question about their struggling children or themselves. Many parents have said to me, “I wish I hadn’t waited so long to get my child help. We hoped that everything would just suddenly “click” for them.” 

OK! What to do: 

First, I recommend that anyone suspected of being dyslexic be given assessments as soon as possible, whether preschool, adult or anywhere in between.  Research has proven that interventions are tremendously helpful even as early as preschool. 

If you have Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, begin your formal assessment with Phonemic Awareness Assessment Part 1. If the child has 95% accuracy on Part 1, proceed to Phonemic Awareness Assessment Part 2. 

If a child does not have 95% accuracy on Part 1 and Part 2 of the Phonemic Awareness Assessments, begin teaching Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, Part 1 Phonemic Awareness. 

Whether a child needs instruction in phonemic awareness or not, continue by assessing a child’s abilities in phonics. 

Using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, Part 2, begin the phonics assessments by: 

·       Giving the letter name and letter sound recognition assessments. A child will be successful beginning Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, Parts 3-14 if he/she meets these criteria:

     -Upper Case Letter Recognition = 92% Mastery

     -Lower Case Letter Recognition = 92% Mastery

     -Letter Sounds = 92% Mastery 

If a child does not meet these criteria, please spend a week teaching the child the letter names and sounds he/she needs to reach 92% mastery. Use as many whole-body strategies as possible such as painting (with brush and fingers), drawing on paper or in sand, singing, or baking alphabet cookies that connect the sound to the formation of the letter. Connect the sound and formation of the letter to as many things in your day-to-day life as you can.  Using the short vowel posters will quickly aid in teaching 5 of the most important letter names and sounds!  

·       Next administer the Rhyming Assessment. The results of this rhyming assessment will pinpoint the exact developmental level the child is at in their ability to rhyme. A step-by-step guide to further developing their rhyming skills with fun, enriching activities is on pages 73-74 in Part 2. 

·       Continue assessing word recognition using the included San Diego Quick Assessment. Begin assessing with the Reading Readiness Levels. You will find the child’s independent, instructional and frustration reading levels. 

·       Conclude by administering the Oral Reading Inventory Assessment beginning one or two levels below their instructional reading level obtained from their San Diego Quick Assessment. The oral reading inventory will assess the child’s word recognition, fluency and comprehension. You will find the child’s independent, instructional and frustration reading levels. 

No matter the child’s assessment results, I always begin teaching all of my students phonics using Part 3 which is the introduction of the phonics portion (Parts 3-14) of the Silent Elephant “e” reading program.  

You may ask, “Why assess children if you are going to start teaching all children with Part 3?” 

First, initial assessment is important because you have to know where their starting point is to know how their knowledge has grown when you do your periodic assessments.  

Second, mastery of each phonics rule is absolutely vital. Any gap in their previous learning will cause them to struggle. I know some of them will quickly move through the beginning lessons, but I want to be certain that a child does not have even the tiniest gap in any of their phonics skills. To ensure they don’t, I begin at the beginning with all of them and let those who assessed higher feel their confidence as they quickly move forward.  

This brings up another important point, as educators, we must ensure mastery of each phonics rule before moving to the next. When you begin at the beginning, you KNOW they have each rule down pat.  

You can rest assured that Silent Elephant “e” ensures no gaps in their learning because there is continual review of each mastered phonics skill built into all following lessons making certain all children are retaining and advancing their knowledge of all previously taught phonics rules.  

All assessment results, from pre-teaching to post (graduation from Silent Elephant “e”), provide you, your students and their parents with a continual map of their progress.  

Children love seeing their progress written down in black and white and are so amazed at their rapid progress with Silent Elephant “e”! They are so proud of themselves! They are so eager to continue learning with Silent Elephant “e” and in their classrooms!  

They no longer feel defeated. They feel empowered to continue their learning and to become whatever they want to be! Silent Elephant “e” is a powerful program in so many ways! 

If you do not have Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”, there are other resources available to you:

·       You can contact the International Dyslexia Association for services and guidance as to how best to help yourself and/or a child.

·       You can contact your public school. Public school systems have school psychologists that test children even if they are not attending that school. You do have to be in their attendance area.

·       You can contact a private educational psychologist for testing for yourself and/or for your child.  

I’m so glad you’re launching your search for answers!  

If you discover that your child is dyslexic, my next blog post will guide you to discussing dyslexia with your child.

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, or you have completed the assessment and would like support deciding the next steps, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

How I Explain Dyslexia to a Child

How I Explain Dyslexia to a Child 

I’ve often been asked by concerned parents how to approach telling their child that he/she is dyslexic and how to help their child understand themselves better as a dyslexic person.  

Of course, this is something I have given much thought to ever since I realized our daughter was dyslexic and, as an educator, when supporting parents with dyslexic children.  

I share these thoughts both as a parent, who explained to our daughter that she is dyslexic, and as an educator.

 First, prepare yourself.  

There’s an important step to take before you sit with your child. Sit by yourself and “fill” yourself up with positive thoughts about how your child is intelligent, caring, artistic, curious, thoughtful, athletic, loving, and courageous. Share these thoughts with their other parent, with their grandparents and let them add to the list of the strong characteristics of your child.

