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21 July 2020

Lines and Circles


We live in a highly literate world, the written word is everywhere, you need to be able to read to engage in society fully.  I love reading, I always have a book on the go.  Cameron loves reading too, he used to leave a trail of books around the house so I could tell where he had been.  We both started our reading learning at around the age of five, Alice turned 11 a month or so ago and reading is still very much a work in progress for her. 

It has been a long, slow, learning journey for her and for me, one that we are still working at.  I love that my children learn in completely different ways, that they are interested in completely different things, but Alice's difficulties in learning to read has laid bare to me that sometimes these difficulties are made so much harder when they are trying to gain a skill that we place a lot of value on in our society.  I am always so saddened when I hear about children who are not given the support that they really need to learn this skill that we place so much emphasis on.  Learning to read later than the 'required' age, which should not even be a thing. should not be seen as a negative, we all learn in our own way and given that reading is a skill that we place such importance on, we should be encouraging children and helping them to learn to read by considering their needs and how they learn.

I remember when Alice was about five she asked me to help her to learn to read.  It was the first thing she had ever asked help with learning, looking back, hindsight always makes things seem obvious, I should have realised by the way that she was asking that she was frustrated that she couldn't work it out, working things out was something she had been for some time, and still is, exceptionally good at.

I want you to imagine, for a moment, that you come across an object that you are not familiar with what might you do to work out what it is?  Might you pick it up and feel it, look at it from all sides.  Might you leave it where it is and walk around it looking at it from all sides.  What if you could move it around in your head, seeing it from all sides without actually touching it or moving it?   You might think that is not possible and nor would I had I not read that this is a skill.  I should have realised that Alice had this skill when she played the game in the photo above.  It is aimed at age 8 +, she was five when she first played it with my brother and I.  We played it four times and she won every time, this wasn't us letting her win, between us we couldn't beat her.  She could hold one of those tiles in her hand and turn it round in her head, rather than moving it around in her hand, to work out where to put it, she also played with strategy which is a whole other post.  I wished I had realised at the time how key this skill was to her difficultly in being able to read.  The ability to move something round in your head is a wonderful skill if you are trying to build, make or design something, work out how something mechanical works or fix a problem, it is however hopeless if you do the same with words.  

After Alice's initial request I used some of the resources that I had put together for Cameron to support him when learning to read.  I soon realised that she was not ready for those yet and I needed to come up with a completely different method to help her.  Those resources relied on her knowing her letters which she had yet to master so I started with that.  I created a story for each letter and using a variety of resources we slowly made our way through the alphabet, she created her own alphabet book with words, pictures and stories that she dictated to me and I wrote out for her.  Once she had mastered those we started to put them together and that is when things started to get harder for the both of us.  I couldn't fathom how she could read a word fluently one day and then have no idea what it was the next.  It took me a long time to realise that she was reading words backwards or jumbling the letters up like a she was making anagrams with them as she was reading.  We needed another pause so that I could work out how to help her next and she could have a rest.  Reading was exhausting for her.

It was around this time that I started to wonder if she might be dyslexic.  I knew very little about it except that it was a label given to those that had reading issues.  I headed to my local library to see whether there were any books that I could educate myself on how to help Alice.  I was fortunate to find many and one in particular was so good that I bought a copy for our shelves.  It had a suggestion for a test that you could try and then an exercise based on the results of the test (none of which involved reading).  They sounded so far fetched to me that I wasn't sure they could possibly work, but I thought nothing ventured, nothing gained.  The exercise would give Alice a means to stop the letters in words dancing around when she reached a word she couldn't read.  This book had bought to my attention something that I had failed to notice that she would reach a word she didn't know, pause try to work it out and after that word she would have difficult continuing but she managed it at a slower pace, by the time she reached a second or third word that she could not read she would not be able to read anything else.  The book call this a threshold of confusion where disorientation has set in as the symbols/letters have become so distorted that they are no longer understandable.  

