Ten O'Clock Scholar - Is it a learning disability or just a learning style

a   Did you know that a learning style can be mistaken for a learning disability?

               John Holt’s book, Teach Your Own, first introduced me to the idea that dyslexia is misdiagnosed. The idea that children see letters as 3-dimensional objects came from him, as he proved that children are not seeing letters backward. Research from Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld and others has shown that sight-words are the culprit. When our educational system took true phonics out of the classroom, it was a step backward. Whole-language is the limiting hieroglyphic system, whereas phonics is the most progressive innovation of the centuries. It still is.

               Gifted children are not truly ADHD, just bored and full of ideas and energy. Dyslexia is neither visual nor genetic. It is induced. Tendencies are never set in stone and can be overcome by environment and free will. Late-bloomers are not “slow”, just flourishing at their own rate. In fact, they are often very bright.

               Help your son break the gender gap in reading so his gift can shine. Did you know that there is a worldwide gender gap in reading, especially with whole language or sight-reading methods? Science has shown that boys are very different from girls in fetal development, emotional response, brain differentiation, and such. The multi-focus teaching methods above favor girls in academic achievement. However, when the single-focus approach of systematic phonics is used, the sex differences are eliminated, with the boys even outperforming the girls sometimes.

               In my book, It's Not Rocket Surgery! Vol. 3, I discussed the Visual Attention Span (VAS) Theory. VAS is the number of letters that can be held in short-term memory and, as children mature, their VAS increases. The more letters a student can hold in his or her short-term memory, the better he or she will fare with whole language/balanced literacy methods (which involve a lot of memorization).

               As I shared in Vol. 5, out of the VAS clinical practice has come the results that since boys mature more slowly than girls, boys tend to have lower VAS scores and do worse at reading in whole language/balanced literacy classrooms. But in systematic phonics classrooms, where children are required to process sounds as opposed to memorizing letters, VAS is not a factor and there is no gender gap. The creators of VAS Theory use systematic phonics, succeeding in teaching 100% of their students to read, with data based on their study of more than 3000 children.

               So, knowing that children often fall behind with whole-language or sight-reading methods, a wise parent will make sure that her son (or daughter) has systematic, synthetic phonics taught as his method of reading! Since reading is the foundation of everything else, he will have a much better chance to be his brightest self. Geek is Chic! 

               On July 15, 2011, I was a guest on Vivienne McNeny’s internet radio show – The Sociable Homeschooler – http://toginet.com/shows/thesociablehomeschooler/articles/2070. Among our several topics of conversation, we discussed late bloomers. I have several family members who seemed to drift aimlessly as young adults, but who became successful later in life. Never give up!

               “It’s never too late to become the person you might have been” George Elliott

               Vivienne shared how one of her sons was a ball of energy who couldn’t settle down long enough to concentrate on his assignments. Did she put him on Ritalin? No, she wisely helped him by writing his stories as he dictated them to her, giving him oral spelling tests while he engaged in other activities, read books and textbooks with him, etc. To some her son may have had a learning disability, but he was just a late bloomer, who is fine now. He’s also very intelligent, which giftedness is often misdiagnosed as ADHD. Vivienne had the insight to help her son learn until he flourished at his own pace.

               Sometimes dealing with a child’s struggles can seem exhausting. The best way to beat mommy burn-out is to change the way we’re thinking about a situation. It also helps to find out that we’re not alone and others are coping with similar issues.

               The internet makes it easy to find social groups with similar interests and experiences. Sites like www.meetup.com have just about any kind of group you want to join. Google can find any subject. Support of friends goes a long way to helping us carry on with joy.

               I just love the poem, Don’t You Quit:

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

               When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,

               When the funds are low and the debts are high,

               And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

               When care is pressing you down a bit-

               Rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

               As every one of us sometimes learns,

               And many a fellow turns about

               When he might have won, had he stuck it out.

               Don't give up though the pace seems slow -

               You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than

               It seems to a faint and faltering man;

               Often the struggler has given up

               When he might have captured the victor's cup;

               And he learned too late when the night came down,

               How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -

               The silver tint in the clouds of doubt,

               And you never can tell how close you are,

               It might be near when it seems afar;

               So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -

               It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Author Unknown              http://www.thedontquitpoem.com/thePoem.htm

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Star light star bright - the gifted teenager

          The Gifted Teenager!