It’s important for you to be “full” of their strengths before you begin talking to them about their learning difference. They need to feel that you are relaxed and at ease with their learning difference and are ready to do whatever is needed to support their success. They do not need to feel your worry, they have enough of their own.  

Then, set a time to visit with them when you will have plenty of time to share and to ask and answer questions. Set up a relaxing atmosphere using something like the following scenario: 

Let’s make some hot chocolate, sit down together and enjoy it with your delicious chocolate chip cookies. 

Silly as it sounds, we’ve loved snuggling up together to read to you ever since you were born. 

I remember how when you were little, you would listen intently to all the stories we read. Your eyes pored over every detail of each illustration. You loved to talk about the pictures, you learned words so quickly understanding everything we read. You were, and are, amazing—you still never miss a detail. 

You began picking up crayons, markers and paint brushes before you were one year old. You watched in amazement as the movements of your tiny, pudgy hands pushed the pencil and brush tips to paper creating fascinating swirling, curving, straight, wiggly colorful lines. We lovingly gazed at our budding little artist. 

Even before you were two, we began moving our finger along left to right on the printed page pausing at times to point out names of characters and exciting words—POP!, Oopsie Daisy!, Woof! Woof!,  Aaaachooo! 

We began playing with alphabet cards with you when you were young, and as you grew, we enjoyed playing alphabet games with new alphabet toys. At times, we gently guided your painting and drawing to begin forming letter strokes and shapes. 

When you started preschool at three, your teachers joined in the delight of teaching you. We cherished your love of books—how you loved being read to, how you loved scrutinizing the illustrations, how you loved telling us every little detail about each and every book, how you memorized oodles of books! 

Your preschool teachers and we began noticing that learning letter names, sounds and shapes did not come as easy to you as your learning did in your other talents.  

Your struggles continued throughout Kindergarten and primary school even though you always put extraordinary amounts of effort into learning with your everlasting, beautiful optimism. 

We frequently conferenced with your teachers sharing our concern that learning language skills was apparently so difficult for you. Your teachers told us how thoughtful and respectful you were to them, what a wonderful, loving friend you were to everyone, how diligently you did your schoolwork with a positive attitude, how bright and intelligent you were. They reassured us that you would catch on to reading, spelling and writing, and when you did you would catch up quickly. 

We listened to them and believed them, because what they said to us is what they truly believed.  

However, as time went by, you began to notice that your peers were reading, spelling and writing quickly with seemingly little effort. You began to question and doubt yourself. Why were you better at some things and not as good at other things? Were you really as smart as everyone kept saying you were? Was there something wrong with you? Was your brain “broken”? 

When you shared those feelings with us, we knew we had to do more. Waiting for you to “catch on” was never going to work. We wanted answers too. We asked your teachers and the school psychologist to do more assessments. 

We have to tell you; this is such a relief! We now have the answer to your struggles. You have dyslexia.  

Dyslexia is a phonologic weakness which impairs one’s phonological processing abilities. It is challenging for you to be aware of the sound structure of words, such as rhyme and syllables. It is challenging for you to process the tiniest particle of language making up words. Those tiniest particles are called phonemes. You learn spoken language and written language in a different way, not that you can’t, just that you do learn language in a different way than most people.

It’s not uncommon for people to have learning differences and there are many kinds of learning differences. Your difference, dyslexia, is very common, as about one in every five people have dyslexia. That means that in your classroom of 25, probably 5 kids are also dyslexic, which means you have 5 friends who are also finding reading, spelling and writing mildly to profoundly difficult.  

Here’s a wonderful truth—things have changed since we were little. Teachers and parents are understanding more and more about how to teach a dyslexic person. A dyslexic person learns differently and thus needs to be taught differently.  

Now that all of us know you are dyslexic, we will try to answer your questions and help you find answers to your questions if we don’t know the answers. Your teachers will be better able to help you at school and we’ll be better able to help you at home. We are also going to get you a tutor that’s specially trained to teach people with dyslexia for at least 2 hours a week. (Silent Elephant “e” tutors are excellent!) 

We’re all in this together! You’re not alone! We’re on the right track now. We’re going to relax and give each other the “gift of time” to learn more about dyslexia and to learn the best ways we can help you learn.  

So, dear one, give yourself the “gift of time” to learn anything you want to learn, be anything you want to be. Believe in yourself—taking care to always remember how intelligent you are, know how proud of you we are and know we love you so much!  (See Will I Always Be Dyslexic? Yes! And Many Famous People Are)

Now we have a path to your reading, writing and spelling success. You will soon begin to feel your natural confident self returning and again realize just how smart and talented you are.  

We’re in this together! We love you! 

Sitting like this with your young one in your deep appreciation and love of them will help them relax into understanding themselves as a person who learns differently. They will know that you “have their back” completely as they begin to understand themselves with their learning difference. This will make their path of learning so much easier. 

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson 

Will I Always be Dyslexic? YES! And Many Famous People Are!!

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.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

They Will be Full of Questions!

There’s an interesting thing about us humans - upon learning something new about ourselves, our brain immediately fills with questions and begins racing to find answers about that subject. Knowing that, it will be no surprise to you when your child begins to inundate you with questions about dyslexia for hours, days, months and years to come upon learning that he/she is dyslexic.
 
Often times the children I teach will politely ask, “Mrs. Jones, can I ask you a question about dyslexia?”
 
