The Dyslexic Advantage (28 page)

When students with dyslexia resist using accommodations, it's important to speak frankly with them about the fact that they really do have needs that are different from many of their classmates'—and
that's okay.
Accommodations aren't cheating, and they don't unfairly plant ideas into anyone's head. They simply remove the barriers that prevent dyslexic students from expressing what they already know—and that's all. Appropriate accommodations are often essential for students with dyslexia to develop their skills as writers, and that unlocking of potential is ultimately what education should be all about.

Getting a Good Start: Elementary through Middle School

C
hildren with dyslexia face two special challenges during the years from birth through mid adolescence: mastering the basic brain functions that underlie reading, writing, and other academic skills; and developing a healthy self-concept and the strong and resilient character that comes from it. Meeting both these challenges requires careful balancing because each creates demands that often come in conflict.

For example, no one would deny that children with dyslexia should begin intensive training as soon as their problems with reading, spelling, and writing are detected, both because training in the first decade of life is generally more effective and because early intervention can prevent years of academic and emotional difficulties, like poor grades, loss of self-confidence, underachievement, misbehavior, and depression. Yet if we focus too heavily on fixing the weaknesses of children with dyslexia, we may fail to foster their strengths. This is one of the biggest problems with our current educational system—and a key reason why so many students with dyslexia emerge from their early school years feeling scarred and defective.

These crucial early years, from kindergarten to mid adolescence, are when the battle to develop confidence, resiliency, and a positive self-image is largely won or lost. If a student with dyslexia can reach the age of fourteen or fifteen with a healthy sense of self-esteem and a realistic acceptance of both personal strengths and weaknesses, that student is much more likely to enjoy a happy and successful life. The question is, How can we help dyslexic students navigate this challenging period with both their intellectual and emotional development on track?

Several answers to this question were suggested by a fascinating twenty-year study of graduates from the Frostig School in Pasadena, California, which specializes in teaching children (grades one through twelve) with learning challenges, including dyslexia.
¹
In that study, researchers identified several key factors that distinguished graduates who were thriving (as classified by several factors including personal satisfaction, career success, and relationships) from those who were struggling. These key factors included a realistic self-awareness and acceptance of learning differences; adaptive personal skills like perseverance, proactivity, goal setting, and emotional stability; and an effective support system.

Many of the individuals with dyslexia we interviewed for this book named similar factors when asked what they believed was critical for their emotional and professional success. These factors included tenacity; confidence; positive self-image; a realistic acceptance of the personal struggles and shortcomings associated with dyslexic learning challenges, but also a deliberate focusing on personal strengths and areas of special interest; supportive home and school environments; and a supportive network of friends.

All factors on both lists fall into roughly two categories:
internal supports
and
external supports
. Let's look at each.

The first internal support is the sense of
confidence and self-worth
that individuals with dyslexia develop when they learn to recognize and use their personal strengths. Each of our successful dyslexic interviewees mentioned how important they'd found it for the development of their confidence to be able to use and develop their talents during their years of academic struggle. Many also mentioned the importance of having their talents recognized by others.

These talents were of many different kinds, but most were demonstrated far more easily outside the classroom than in it. Many (though not all) reflect the MIND strengths we've discussed. For example, James Russell and Lance Heywood enjoyed positive experiences working with electronics. Lance's son Daniel and James's grandson Christopher enjoyed positive experiences building elaborate projects with LEGOs and robotics. Jack Laws said positive experiences with Scouting and nature studies “helped me have more self-confidence.” Douglas Merrill and Anne Rice cited the importance of their strengths in storytelling. Blake Charlton said sports and drama were “the only ways I maintained my self-esteem.” Vince Flynn mentioned sports and chess. Ben Foss cited sports and student government. Glenn Bailey mentioned sports and recognition for his sense of humor. Sarah Andrews and David Schoenbrod mentioned awards they'd won for art.

Similar blends of aptitudes and interests are also common among the students with dyslexia with whom we work. Some of the most common interests we find in these students include (in no special order): nature, animals, photography, videography, animation (hand or computer), art, robotics, LEGOs, storytelling and creative writing, debate club and speech competitions, chess club, science club and fairs, collecting, gaming, planes, cars, motorcycles, boats, electronics, physics, music, crafting, shop, engines, landscaping, dance, sports, inventing, design, fashion, skateboarding, snowboarding, theater, martial arts, computers, Scouting, religious youth groups, kite flying, literary interests (mythology, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction), history (military history is especially common), and building general or specialized knowledge by listening to books on tape.