        Gifted children see the world differently because of their complex thought processes, as well as their emotional intensity. Gifted people are “too” everything: too sensitive, too intense, too driven, too honest, too idealistic, too moral, too perfectionist, too much for other people!

Friends and family often ask them,

-        “Why do you make everything so complicated?”

-        “Why do you take everything so seriously?”

-        “Why is everything so important to you?”

Even if they try to fit in their entire lives, they may still feel like misfits.

        More often than not, gifted children can feel alone and misunderstood. They have more grown-up tastes in music, clothing, books, and food. These differences can cause other children to shun and even verbally or physically abuse them. There are resources to help overcome this, as given in my previous blog.

        The ennui and depression of gifted teenagers – why talk about a dark subject in relation to giftedness? The number one demographic of suicide is 17-year-old males with high Intelligence Quotients (IQ). Being forewarned is being fore-armed, and parents of gifted teens need awareness, hope, and help to deal with this subject.

        Some gifted people actually think themselves out of existence. They ponder the purpose of life more deeply than most and can reach a sort of hopelessness about it. Teen years are a very self-absorbed time, yet even bright teens can lack the ability to predict cause and effect or consequences properly. Science has shown that the chemistry of the human brain, especially in the frontal lobe, changes after about age 18. Therefore, even smart teens can err in their ideas of the future.

        Teens feel their emotions very intensely, and being gifted can magnify this. They don’t realize that a lost love or university choice is not the end of the world. They can’t project the future properly.

        One of the best medicines against this deep angst is to help our teens serve others. I tell my son to use his brain to do good in this world and make it a better place. The mental, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual health of children is important, and learning to volunteer in a greater cause is important in developing a well-rounded person.

        For example, in Missouri, a great place to get teens involved in service is the annual Festival of Sharing at the MO State Fair Grounds in Sedalia on every the 3rd Saturday every October. http://www.umocm.com/festival.htm. Many groups get together and pack food, hygiene kits, and school kits to be distributed to several MO agencies that aid people in a crisis.

        The ennui and depression of gifted teens is an important subject so that parents and educators can be aware of this problem and help teens see other possibilities and solutions to their problems. Sometimes gifted teens are depressed because they can’t find other teens like them. They are so smart that no one gets their jokes or humor. They think on a deeper level than the materialism focused on by other teens. Often they get along with adults better than their peers who don’t understand them. They can be depressed because they’re lonely.

        My 3rd son understood the world from a more adult point of view, so all the adults in his environ loved him. But his social skills with kids his own age weren’t as good. He was never able to talk on as shallow a level as was required to hang with the other boys and be cool. Luckily, he hung on until time helped him grow up. In high school and later as an adult, he found more people who thought like he did and could discuss something a little more interesting than the latest stuff they bought or the latest sports team. He also found girls who could talk about something deeper than who did their nails and where they bought those cute shoes – ugh!

        A great place to find socialization for teens is from the MENSA society. They will find others who get their jokes and think like they do. In the Kansas City area it is called the Mid-America MENSA group at http://www.mamensa.org. Children are always welcome at all MAMENSA activities. Plus there is a national special interest group (SIG) for teens, and a Brightkids email resource for other ages. For more information, contact the Gifted Children Coordinator at giftedchildcoord@mamensa.org.

        Sometimes gifted teens are depressed from a sort of arrogance about themselves compared to others around them. They know they can out-think their peers and many adults, and have impatience with others. (Studies show that intelligent people can make the worst bosses when they won’t listen to any other point of view.) Along with this arrogance can come a hopelessness about the state of the world and a reason for being.

        The interesting thing about teen depression is that it is interspersed with moments of fun joviality, masking the true underlying feelings. Teens can go to a party and have a great time, then come home and feel the depression creep back in. Parents and Educators need to be aware that a depressed teen has moments of looking like a happy teen. All the symptoms of depression need to be viewed together to see a pattern of depression.

        With one woman’s son, depression was manifest as anger. He would rage at the simplest annoyances. He was angry that the world wasn’t his idea of perfect. When he started verbally spiraling downward into more and more negative self-talk, she realized her son needed professional help. He was headed for suicide. Her intervention probably saved his life.

        Parents of gifted teens should make sure that they know what resources are out there to help them when they can’t talk to mom or dad. One of the best places to find hotlines and help is at teen central. Go to http://www.teencentral.net/Help/teenhelp.php?st=MO. Or you can go to the home page and search any state. For Missouri, the website lists at least 6 different hotlines and agencies for teen help. There are places teens can call in a crisis to talk. There are resources for parents, too.