I expect these questions and I always reply warmly, “Of course.”
 
Today I’m sharing some of their questions and my answers as they may be of help to you as a parent and/or as a teacher.
 
A frustrated ‘Annie’ asked me, “Why do some people have dyslexia and others don’t?”
 
I replied, “There are many learning differences which we are understanding more and more about. We do know that dyslexia is an inherited learning difference. You are dyslexic because you inherited genes for dyslexia from one or both of your parents. About 20% of the population learns differently in the way referred to as dyslexia. That means you probably have friends who learn differently too.”

‘Travis’ wanted to know, “Why does my brain work differently than most other people?”
 
“Actually,” I shared, “everyone’s brain works differently from any other person. Even though we are all human beings, we are ALL unique individuals.
 
“When researchers study brains, they look for commonalities in order to help them understand how our brains work. They ask, ‘What common characteristics do we find in people who struggle to learn to read, spell and write?’ In dyslexia we find people who are processing language—visual sequencing, visual processing, auditory sequencing and auditory processing—differently than many other people. Dyslexics process in a way that makes them need to learn to read, write and spell using different approaches than the traditional way schools have taught.
 
“You are realizing this about yourself as we work with Silent Elephant “e” and the way it is helping you understand reading, writing and spelling. You are understanding the difference in how you are learning.”
 
“Do you have to reverse letters or see letters and/or words backwards to be dyslexic?” ‘Travis’ continued.
 
“No. Some dyslexic people have those learning differences, but not all dyslexic people experience letter and word reversals.”

Beginning to understand herself, ‘Mia’ asked, “Is putting capital letters in the middle of words; is putting periods in the middle of a sentence; is putting periods on the middle, dotted line; is popping in tall letters from neighboring words into words I’m trying to read; is seeing numbers move on paper part of being dyslexic?”

“Yes, all of these things can happen to people who are dyslexic due to visual sequencing and visual processing differences. They don’t happen to everyone who is dyslexic, as everyone is different.”

I guided her, “When you are experiencing visual difficulties, try to use colors to help you calm and stabilize the movement of letters, numbers and symbols.”

As ‘Carly’ began feeling success in her reading, she inquired, “How soon will I actually see the colors we’re using on my Silent Elephant “e” papers in my school papers and in books?”

I helped her realize how far she had come. “It’s true that I’m having you physically write colorful red diacritical vowels markings, orange wiggly lines, blue straight lines, green circles with brown lines, purple slanted lines and other tiny pictures on your Silent Elephant “e” papers to teach you phonics rules.

“All of these colors, with their specific jobs, are creating connections within your brain to precise phonics rules. The colors not only help you remember the abstract phonics rules, but they solidify the neurological connections between each phonics rule and the sound(s) the letter(s) represent.

“The more you use the colors on your Silent Elephant “e” papers, the more nerve pathways you will make to imagine the colors. The more you practice, the faster the synapses in your brain will connect colors to rules and sounds. You will visualize the colors. Your brain will begin to “know” the colors are there. You will read smoothly and faster!”

This helped ‘Carly’ relax and focus even more on how she was learning.

‘Quinn’ asked the question on all their minds: “If colors help me so much in reading, spelling and math, why don’t all teachers use colors to teach?”

I smiled, “Most teachers have not studied learning differences like dyslexia, and therefore, do not understand the differences in how people learn. Teachers truly want to help all of their students learn, so more and more educators are taking classes themselves and are learning about dyslexia and other learning differences.”

Lastly, this is something I share with all my students: “Because of YOUR learning difference, we are understanding better that people are very different, and each of us learns in the unique way we learn. This is powerful to realize. It lets us and everyone else off the hook because it lets us quit comparing ourselves to other people. We don’t know how they learn, and they don’t know how we learn. We only know about ourselves.

“As we are learning more about learning differences and your learning difference in particular, your parents and I, as your tutor, are sharing what we are learning with your teachers. They are working hard to learn about dyslexia and other learning differences too and they are sharing what they are learning with us. We’re all working together.

“Working together makes everything easier.”

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.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

What’s a 504 Plan, Why You Want One, and How to Begin

What’s a 504 Plan, Why You Want One, and How to Begin 

I have always suggested that parents and teachers strive to keep dyslexic children in a regular classroom setting with accommodations stipulated on a 504 Plan. 

A 504 Plan is a plan for how a public school will provide support for a child in the regular classroom setting and remove barriers that hinder that child’s participation and learning. Parents, the child if old enough, the psychologist, the classroom teacher and an administrator write this plan to support your child’s success in the regular classroom.  

Remember, most dyslexic people are bright or gifted! Therefore, usually a dyslexic child does not need placement in a special education classroom, but they DO need accommodations such as extra time to process printed materials, extra time for tests, testing in a quiet environment, essay tests with no deductions for spelling and grammar, no true/false tests, no multiple-choice tests, etc. 

Begin your 504 Plan process by asking your child to carefully think about what it is like for him/her in their classroom. Ask questions such as: 

Have you ever thought of where you would most like to sit in a classroom to help you learn best? 

Is noise distracting to you? 

Would you like a list of content vocabulary at the beginning of a new unit of study?  

Is it hard to take notes in class when copying from the board? Would you like the teacher’s notes provided to you before class? 

