High Visual Intelligence Can Make Learning To read Difficult
July 18, 2008 Category: Home School No Comments »
In every class you will find children displaying this phenomenon.
There are many children who struggle with reading, while being evidently bright and hard working.
Initially everything can seem OK. But, while other children’s reading progresses steadily, these children will hit a plateau at around 6. As the text they are expected to read gets more complicated, they will get more and more confused, often guessing wildly.
In the end their reading will go into reverse as their confidence implodes. They can feel the worry of their teacher and parents, but don’t know what to do.
These children will often be labelled dyslexic. But that is quite wrong.
Dyslexia suggests there is some underlying problem that cannot be overcome.
But these children have no real reason not to be able to read. They are just approaching it in the wrong way.
Let me explain what’s happening.
A very visual child will find the alphabet easy to memorise. Then the first words they are show they will memorise as well. Everyone praises their progress and as far as they know, they are reading. The early reader books feed into this by using a very limited vocabulary that repeats a lot.
So all seems well.
But this approach implodes on them as the text gets more complicated. Some children will be able to switch to decoding words phonetically, because they also have a strong natural auditory ability. They can see how the sounds within the speech relate to the text.
Others cannot make the switch without careful instruction. Their auditory perception just isn’t up to hearing the phonic structure of the words.
And these are the children that get stuck.
You will see them guessing wildly, just using the context and the first letter of the word.
They find themselves down a cul-de-sac and don’t know the way out. At the same time they can feel how worried their teacher and parents are, but can’t do any more than they already are.
Without expert guidance, these children will become part of the 20% who still cannot read properly by the age of 11. Their academic career and earning potential for the rest of their lives hangs in the balance at this moment.
And what a tragedy. We routinely watch them become confident readers in just a few weeks. They only need to be guided back onto the right path.
The label dyslexic is very dangerous. It lets everyone off the hook of actually finding a solution. And still consigns the child to a lower and tougher track through life.