        Another is the 24-hour Crisis Hotline for abuse at http://www.mocsa.org. Or call (816) 531-0233 on the MO side, and call (913) 642-0233 on the KS side. Or the Teen Connection Helpline is at (913) 281-2299.

        And a great resource for boys and girls is the Boys Town, which can be reached 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. They have a free crisis hotline. Go to http://www.BoysTown.org for more information.

        One way to help gifted teens out of depression or to avoid depression is to teach them gratitude. When we can be thankful for the gifts in our lives, large and small, we are happier. This helps to keep the arrogance at bay, too, so that we can enjoy other people.

        Remember that being gifted is just that – a gift. We didn’t personally do anything to get a great memory and logic, it was given to us. We have nothing to be arrogant about because our giftedness isn’t a personal accomplishment, just a gift. We can be proud of our achievements without being smug (thinking we’re better than others).

        Gratitude for the little things in life helps us and our gifted teens see the good and focus on the positive. It helps us understand what’s truly important and what isn’t. Gratitude can be developed and we can learn that the glass is more than “half-full” in our lives.

        Creativity can alleviate ennui and the blues. Encourage teens to be creative. A wonderful website for budding inventors and scientists in Boing Boing found at http://www.boingboing.net with lots of techno gadgets and ideas. They also publish a magazine called MAKE. On their website, MAKE magazine was giving away free PDFs of the projects they demoed on The Martha Stewart Show on 15 July 2009. Go check out what they currently may be offering!

        Exercise and physical activity can boost endorphins and serotonins in the brain. Go for a natural high! Shut off the video games and get your teen active.

        I also strongly suggest keeping teens free from porn. Porn can be addicting and depressing. I’ve seen a porn addiction lead to suicidal tendencies many times. Studies show that a twelve-year-old only needs two weeks to become addicted to porn. Help your teen stay away from such a soul-crushing addiction. It will affect his (or her) relationships for life. (Remember, anecdotal exceptions-to-the-rule are not the rule.) Why risk it?

        Note: if your teen needs medical help for depression, get it. You can’t change your brain chemistry by out-thinking it, just like you can’t think your pancreas into making more insulin.

        Now about gifted girls when they reach the teenage years: Why do gifted girls play dumb with their peers?

        I agree whole-heartedly with the recent study (June 1, 2009) at the University of Wisconsin- Madison- that definitely culture, not biology, accounts for the differences in math performance among men and women. Professors Mertz and Hyde say the data just do not support the stereotype. http://www.cardinal.wisc.edu/article/23150.

        In fact in elementary school, girls are usually ahead of boys in math. It isn’t until middle school that girls start falling behind. And why, on average, do they fall behind?

        Early teen years are when girls begin to realize the patriarchal order that exists in most societies. They begin to see that they are quickly approaching womanhood and what that means in relation to men. They quickly understand that boys have sensitive egos about being ‘bested’ by girls. So they often downplay their intelligence and physical abilities to win the attention of the boys. This is the time that many gifted girls go into hiding, so to speak.

        My 5^th daughter, the one who was in the Spectrum class for gifted kids, was ashamed of being smart in middle school, where there was no gifted class. To fit in with the other girls around her, she would refuse to show them her report card each trimester. She never let on that she was getting straight-A’s. This made me sad, and I did my best to help her see that it was okay to be smart. Luckily, she outgrew this tendency and did very well in college. I am so proud of her! And now she has the opportunity to help her gifted daughter live her fullest expression of talent.

        A woman I know, Joyce, hosted a Japanese businessman’s visit at work, who brought his wife on the trip to the U.S. with him. It was obvious that the wife spoke better English than he did, but she held her tongue in his presence and only spoke to Joyce when they were alone. Many cultures subtly- or not so subtly- discourage a female from embarrassing a male in front of others. She has to hide her talents to be accepted. In the name of “respect”, the often better person has to play dumb. Isn’t that sad?

        One woman, Lee says, “Lucky for me, my 8th grade algebra teacher was a woman, Mrs. Barton, who was also a mother of 4 children. She became my role model. She taught math so well, so understandably, and juggled motherhood, too. From that moment on, I excelled in math, going all the way through calculus in high school.

