Holidays

Merry Christmas to you all. We've had a quiet, restfull Christmas Day; just the way we like it. All our relatives live hours away, or have gone visiting hours away. We had some friends drop in to see us for a little while, but they've all gone now. My husband decided to roast a chook and vegies for tea. I've been dozing most of the day. That's about the limit of our celebrations this year. We will have a BBQ for hubbie's birthday on 29th though. Maybe something for New Year's Eve. My son was actually reading something out of a book I was reading yesterday ( I asked him, to see how he did) He did very well. I'm trying just short bursts of no pressure reading to see how his comprehension is. Even though he had trouble with a couple of words, he understood the meaning of the paragraph. " That's life", you say. "We have to take the good with the bad, the ups with the downs. We have to be on guard, work hard, do things right, be watchfull and hope for a break. Yes, that's the way life is." He understood the part about taking the good with the bad, the ups and the downs. We discussed how he sees the words, and how sometimes he sees the end of the word first. Total frustration for him! I've decided to encourage left to right reading ( spell-reading and sweep sweep spell) to help him get used to doing that. 10 mins at a time, no pressure. We all discussed how he needs to get stuck in to doing the work each day. It's no good him getting up and doing nothing for hours specially as he has a girlfriend that takes up his time now. Well thats all for today, Enjoy the rest of Christmas and New Year

Why caged?

Hi all, Why did I call myself 'dys_caged'? My son feels caged by Dyslexia - he is trapped in a world of words he cannot freely read or understand. My husband is also trapped by Dyslexia in that he finds reading too hard so he only reads for knowledge. I am a non dyslexic, who is teaching her son to live in a world of words. Some days we struggle to understand each other, other days I find myself in awe of the complex mind before me. In New Zealand the Education Department does not like to label anyone as Dyslexic - they say that it is a name that just means problems with reading, writing and maths. I disagree. From reading The Gift of Dyslexia , by Ron Davis , talking to my family and Dyslexic friends, I came to the conclusion that Dyslexia is a unique way of living in the world. Imagine you are at school and the teacher asks you to write the word 'cat' you go ahead and write 'C A T' meaning a small furry feline animal. If you are Dyslexic you have to rememberwhat a cat is , then try to find the word that matches the picture in your mind, each letter, what order do they go in?, how do you write each letter? Imagine each letter is made of plasticine, not written on a page. If you think of the letter 'A' how many ways could it be written? ... Upside down , right side up, on its side, inside the A , from above, from below, there are many variations. Now try that with the other two ...... and combine all three..... are there any more letters .......? Have I got the order right ...... ? This tiny 3 letter word becomes a huge hurdle. Imagine this process happens for every single word and its no wonder that many Dyslexic people give up in disgust. We have special schools that help kids with a wide range of problems but I don't know if they help Dyslexics in one classroom or school. Even when teachers have training for Special Education I am not sure it covers the unique needs of Dyslexics - All I know is my family's experience and once my son left Primary School and became Mainstreamed into a new school, he felt like the rug had been pulled out from under him. He struggled through Intermediate, where they misunderstood him. High School was a nightmare then we decided to Home school him. Even that option was a struggle getting the programme right for him. Since he's been home he's doing much better now we are taking things one step at a time.