Do you feel you need your assignments shortened? Do you want to do your assignments in a different format: written, oral, on a large white board and send pictures of them to your teacher, etc.?  

Would audio books be helpful? (If you get these, insist that your child read along with the reader, so he/she sees the actual words while listening to their pronunciations.) 

Would it be helpful to receive a study guide for a test a week before the test?

 Do you need more time for assignments and tests? 

Do you need modifications for paper tests and/or computer tests? 

Questions like these support good discussions helping your child and you realize more about how they are processing information and what in their environment is helpful and what is not. These are thought-provoking, self-examining questions that your child probably has never before been asked. By answering them, they are taking greater control of their own learning.  

It may take your child a bit of time to truly come up with his/her best, most beneficial answers.  I feel it’s always a good idea to brainstorm over several days or a couple of weeks having them carefully think about each question as they move through their school day and homework.  

By working closely with your child’s teachers to help your child answer these questions, you are setting up a win, win, win for your child, for you and for their teachers.  

When you, your child and their teacher are very clear about the school environment that is most advantageous for him/her as a dyslexic person, begin to write an official 504 request. 

Below is a possible 504 format that you may wish to use but work with your teacher as the school may have a form the teacher is required to use. 

Possible 504 Accommodations

(Replace student with actual child’s name.) 

Seating – front and center

Sound – needs quiet – quiet voices, away from doorway, away from AC and heating vents, etc. 

Content Vocabulary – provide a week before needed in class 

Class Notes and ALL Directions for Assignments – provide before class. If additional information is needed that is not on the provided material, please physically add it to student’s paper. 

Modified assignments that still ensure successful learning of the concept taught 

Provide access for Books on Tape through National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled and/or other sources. Order these in advance of when student will need them for class. 

Test Study Guide – provide at least a week before test 

More Time as needed for assignments and tests 

Testing accommodations-

-                  separate, quiet setting

-                  provide a “reader” who can read to student and clarify directions throughout the testing time for tests in any subject areas

-                  no true/false questions

-                  no multiple choice questions

-                  all short answer/essay questions with no reduction in grades for grammar or for spelling.

Your next step is to ask for a conference with your child’s teachers and other pertinent school personnel to present your 504 Plan request as all of you will want to work closely together to write the finalized 504 Plan.     

Everyone should honor the requests of a child that learns in different ways than the majority of students and who is taking control of their own learning as a dyslexic person. When their 504 Plan is in place, they will be able to relax and not struggle against their environment as they learn.  

Your part in helping get their 504 Plan in place is just the beginning. 

We know that children struggling to read, write and spell need excellent, compassionate teachers highly trained in how to best teach dyslexic children. However, this training is not widely available or required, so be prepared to both work closely with your child’s teachers and school AND to supplement their learning at home.  

Your participation in your child’s learning at home is absolutely imperative. They have to have your support at home to reprocess what they learned at school.  

You can easily supplement your child’s education at home with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”. Silent Elephant “e” has proven that we can teach struggling and dyslexic people using whole-body, multi-sensory strategies with effective, explicit instruction in phonemic awareness followed by phonics taught in a precisely organized, systematic, progressive sequence that builds one phonics skill upon another making abstract vague phonics rules clearly conceptual and comprehensible.  

Further, it is written for you with easy to read and easy to understand directions. You will not struggle teaching Silent Elephant “e”. 

Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” takes out the worry and sets you up for success.  

Now you are ready to get moving. You know what a 504 Plan is; why it is important for you, for your child and for the school; and how to get the process started. You also know that you need to provide support at home even if they have a 504 Plan in place because they need to reprocess their learning with your daily.  

And, you know how Silent Elephant “e” can be a part of your journey.  

Last, we want to say, you can always contact us. We would love to support you as you begin to explore your options or begin to talk with your child’s teachers and school.

Don’t hesitate to call Linda Katherine Smith-Jones at 208-859-4406 or Nina Henson at 208-860-3125. 

P.S. To further your quest for knowledge, I suggest reading the excellent book Overcoming Dyslexia (2020 Edition): Second Edition, Completely Revised and Updated by Dr. Sally Shaywitz with Dr. Jonathan Shaywitz.

Josie — In Her Own Words – I Sat in Complete Amazement!!

Josie — In Her Own Words – I Sat in Complete Amazement!!

Stunning Discoveries of My Students’ Vision Perception!

I just keep learning more and more!! Wow! 

Two years ago, I had no idea how the sweet, shy girl who walked in my door would open my eyes and stop me in my tracks.  

Today Josie’s a bright, happy, full of life, confident young teenager. She often makes me giggle while we are working together. She is not the person who walked in two years ago. 

Josie began tutoring with me because she struggled with reading, writing and spelling. At that time, she was so painfully shy that she could barely lift her eyes to look at me—her self-confidence was rock bottom. 

It was obvious after visiting with her for just a few minutes, that she is a bright, intelligent girl. I knew I could help her, and so our journey began. 

During these past two years, Josie has diligently persevered with a positive attitude attempting every learning task I presented to her in Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”. 

I have seen subtle changes in her as her reading, writing, and spelling skills grow. She is now a smooth, fluent reader with excellent comprehension! 

I have watched her self-confidence blossom. Now her head is held high; her shoulders back as she smiles self-assuredly when I ask her to read and when I ask her questions. Her eyes meet mine with strength and confidence. 