        “Doing well in math spilled over into doing well in physics and chemistry, too. College was the obvious next step. I realized that I didn’t have to give up using my brain to be a mother or give up motherhood to use my brain. Because of Mrs. Barton, I have always excelled at math and science and motherhood.

        “And I was the older sister of several boys, so I was used to out-performing males. I had a bit of an ego myself. In fact, I liked to prove that I was smarter and better than most of the males around me. I figured a guy could like me and my intelligence, or I didn’t need him.”

        Girls today have more social freedom to choose a professional career than the previous generations did when they were young. However, most of the magazines for girls and women still focus on hair, nails, clothes, and being sexy. So the messages that other women editors in society give to girls, still focus on traditional feminine interests.

        This makes it harder for science-and-engineering women to get their message heard. The narrow focus to be attractive is stronger than to be intelligent, even in these modern times. Society needs to blend the two. A smart woman can be attractive, and she usually attracts a better caliber of men. The Exploring Your Horizons (EYH) group has been doing a marvelous job of having women professionals mentor young teen girls in math and science. Kudos to EYH!

        In this way, it is the social messages that girls get at puberty, not necessarily the hormones or capabilities, which draw them away from mathematics in the adolescent years.

                To tell you the truth, the misguided idea of “needing a boyfriend” to fit in is everywhere. It has a lot to do with what the magazines and other media, even Disney and Nickelodeon shows, push at our girls.

                The "dating" ideas in teen magazines often rival the porn mags. It takes away their childhood much too young. Many models are young teens and pre-teens dolled up to look older and sexier. What kind of message is that? It seems that some companies will do anything to make a buck.

                Those magazines and shows that focus on all the other interests and abilities of girls- instead of being sexy- should be applauded and supported by all of us, especially parents. One group that promotes decent media “because our children are watching” is the Parents Television Council(PTC) at http://www.parentstv.org. Their newsletter gives regular critiques about movies and shows that help us make informed family decisions on media for our kids.

                Another problem is mothers who promote the objectifying of their daughters. Pride and vanity are very immature needs. It's sad when they come from mother to daughter. The mothers are trying to live through their daughters.

                In the 1970s feminism used to mean, not wanting to be a sex object, as well as wanting equal opportunities. Now it seems to mean, put everything out there for the whole world to see. This is not progress (though I'm sure the makers of spring break videos and others are enjoying the show). What happened to the original feminist ideas of self-respect and not being used? How can our daughters be seen as equals in the workplace when they are so willing to be mere decorations? This is not empowerment.

                Girls use their bodies to get attention at younger and younger ages. But that's just it - they are being used. They dress like Britney Spears and Madonna for school, which is unfair to the male students and teachers. It takes the girls' focus away from developing their minds and talents the way they should. They need to become women of substance who contribute to society, not just eye candy, which is fleeting.

                All of the conflicting messages create great confusion for our girls. Teenagers and pre-teens don't have the ability to fully understand cause-and-effect. Science has shown that brain chemistry actually changes after age 18, giving their frontal lobe more ability to project the long-term effects of their choices. So while our children are adolescents, it is up to us adults to help them see the half-truths out there for what they are. Adults have a responsibility to help girls feel their self-worth for something beyond looks and boyfriends.

                Taking away girls' childhoods is also taking away their future possibilities in adulthood. Keeping themselves free from bad choices now will keep their adulthoods open and free to be their best selves.Parents need to give their girls the tools to combat peer pressure. They need to teach them things they can say to their friends to get out of an uncomfortable situation. They need to take time to show them how. They need to help them have the inner strength to be true to themselves, even if it means losing those friends.

                Just because society has changed doesn't mean that the natural consequences have changed. Adults need to make sure that our girls know what those consequences are. There are deep emotional costs to promiscuity, not just physical like disease or pregnancy. We need to help steer them toward choices that keep their self-esteem and dignity in the long run, so that they don't change the whole course of their future before they're even old enough to understand what that future is.

                And moms need to quit living vicariously through their daughters to be sexy and popular. The short-term reward is not worth the long-term cost. Sometimes parents just have to say “NO” to certain media and clothes. Sometimes they just have to do what's best. Their girls will understand later; when they have daughters.

                When I was a chemist in aerospace in northern Utah, my company, Alliant Techsystems (Thiokol), sponsored the EYH program. Several women engineers and I volunteered our time to run hands-on workshops for girls in fun math and science applications. For 4 years I was a workshop leader for “Lotion Commotion,” which let the girls make their own lotion with chemistry. They chose their own scents for their lotions, as well as creative labels. My workshop was one of the most popular and usually filled up first.