The book also suggested that she may have a picture for every word, in fact some dyslexics think in pictures instead of words.  Words such as house, dog, car, tree are easy to create pictures of in our heads, the, and, if, of, other, just and many more the picture is not quite so easy.  I have established that this is how Alice sees the world and how she reads words.  This also means that every time she comes across a new word it is a complete mystery to her until she has created her own picture for it.  Can you imagine that?  How difficult that makes reading?  How exhausting that would make reading?  It is hard for those of us that read to imagine this isn't it?

We are now at the stage where Alice will pick up books and read them to herself, they need to ones with a basic typeface, those really flowery typefaces are an absolute no no, and with few paragraphs on a page for now.  Her absolute preference for learning is through combined visual and audio, the internet has been a life saver.  We spend time together searching for things that she is interested in, which we usually watch together, as they are often of interest to me too.  She still loves being read to and it gives me such pleasure to read chapter books to her that would take her months if not years to read.  

I do hope there is time when she can read without getting exhausted, I feel sure that time will come at some point.  Throughout the six years since she asked me to help her learn to read, all her learning has been driven by her and I am always in awe of her determination to master this seemingly to her at times, impossible task.  She is not ashamed to admit that she cannot read that well and will always ask for help when she needs it, another really useful skill that I feel sure will be useful to her in the future.

When I started home education nearly eleven years ago, I had no idea where that would take us.  It has been a wonderful journey and I have learnt more than I could ever have imagined.  What more could I ask for?

21 comments:

  1. That is SO fascinating! What a brilliant mind your Alice has!

    I hope I'm not out of place when I say that I'm SO very glad she's always learned at home, I can't even imagine (although I've heard the horror stories) of how children with dyslexia manage in the school system. It seems to work entirely on the 'disability model' - as with autism spectrum - instead of working with natural talents and variations and allowing for, yes, the exhaustion that occurs when trying to learn something that's so contrary to one's own way of viewing the world.

    Anyway, I feel like I've got one foot up on my soapbox so I'll stop there ;) What wonderful work the two of you have done together...it must be so fulfilling. xo

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    1. You are not out of place at all Mel, I too am glad that Alice has always learnt at home. I did seriously consider sending her to school but I am so glad that I didn't, because I really don't think they would have been able to meet her learning needs. When I first started reading up about dyslexia I kept finding reference to it being a disability, I just couldn't accept that or understand where they had come from until I realised that it is in the eyes of those who are not dyslexic which is a sad indictment of our current culture and education system that people that think differently are disabled.

      I worked with several groups of children on the autism spectrum when I worked in outdoor centres, I loved working with them as they challenged me to think differently about how I did things which I think is always a good thing.

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  2. Reading is something that is so often taken for granted, but it can be such a struggle for some. The amazing thing is that Alice still enjoys reading and being read to, despite the challenge she faces. I envy her capacity to think in 3D - that is something I struggle with!
    Congratulations to you both on that wonderful journey.
    Best wishes
    Ellie

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    1. You are absolutely right that it is taken for granted, especially that people will learn it easily and by the one means that is current in the education system at a given time. Thank you so much for your kind words about Alice. 3D thinking - why did I not think of that! That is absolutely what she does and I struggle with that too!

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  3. Well done with helping her to be able to move forward despite the challenges and that she now reads unprompted shows that your working together to overcome her difficulties have been worth it x

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    1. Thank you, it is has been a long hard journey but I do feel we are doing ok now.

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  4. As in your family...reading is a given in mine, and when I had a grandson who just didn't take to it, it hurt .... he was missing out on so much!! His issue (we think) is the fact that he is extremely left-handed. I mean...extremely. And his processing world is backward. (A friend is a PhD childhood development professor who also suffers with this problem! and has done a great deal of research on it.) So everything, from adding numbers in a column to reading must be thoughtfully transposed. They are not a jumble...but not in the natural order of things. As a result, he sort of has an extra step to reading and math. Which makes him a tad slower in performing these tasks. Given any amount of time...he does fine. He reads and comprehends better than anyone in the family....he'll remember the tiniest details to a story. BUT...it's always a struggle. Any timed test is a disaster. I honestly don't think our educational system is geared toward these challenging learners. And don't appreciate the strides they overcome to succeed.
    Best of luck to Alice and her challenges. With such home support, I'm sure she'll do well!