My heart bursts with pride for her every time she walks in the door. 

A few weeks ago, Josie reached a place of feeling so secure in herself that she felt at ease sharing how she used to struggle in reading and learning. She shared what she sees now when she reads words and how my tutoring and Silent Elephant “e” has helped her. 

I sat in amazement as she shared. I listened silently. My heart went out to her. 

I felt that I understood much of what she was telling me and I could empathize with her, but I also felt that there was so much more she wanted to share if she could find the words (and SO much more I wanted to understand). 

I asked her if she would write about her struggles to explain to me exactly what reading used to be like for her and how it has changed. I also asked her to write about her feelings. This is what she wrote: 

“Prior to tutoring with Linda, when I looked at words, they appeared scrambled and jumbled.  Random letters from other words on the page would combine with the actual letters within a word I was trying to read. 

Linda has taught my brain how to break down words, so when I’m focusing, I don’t see scrambled or jumbled words anymore. 

I am able to read and see all of the phonics rules we learned by imagining the colors we used for each rule. If I have to read a tough word, my brain will picture the color parts that I need to read the word. I also remember the colored posters that I learned for the rules. 

First I look for prefixes, suffixes and root words. Next I look for where the purple line(s) will be to divide the word into syllables. I listen to the syllable parts in my head. I look for small words within the word. Usually by then, I get the word. I don’t have to do all of these steps all of the time. 

I like reading more now than I used to. When I was younger, I hated reading. I would get so frustrated. I didn’t want to read. 

I really liked picture books, and I loved being read to. 

I still don’t like to read out loud in class. 

After tutoring with Linda, I love to read. It’s fun. ELA (English, Language Arts) is my favorite subject in school now.
Josie Age 13” 

Are you as stunned as I to learn of all of her difficulties and challenges; that letters moved around on the page and were scrambled and jumbled? When I read her beautifully written piece I sat amazed.  

I have been tutoring her for a little over two years and I never knew that letters were moving around the page for her! 

 I did actually notice when Josie first began coming to tutoring with me that she was having difficulties with clarity and focusing in on words when she was reading. I asked her mom if she would consider taking her to an eye doctor. Josie did need glasses and wears them now. 

The glasses do help with clarity, but they can’t stop the letters from moving on the page. What stabilized the letters on the page for Josie were the colors and the teaching techniques I use in Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”.  

Josie’s confidence and ability to share her experiences and feelings opened a giant door for me.  Because of her, I am asking better questions of my struggling students. I am asking them what they are seeing on the pages. This is continuing to open doors of understanding for me.  

I thank Josie from the bottom of my heart for feeling the confidence to share and helping me become a better teacher. She has helped me understand the importance of Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” yet again. Without Silent Elephant “e” she would be a painfully shy 13-year-old desperately struggling to understand her world instead of the confident, head high student who moves about her classrooms feeling in complete control of her learning.  

Next time I will share the experience of two more students who answered, “What do you see on the page?”

It’s eye opening.

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

Success with Dyslexia! This Opened Up Her World!

A Young Child’s Path to Success with Dyslexia!

 In my last blog post, I shared Josie’s paper about how she used to struggle with learning to read, write and spell and how differently she learns now because of Silent Elephant “e”. 

I shared how beautifully confident and self-assured she is in school and life today. What a change! 

Josie’s revelation has made me so much more aware. I’m listening to my students for greater understanding. I’m listening more carefully.   

Just last month one of my seven-year-olds told me the letters were jumping off the page when she was trying to read! 

I stopped short! This put me in my careful listening mode.  

In the past, before Josie’s paper, I may have just listened politely to this little girl without truly understanding what she was trying to explain to me. 

She was really asking for help.  

She was feeling comfortable enough to share what she thought other people would think was silly—after all, letters don’t jump off a page. But they do for her.  

Now because of Josie’s brave sharing of her own journey, I wanted to know more. I knew I needed to know more.  

I knew I had to ask questions; I had to ask the right questions. I had to truly understand as well as I could in order to guide her to becoming a successful reader, which I know she can be!  

I began gently delving to help her share more of what she was seeing. I asked this little one questions such as:

·       Do the letters jump up into your eyes? (“No.”)

·       Do the letters jump onto empty, blank space on the paper? (“No,” she replied rather sadly. I could tell that she wished the letters did land in a blank space.)

·       Do the letters land on top of other letters? (“Yes.”)

·       Do the letters land on top of other words? (“Yes.”)

·       What is it like to see letters jumping on top of other letters and other words? (“It’s very hard to tell exactly what letters or words I am supposed to look at. It’s very messy.”) 

I could tell she was very frustrated with trying to read, but sharing her frustration with letters jumping around was helping her relax a little.          

I suddenly remembered my dyslexic daughter telling me when she was little that tall letters slid across the lines to hook up to other words. She said tall letters from the next word would slide over to the word she was trying to read, so she would often add those sounds to the word she was reading. When she pronounced the word wrongly out loud, she realized it was incorrect because it was out of context. She would then struggle to correct it.  

I have always sensed my daughter’s frustration and my struggling students’ frustration. I have always known of their pain and sense of helplessness. 

But now, I can truly offer them hope, because I know Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e” is helping many children especially since Josie shared:  

“Linda has taught my brain how to break down words, so when I’m focusing, I don’t see scrambled or jumbled words anymore. 