                We also developed a workshop to make purple dinosaur footprints with molds and plastics that the girls made themselves. The dragon, Saphira, from the movie Eragon, was popular at the time. The girls loved it. And they got to make molds of their own hands.

                The last year I was there (2007), I increased the workshops in order to enroll more

girls. I had many wonderful women from work to help me with the workshops, volunteering

their time on a Saturday to mentor girls. We ran 3 workshops, back to back, in each of 4

rooms. We had 18-20 girls in each workshop in each room, showing almost 240 girls the fun

of chemistry and math in one day. I loved it!


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2 ways a gifted child may have a learning disability

Can a gifted child have a hidden learning disability? Can a learning-disabled child have a hidden giftedness?

Absolutely! Let me tell you about my 5th son. He learned to read by phonics before kindergarten. He always did well in elementary school and showed signs of giftedness. Then in intermediate school (6th & 7th grade) he started struggling. His grades were slipping, he was having behavior problems, getting into trouble, etc. 

We were pulling our hair out. We didn't know what to do. Next he went to middle school (8th & 9th) grades, and things got much worse. We noticed that he was very depressed. Was he on drugs?

About this same time, his younger brother had been diagnosed with childhood bipolar disorder. So I decided to take this son to the same diagnosing clinic and get a professional work-up. Dr. Gray wasn't available, so Dr. Lin took the case. It turned out that my son was ADHD and depressed (sounds bipolar to me, but she said no). 

Dr. Lin said that he was so gifted that it masked his problem in elementary school, but that when he reached the older grades, he couldn't hold it all together on memory and logic any more.

Changing classes and teachers 6 or 7 times a day uncovered the disorganization in his brain. So we got him the help he needed, and his grades came up, culminating in his high school graduation. I wouldn't be surprised if letting him watch too much TV or play too many video games, while I was working when he was little, contributed to his problem. 

He may have a genetic predisposition for these things, but too much media didn't help. As a single mom, I was on survival mode, worked full-time, went to college full-time, studied, took care of the house and shopping, etc. My son changed day-cares too much at that time, also.

The only thing I can say in my defense is that I didn't know. I wish that I knew what I know now, about the affects of noise on the toddler’s brain, when I was younger. I shouldn't have taken the easy road, but my stress level was really high. I also felt that, while I had to work, he was safer watching TV or playing video games than being with questionable friends or wandering outside.

Also, back then I didn't know that changing day-cares too much can cause bonding-attachment disorder in children. I realized that my son had signs of this when he was a preschooler, so I did whatever I could to help him bond with me – held him more, made him look me in the eye while speaking, spent more time with him. 

Divorce is hard on everyone, especially the children. My 5th son was the youngest at the time and was affected the most. He lost both parents; dad to divorce, and mom to work and school.

But I can also say that taking the time to teach him to read before kindergarten, with my picture-letters, solved two problems. I gave him the tools and capacity to learn (and well) despite his hidden ADHD, and I mended his bonding-attachment disorder at the same time with the one-on-one attention. 

In his early teenage years we discovered his hidden ADHD disability and diminished its symptoms, so he could function in a secondary school setting. We also addressed his depression, partly genetic but exacerbated by his struggles in school. He has grown up to be a wonderful, caring young man!

Some children who appear to be gifted in certain areas, such as math, mechanics, cooking, music, etc., may be held back by problems in reading and writing. Some children who are “diagnosed” with learning disabilities may have gifted abilities in other areas, even being savants. Others may be held back by depression or other brain-chemistry issues. 

There is hope. Parents can do things at home to prepare (or repair) their child’s brain for normal, signal processing.

~ Early reading the right way
~ Less sound and visual “noise”
~ Dr. Merzenich’s group
~ Dr. Doman’s institute

(More about this in Chapter 7 of "It's Not Rocket Surgery!" Also, see visual-spatial learners in Chapter 8.)

Without phonics, the idea of anagrams and other word puzzles would be extremely difficult for the sight-reader/dyslexic with little precision in letter-sounds and sequences. Here are a few examples of anagrams from http://www.baconbabble.com/index.php/2009/12/03/48-amazing-anagrams/ plus some of mine. The idea of these anagrams is to scramble the word into something that describes the original word, using all the same letters.