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    1. I think this is sad but true, Steph. We have a one size fits all education system, it is wonderful for those that fit but if are not the right size it is hard for you to learn. Thank you for your kind words.

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  5. I've always loved to read, I could read fluently before I started school and was never without a book in my hand, so it's been rather sad that neither of my children are big readers. Daniel would read books he was really interested in but Eleanor's just not interested at all in picking up a book, even though they can both read perfectly well. I'm pleased that Alice is still interested in reading even though she finds it challenging, reading for pleasure is such a joy. She's a very lucky girl to have a mum who is working so hard with her to give her the skills she needs to help her on her journey. She sounds a very clever girl and I'm sure the difficulty she faces won't hold her back, she comes across as very determined.

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    1. Thank you Jo. She is determined, a skill which is useful to have too. Reading is an interesting thing, my perception and I might have this totally wrong, is that in education some books are given more worth than others and that you are only really reading if are reading fiction. If this is the case and they are not your favourite type of book I can see why that would put you off. Cameron only reads non fiction, he really doesn't like reading fiction, I suspect if he was at school this would be frowned upon. There are so many amazing non fiction books out there, I do hope your children are able to find a love of books when they are ready to.

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  6. my children liked to read as long as it wasn't mandatory. So throughout the school year they read what they 'had' to read for public schools and that was it. In the summer though, we went to libraries and bookstores and they read like crazy! I love how you are so in touch with your daughter's reading style and her likes and dislikes. My sister was exactly like her and she became an avid reader as an adult.

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    1. How wonderful Karen, that you enabled them to appreciate all books not just the ones that they had to read. I love that you spend the summer holidays devouring books, I can just imagine them doing that.

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  7. Like Mel, the first thing I thought was thank goodness Alice is home schooled! How lucky you are to have each other. Alice obviously has an amazing mind, given her dedication I'm sure she'll master reading.xxx

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    1. Thank you! I love all the different ways our mind works, it is has been a wonderful learning journey for me too.

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  8. This is such a fascinating read and I do hope Alice gets to grips with becoming a fluent reader. With such understanding and support from you I’m sure she will. My eldest son started to pick out words and began to read from the age of three. His brother however never showed any interest before starting school and then never progressed as expected. He still wasn’t reading by the age of eight and struggled for a long time. Looking back I think there may have been something like dyslexia but in the end he was the one who did English at A level and then wrote a novel in his early twenties... so they constantly surprise you!

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed my post Gina. It must have been hard for your younger son in school and struggling to read at eight, it is so difficult for them isn't it? I am so glad that he learnt in the end and has gone on to be a writer himself.

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  9. Any chance you could share the title of the book? P has mild dyslexia in that she can read but has trouble decoding unfamiliar words and she much prefers to use scrabble tiles for spelling this definitely matches her kinesthetic preferred learning style. We have used the toe by toe stride ahead programme which has been very good. You must be really proud of how Alice has persevered, thank you for having the skill to explain how she encounters the written word, San x

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    1. Of course it is Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D Davis. I am glad to hear that you have found a way to help P through her reading I hope you can find ways to help her. It might be that she will always find decoding unfamiliar words difficult, I think that this will be the case for Alice, but who knows?

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  10. How wonderful that Alice will pick up a book to read to herself. You must be so proud of her determination and resilience. X

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    1. Thank you Jules. I am proud of her, she is determined and her resilience has definitely been tested. I think these are important skills to learn too.

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  11. This is an amazing story, you must be so proud of her. Alice sounds so determined and also accepting of the fact this is something that is difficult for her. As you say, I cannot imagine how exhausting this must be, having to visualise the word as well as spelling out the letters. What a journey this has been for both of you - you should write a book about it!

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