dyslexia blog header[/caption]AT MASON COLLEGE, FESTAC
There was the case of a girl who could not recognize her name in JS2.The letters B,A,L,L were presented to her to read out as a word and she could not! Her case was a puzzle because she was not our student in JS1 and we were not special educationists.We never advertised ourselves as such either.But God directed us to some articles in AWAKE MAGAZINE which became the saving grace or the master keys from God to us from a zero-knowledge situation .
We then set up a small committee of Language teachers to pickup the gauntlet from there.The net as at then had not become a major role player in education that it has become today.But the AWAKE magazine made us understand that we were dealing with a case called DYSLEXIA by specialists.Following suggestions from the article the proprietor of Mason College and one of the Language teachers visited ABIOLA BOOKSHOP which was on Herbert Macaulay (it used to be the best-stocked bookshop then) .Next we went to UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS BOOKSHOP which was also very well-stocked.At both places we made relevant book purchases for reference by members of the committee.
Next we hired a language therapist from outside the school to interact with the student involved during break periods,after school hours and on Saturdays.The salary we paid the therapist for three months was more than the school fees paid for the term by the girl's parents.But the parents had so much faith in the school and were very cooperative with the school.The father and mother took turns each Saturday to bring her to school without fail.They abandoned all Saturday social activities to stay in the hot sun in their cars probably praying to God for a miracle. And in the end they got one!
One thing that Mason College did not do was interfere with her regular academic lectures.She continued attending classes with her classmates and was never isolated or made to feel there was something wrong with her.It was important she had a normal relationship with them.She had to discuss regularly with them,share jokes, laugh or get involved in various escapades together with them.In the end God shined His light of mercy on all our efforts such that by the time she took the JS3 certificate exam all signs and perhaps the stigma of DYSLEXIA had disappeared!
Today she is a graduate of one of our universities.To crown it all the mother brought her back to the school one day to give thanks after her graduation from the university. It was a very emotional day with tears mixed with smiles and praises to God all around.
But we kept the article from AWAKE magazine and hereby publish it below for reference if need be .We will tell the second story in our next post.
OVERCOMING THE FRUSTRATION OF DYSLEXIA
“WHAT is your telephone number?” asks Julie. The caller replies. But the figures Julie jots down bear little relation to the number given.
My teacher tore up the picture I painted,’ laments Vanessa, adding, I could never remember what she was saying.’
David, In his 70’s, struggle to read simple words that he mastered more than six decades earlier.
Julie, Vanessa, and David have a learning difficulty ---- a frustrating one. It is dyslexia. What causes this condition? How can dyslexics overcome the frustration it provokes?
What is Dyslexia?
One dictionary defines dyslexia as “a disturbance of the ability to read.” Though often viewed as a reading disorder, dyslexia can involve much more.
The English word’s root comes from the Greek dys, meaning “difficulty with,” and lexis, “word”. Dyslexia includes difficulties with words or language. It even involves problems with placing things in their right order, like the days of the week and the letters in a word. Dyslexia, according to Dr. H. T. Chasty of Britain’s Dyslexia institute “is an organizing disability which impairs short term memory, perception and hand skills” Little wonder that those who have dyslexia find it frustrating!
Take the case of David. How did this formerly avid and fluent reader come to need his wife’s help to learn to read all over again? A stroke damaged an area of David’s brain linked to the use of language, and this made his progress in reading agonizingly slow. Yet, longer words gave him less of a problem than shorter ones.
Despite his acquired dyslexia, David’s conversational ability and his sharp intellect never suffered. So complex is the human brain that researchers have yet to comprehend all that is involved in processing the sounds and visual signals it receives.
Julie and Vanessa, on the other hand, had developmental dyslexia, which became apparent as they grew. Researchers generally accept that children who by the age of seven or eight exhibit normal intelligence but display uncharacteristic difficulty in learning to read, write, and spell may be dyslexic. Often. Dyslexic youngsters write a mirror image of the letter they are trying to copy. Imagine the frustration Julie and Vanessa felt when school teachers mistakenly labeled them stupid, slow, and lazy!
In Britain, 1 person in 10 suffers from dyslexia. Failure on the part of others to recognize the problems they face simply adds to their frustration.
What causes Dyslexia?
Poor eyesight frequently causes learning difficulties. Correct the vision defect, and the dyslexia disappears. A small proportion of those who have difficulty learning to read find that they place a thin sheet of colored plastic over the text. Others find this to be of no help.
Some, noting that the condition runs in families, offer a genetic explanation. Indeed, New Scientist magazine recently reported research “exploiting the known association between the genes involved in autoimmune diseases such as migraine and asthma, and those responsible for dyslexia.” Because dyslexics and their relatives are more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases. Scientists believe the genes for dyslexia occur in the region of the genome that houses these disease genes. But, as behavioral scientist Robert Plomin notes, researchers “have only identified a chromosomal region, not a gene for reading disability.”
The part of the brain that controls posture, balance, and coordination is called the cerebellum. Some scientists claim that it also plays an important role in our thinking and language processing. Interestingly, researchers at Sheffield University in England have developed a dyslexia test that involves balance and coordination. They reason that faults in the cerebellum prompt healthy areas of the brain to compensate. Children generally find little difficulty in maintaining their balance when asked to stand still, one foot in front of the other with arms outstretched, But blindfold them, and the dyslexic children wobble far more, since they rely heavily on sight to help them balance.
Still other researchers point out that the brains of dyslexic children show anatomic differences. Normally, the rear portion of the left side of the brain is slightly larger than the corresponding portion of the right side, whereas in the brain of dyslexic, the left and right halves appear equally developed. Then others claim to have found a distortion of the arrangement of nerve cells in parts of the brain that deal with language.
But regardless of the physical cause of their dyslexia, how can those who have the problem best be helped?
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Dyslexia Action (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]To be continued in our next post
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