Note: some of the anagrams on the website are not appropriate. I do not support the ribald ones. However, these below are genius!

Mother-in-law __________________________Woman Hitler
Debit card______________________________Bad credit
Slot machines___________________________Cash lost in ‘em
School master___________________________The classroom
Eleven plus two_________________________Twelve plus one
Dormitory_______________________________Dirty room
Punishment______________________________Nine thumps
The Morse code__________________________Here come dots
Snooze alarms___________________________Alas! No more Zs
A decimal point_________________________I’m a dot in place
Astronomer______________________________Moon starer
The eyes________________________________They see
The public art galleries________________Large picture halls, I bet
Election results________________________Lies – let’s recount
The Hurricanes__________________________These churn air
Presbyterian____________________________Best in prayer
Desperation_____________________________A rope ends it
Animosity_______________________________Is no amity
The earthquakes_________________________That queer shake
Semolina________________________________Is No Meal
Contradiction___________________________Accord not in it

-Anagrams in Famous Names- (try your own name)

Elvis___________________________________Lives
Elvis Aaron Presley_____________________Seen alive? Sorry, pal!
Madonna Louise Ciccone__________________One cool dance musician
Clint Eastwood__________________________Old West action
William Shakespeare_____________________I’ll make a wise phrase
Marilyn Manson__________________________Manly man? No sir!
A Homer Simpson_________________________Mr. Homo Sapiens
Giovanni Pergolesi______________________I love opera singing!
George Bush_____________________________He bugs Gore
Osama bin Laden_________________________A bad man, no lies
Saddam Hussein__________________________UN’s said he’s mad
Adolf Hitler____________________________Do real filth
Alec Guinness___________________________Genuine Class
Princess Diana__________________________Ascend in Paris (freaky, right?)
Shannah B Godfrey_______________________Fans go by her hand (writings)

This one's truly amazing:
"To be or not to be: that is the question, whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." ~ William Shakespeare

And the Anagram:
"In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten."

And another long one:
"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." ~ Neil Armstrong

The Anagram:
"Thin man ran; makes a large stride, left planet, pins flag on moon! On to Mars!"

With early reading the right way, no one has to miss the joy of anagrams!

• http://thegodfreymethod.com/content/SavingJackJillcanagiftedchildhavealearningdisability

The true history of dyslexia and how to fix it

The Truth about Dyslexia

                From 1783 to 1826, Noah Webster's "American Speller" - using phonics (letter sounds) - had increased literacy to over 95% of the population. Thus, dyslexia is not truly genetic. In 1826 some sight-word methods from the deaf school of Thomas Gallaudet began to infiltrate American education, and reading problems started- and increased- in earnest.

                In spite of evidence to the contrary, sight-reading methods continued to be developed and the propaganda machine continues to push them on the unwitting public. Now 58% of 5th-graders can't read on grade level, and they fall behind further each year. Notice how the problem increases with each successive grade? 4th-grade reports 40% struggling. Thank the Whole Language fiasco, et al.

                From 1967 to 1995, Project Follow Through, a government-funded experiment in education, spread sight-reading all across the country, getting its curriculum legislated into most state laws. Teachers' hands were now tied to dyslexia-causing methods even if they knew phonics was the key to fluent reading.

Education has steadily declined, and dyslexia has steadily increased. (So have commercial tutors such as Sylvan Learning Center® and Kumon®, as well as homeschooling.)

                So, if dyslexia is obviously not truly genetic, what are its biological components? What does that mean? Why do some children struggle more with sight-reading than others? Why does it seem to run in families?

                It's not because they genetically inherited dyslexia. The answer is that they may have a hearing-processing problem in their brain neurons. This can lead to speech problems, which can be a precursor of dyslexia. Some may also have a harder time memorizing, and sight-words require a lot more memory than phonics reading (See VAS Theory in Vol. 3 of It's Not Rocket Surgery!).

                Some children have sensory overload as infants and toddlers, so their neuron development shuts down in certain areas, especially hearing-processing. Their ears work fine, but the brain nerves don't process the signals quickly enough.

Even if it’s a genetic predisposition, this can be fixed with phonics. Reading should happen on the left side of the brain; sight-words put it on the right side, defectively. Phonics can fix this; it re-wires the brain properly.

You, mom and dad, are the key!

http://thegodfreymethod.com/blog/saving-jack-and-jill-true-history-dyslexia-and-how-fix-it