We've listed these interests and activities to give you some idea of the breadth of the possible areas of interest through which students with dyslexia can experience confidence and success. Depending on the child's interests and aptitudes, the activity pursued may be cooperative or competitive. If competitive, it's important to find a place where the child faces an appropriate level of challenge. Not everyone can count on being a naturally great athlete, artist, or musician, but exceptional ability isn't essential to experience success. Finding a less elite training environment where children can compete with others at a similar level can allow them to gain confidence while acquiring skills and experience. We've seen many children with dyslexia thrive in martial arts courses that stress personal discipline rather than elite competition and where, when sparring is practiced, it is done with carefully matched children, so matches are appropriately competitive.

Canadian entrepreneur Glenn Bailey shared a story that perfectly describes the importance of finding the right environment to build skills. “As a kid I played hockey in West Vancouver, and I thought I was terrible. But we moved to Vancouver Island [which is much more sparsely populated] the year they opened a new hockey arena, and I became one of the best players on one of the teams because it was a ‘new market' and no one else could even skate. So I played on an all-star team, and we traveled all over the island, and I developed all this confidence. And some years later I ended up going back and playing in West Vancouver, and by that time I was one of the best players. That's just a confidence issue, but that's so applicable for a dyslexic person because their underlying issue is often a lack of confidence, which results from the failure they've encountered in the classroom—and confidence is everything in life.”

Dr. Charles Haynes, whom we met in the last chapter, has worked with many students and adults with dyslexia as a language specialist, researcher, and classroom teacher. He summed up the importance of focusing on the child's strengths in a way that wonderfully echoes Glenn's observations. “The child with dyslexia has strengths that need to be recognized and supported early—just as early as they need help with their areas of need. They need early positive experiences with people who have faith in them: people who believe they have something to offer and who don't just focus on their areas of need but also celebrate and publicize appropriately what they've accomplished—not in an unrealistic or artificial way but appropriately and sincerely. When children with dyslexia experience success and recognition, they have the confidence to deal with their difficulties in school.” This connection between success, confidence, and motivation is absolutely critical to understand for those trying to teach and raise children with dyslexia.

The second internal support is an
attitude
characterized by
optimism and a strong belief in a bright future
. Students with dyslexia are constantly at risk for being overwhelmed by reminders of their apparent inferiority. Each day they're surrounded by classmates who are acquiring skills more quickly and efficiently, scoring higher on tests and assignments, producing neater and longer papers, and finishing tests and assignments more quickly. Students with dyslexia not only feel that they're being left behind, but they see the distance separating them from their classmates increasing at an accelerating pace. Faced with this constant barrage of negative messages, students with dyslexia are constantly at risk of losing their hope for the future and entering a self-defeating cycle of pessimism, loss of motivation, underachievement, and behavioral and emotional dysfunction.

Psychologist Martin Seligman has described how a pessimistic mind-set develops, and the problems to which it can lead, in several classic books like
The Optimistic Child
and
Authentic Happiness
.
²
According to Seligman, individuals who encounter repeated failures often begin to experience a sense of powerlessness. This leads them to attribute their problems to factors that are permanent (or unchangeable), pervasive (affecting not only the areas where the failures occurred but every aspect of life), and personal (or due to some defect within themselves, which they believe to be inescapable or even deserving of punishment). This
pessimistic interpretive framework
then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as demoralization (or even clinical depression) reduces motivation and effort, which leads to further failure and an apparent validation of the pessimism.

Fortunately, Seligman has also shown that an optimistic interpretive framework can be taught and learned, so it can replace the pessimistic one. The optimistic framework attributes failures to factors that are temporary and changeable rather than permanent, specific to particular tasks rather than pervasive across all areas of a person's life, and attributable to factors that have nothing to do with an individual's personal worth.

We've found that teaching this optimistic framework to students with dyslexia can help them interpret and deal with their dyslexia-related challenges in more productive ways. This involves teaching individuals with dyslexia that their challenges are temporary and conquerable (either through the use of remediation, strategies, or accommodation), limited to particular functions (which are also accompanied by benefits), and due to specific patterns of brain organization and function rather than to a lack of effort or merit on their part. When they fully grasp the truth of these messages, the results can be transformative.

Individuals who've been deeply discouraged by past experiences may benefit from working with a clinical psychologist or therapist who's been trained in cognitive behavioral approaches. These approaches work by teaching students to change their interpretive framework and to deal more productively with their experiences.