I am able to read and see all of the phonics rules we learned by imagining the colors we used for each rule. If I have to read a tough word, my brain will picture the color parts that I need to read the word. I also remember the colored posters that I learned for the rules.” 

Silent Elephant “e” is here to help. Silent Elephant “e” is the answer! This is such a good feeling, as there’s a path to success laid out ahead—it’s Silent Elephant “e”!

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

No Wonder She Struggled with Fluency - WOW

Struggling with Fluency 

In my two previous blog posts, I shared how Josie and one of my seven-year-old students had opened my eyes by sharing with me what happens to the words on the page when they are reading. Since this revelation, I’m feeling even more joy in my teaching.  

I feel like I’m meeting each and every student exactly where they are because I’m listening more carefully, asking the right questions and teaching them using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”.   

I’m continually amazed and pleased that Silent Elephant “e” alone has made such a difference in their lives and that my asking the right questions has sparked a different awareness in me, making me an even better teacher.      

A few days after my little seven-year-old student told me about letters jumping around the page, I asked my ninth-grade dyslexic student to explain what she saw on a page of printed material.  

I had been trying many teaching techniques to help Ahva develop fluency in reading, as she would physically tense up and her breathing became extremely labored. Her anxiety and tenseness were palpable. It contributed to her choppy reading. 

I had her read sentences several times stretching out vowel sounds to give her more time to think about what the ending sound in a word was and more time to contemplate the next word in the sentence. 

She unconsciously began bobbing her head slowly with every word. When I mentioned that to her, I had her put her hand under her chin so she could feel the bobbing.

 When the bobbing subsided, we began working on phraseology (My next two posts are about teaching phraseology.). I taught her how to find prepositional phrases in sentences. 

As she is in Part 14 now, I had her read the following sentence: “The lanky man in the dark blue suit was hurriedly walking toward the cashier at the counter to deposit money in his savings account.” 

We discussed that our brains always strive for meaning. Our brains naturally break sentences into phrases: “The lanky man - in the dark blue suit - hurriedly walked - toward the cashier - at the counter - to deposit money - in his savings account.” 

I taught her to focus on the questions her brain would naturally ask as it sought meaning in what she was reading:

·                 What about the lanky man?

·                 What is he in?

·                 Where did he walk?

·                 Where is the cashier?

·                 Why did he go to the bank?

·                 Where is he depositing his money? 

She did begin to read more fluently, but she couldn’t read a phrase smoothly that was longer than three or four words, even though I encouraged her to try to smoothly combine two short phrases in one breath. 

I would have her read each sentence several times to practice. After reading a sentence several times, she ultimately read it smoothly as if in conversation. 

However, I was still concerned that she would need multiple repetitions of a sentence to reach conversational fluency. 

That is when I asked my awesome, conscientious ninth grade student to explain what she saw on a page of printed material.  

She explained that she could see a space of about 1.5 to 2 inches clearly and all around that space of clarity everything was distorted and stretched!  

Again, I was stunned!  

I asked her, “Is that why you only read three or four words smoothly and then have a long break before the next three or four words, and after practicing the sentence several times you appear to read it smoothly, because you have it memorized?” 

She smiled at me a little shyly, and said, “Yes. Now you understand.” 

Her brain is focusing on printed materials in a hyper focused way, much like a magnifying glass, where the center is super clear, but the periphery is distorted.       

I sat admiring this young woman for her tenacity and positive mindset. I was in awe. I shared with her how Josie and my seven-year old saw print. I think she felt relief that she wasn’t alone and that someone understood and was there to help. 

 I asked Ahva if she would share her story with you. 

In her own words: 

“Before I first came to tutoring with Linda, I just avoided ever reading on my own or in front of people. If I ever did read, within an hour I would get dizzy and have to stop. It was hard for me.  

I would panic if I were called on to read in class. I’d feel sad about it afterwards and think I was just dumb or not trying hard enough. 

I would try to read. It felt like the words were always moving depending on where I looked on the page. Due to that, I would start to read and get two or three words read and get stuck on each group of 3 words that followed. 

Now that I’ve been working with Linda, I have improved hugely. I can now get through sentences without freezing. My head hurting when reading has almost completely gone away. I am now willing to read in front of people! 

I am VERY happy with where I am now in reading, and I am very thankful for having Linda help me through it! Not to mention she is a very good and kind woman whom I am very happy to call my friend!” 

Ahva, 14 years old 

I am so proud of her for being able to share her story with us! 

NOW, I am offering you a challenge along with myself: If our students/children are struggling with reading IN ANY WAY, let’s ask each of them to tell us what they see on a page of writing. We do not want to put ideas into their heads, but we do want to understand how they are processing printed material, especially if they are struggling.  

Please share your experiences with me. With your permission, I’d love to pass along your experiences, successes and thoughts. We have so much to learn from our children to help us become even better educators!

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

“The Words and Letters Move Faster and Faster Around the Page like a Racetrack!”

“The Words and Letters Move Faster and Faster

Around the Page like a Racetrack!” 

To my surprise, recently another one of my students shared how he sees words on a page of print.  

I shared with you how Ahva, a ninth grader, sees words stretched and compacted and how only 3 or 4 words are clear to her at any one time. When Ahva shared how she sees words, I completely understood her fluency struggles as she painstakingly, yet steadily improved her smoothness and reading rate while learning to read with Silent Elephant “e”. She is now reading and comprehending above her grade level. 

I shared with you how Josie, a seventh grader, saw words scrambled and jumbled.  Random letters from other words on the page would combine with the actual letters within a word she was trying to read. Through instruction with Silent Elephant “e”, Josie learned how to break down words by imagining the colors used for each rule. She doesn’t see scrambled or jumbled words anymore and is also reading and comprehending above her grade level now. 

I shared how surprised I was when one of my second-grade students said, “I would be able to read better if the letters would just stop jumping around the page.”  

I shared how I gently began to question her to understand what she meant.  

Our conversation opened my eyes, and from that moment on, I began to carefully question all of my students.  

I wanted to know what they saw. I was careful not to ask leading questions, so I questioned in a way they would feel safe and confident to express what was happening for them on a page of print.  

Most of my students gave me a look of, “Well, the words on papers are just words sitting there!” (Sigh of relief on my part!) 

But a few began to feel safe enough to share just how they saw the words and just what the words were doing.  

These students OPENED MY EYES. They have helped me become a better teacher!

To bring home again that we need to ask questions of our students who are not progressing as we feel they should, I want to tell you about Jacob.  

Old day during tutoring, 11-year-old Jacob expressed to me, “My brain is broken. I just have to deal with it.” My first response was to assure Jacob that he IS a bright, intelligent boy! I went on, “ Jacob, you are one of the most thoughtful, compassionate, caring young people I have ever known! Your brain isn’t ‘broken’ at all. You just learn to read differently than most people.“ 

But I heard his pain and confusion.  

He was adamant, “Yes, my brain is broken! I know other people don’t see words on paper like I do.” 

I gently began to ask questions to understand what he meant.  

Below is what he described. 

(I know it is a lot to ask of anyone to read my precisely detailed notes of exactly what Jacob sees on a page of print, but I wanted Jacob’s parents to take him to an ophthalmologist and show the doctor my notes and I wanted to share my notes with you, an educator.) 

“When I first look at a written page, I see clear typing. 

As I begin looking at the sentence I am supposed to read, the words begin to slowly blur from the margins inward until only about 2½ inches of space has clear typing in the middle of the line. 

That clarity lasts for about 1 to 1½ seconds. 

Then the whole sentence gets blurry. 

The rest of the typing on the entire page blanks out to just be the color of the paper, however, the blurred sentence I’m focusing on stays in the same place and stays blurry. 

Then that whole sentence shifts by moving up one inch on the paper, and then it becomes clear. 

Then the letters in the sentence form a “follow the leader” single file line moving straight out to the left edge of the paper. There is a tiny bit of space between each letter, but no additional space separating words. 

When they reach the left edge, they begin to move in the single file line directly to the top of the paper. (The letters do not flip over from top to bottom or appear backwards.) 

When they reach the top edge, they continue to move clockwise in the single file line directly to the right edge of the paper.  

When they reach the right edge, they continue moving clockwise in the single file line directly to the bottom edge of the paper.  

When they reach the bottom edge, they continue moving clockwise in the single file line directly to the left edge of the paper.  

When they reach the left edge, they continue moving clockwise in the single file line directly to the top edge of the paper, etc.  

This movement forms a line of letters moving clockwise around the edge of the paper.  

The spinning motion increases its speed with each “race track loop” as it passes its original starting position.

The speed the letters move around the loop is between about .8 to .5 sec./loop with the speed increasing with every cycle. 

Also, the space between letters decreases as the speed increases, so by the fourth time around I just see a blur of black racing letters in an oval shape. (No longer do the letters reach the corners of the paper.) 

If there are other people around me when I’m reading, people can help me stop the spinning by talking to me or touching me or I need to hear loud noises. 

If I am alone when I’m reading, I try to blink my eyes, shake my head, rub my face, adjust my clothing, and/or look somewhere else on the page. 

If those things don’t work, I try to drop the paper or book, but I’m unable to let go of either. I feel like I’m a statue. I’m frozen. I’m unable to move. 

When I began experimenting with the colored Irlen overlays with Mrs. Jones and my dad on June 19, 2019, I discovered that the dull side helps prevent the letter “racetrack”. The letters stopped racing around. 

However, with the Irlen overlay, the letters become a little bit shaky and the shakiness increases a little bit the longer I look at the words. It stays that way, until I look away. 

Also, with the Irlen overlay, instead of the blurred line of typing moving up an inch, the clear line of typing moves down about a half inch.

The letters land directly on top of the letters in the sentence that is about a half-inch below.” 

Isn’t that amazing! 

Understanding how Jacob is seeing the letters and what they are doing helps me to help him. 

After Jacob shared, I sat amazed that he was learning to read at all. I am struggling to comprehend what it must be like to watch the letters race around the page faster and faster.  

I am very pleased to share that all my students who have expressed that they see the words on the page differently are successfully learning to read using Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”.  

This affirms my research and the techniques I developed to ensure that ALL CHILDREN LEARN TO READ.  

It is their right.

It also affirms our need to ask questions and listen to our children.

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson

“This is the piece I’ve been missing! This is the piece I’ve been missing!”

“This is the piece I’ve been missing! This is the piece I’ve been missing!” 

“I wish the letters would stop racing off the page!” my ten-year-old student exclaimed in frustration. 

“What?” I questioned.  

He replied with a sigh, “I just wish the letters would stop racing off the page when I’m trying to read!” 

I took a quiet deep breath and trying to keep concern out of my voice said, “I’d love for you to tell me what you see when you are reading.”

 I listened with amazement as this kindhearted, hardworking boy began describing what it’s like when he looks at letters on a page and tries to read the words and sentences. 

“The letters are in a race,” he said. “They run to the left side and then disappear off the page. It’s as if they ran through a portal into another dimension.

“I have to try to read really fast to try to catch the second word. Sometimes I just catch the beginning of a word. Sometimes I can catch a few more letters. That’s why I guess a lot.” 

He paused and continued, “Suddenly the words in the sentence will grow or pop back on the page in the same spot. 

“Then I try to quickly read more of the sentence. I might be able to get to the third word, but then the fourth word might move up a line and then the fifth word might move down a line. 

“I have to try to read super-fast the first time I read a sentence. I usually have to read a sentence 3 to 5 times to be able to slow down enough that I can understand what I’m reading.” 

He thought for a moment and continued to share, “Black letters always used to race off the page, but since I’ve been tutoring with you and learning the colors, the colors stay hooked to the words like rubber bands. The rubber bands pull the words back onto the page.”*

I asked, still in a state of surprise, “You said black letters always used to race off the page, but now the colors help. How often do the black letters race off the page now?” 

He gave this question some thought and then answered, “Oh, I’d say about 30% of the time. It’s a lot better now!” 

He was beginning to feel safe and comfortable and wanting to share more about what reading is like for him. “But it’s not good to have the letters in bright colors like they are in books sometimes, because the letters will jump, explode and then come back. That makes reading take a long time, because I have to wait for the bright letters to come back. 

“I like to read comic books and graphic design novels. The speech balloons help keep the words in the white space, so they don’t race off the page.  

“And, I don’t like the words mixed in the picture, because the words will jump off the page for sure.” **

This sweet boy was on a roll. He continued to think of things he wanted to share. “Oh, Mrs. Jones, you know the yellow highlight handwriting paper*** that we use to practice my spelling words?” 

I nodded, “Yes.” 

“When we first started using it, the yellow part would stretch up taller and taller if I was writing a word that didn’t have any tall letters in it, such as “can”. I’d have to refocus several times. It’s better if a word has at least one tall letter in it, such as “cat”. The more I use it, the better it’s getting though.” 

I thought of his progress over the past several months. “Yes, I have seen a lot of improvement in your spelling and handwriting since we began using that paper,” I replied. 

The more he shared the more he thought of things he wanted me to know, such as how extremely frustrating it is for him to try to read highway signs, street signs and store front signs when he is riding in a car. “The letters race off the signs too quickly.”

 Let’s stop here for a moment and imagine the daunting task this young boy faces each time he tries to read anything. Imagine how frustrated he must feel. Imagine the effort he puts forth just to read a word. Imagine . . . 

This wonderful boy began tutoring with me and Silent Elephant “e” 14 months ago when he was in the 3rd grade and has preserved through biweekly tutoring sessions.  

At age nine, when he began tutoring with me, he had not mastered phonemic awareness and did not have a clue about how language works. 

After two weeks of instruction in phonemic awareness he exclaimed out loud, “This is the piece I’ve been missing! This is the piece I’ve been missing!” I smile when I think of that moment 14 months ago, I knew he was on his way to becoming a confident reader.  

It only took him 5 months to reach complete mastery in phonemic awareness with Silent Elephant “e”. He now hears the individual sounds within words giving him an understanding of how our language works. 

Since beginning tutoring with me with Silent Elephant “e”, his word recognition and comprehension skills have gone from a Primer Instructional reading level to an 8th grade instructional reading level! That’s a 7-year advancement in 14 months of instruction (just 2 hours/week) with Phonetic Reading with Silent Elephant “e”! He’s now a strong confident reader headed into 5th grade this fall! 

I know that every time this remarkable, hard-working boy reads, he confronts a huge mountain to climb, but thanks to Silent Elephant “e” the letters are staying attached to the page more often and reading is becoming easier and more fluent. He still gets frustrated, sometimes more than others, but he continues to press on. He has felt success and wants more of it.  

I’m so proud of him—I can’t begin to tell you how much! My heart fills with joy! 

*Silent Elephant “e” teaches phonics using colors for vowel diacritical markings, consonant digraphs, consonant blends, roots and base words, prefixes, suffixes and syllables. 

** This comment reminded me of my husband, who is also dyslexic. He worked hours with me after we received my illustrator’s rough draft for my picture book My Awesome Grandma. Many times, he could not see letters on a colored background and he definitely couldn’t see letters that flowed into the picture. This was a real eye opener for me. I had known for years that I could only write him a shopping list on white paper using blue or black ink, but I had not ever understood exactly why this was until we worked together on my book. 

***I use Abilitations Hi-Write paper. There are several brands available.

If you are questioning whether someone in your life is dyslexic and you’re not sure what to do, feel free to contact us.

Linda Katherine Smith-Jones                            Nina Henson