Below is Jamie’s account of the day:

• Start off the morning with a check-in, how we are feeling about being there, did we sleep well, do we need a snack or to do some stretching – make sure we are set up to be successful for the day.
• Then we take time to check and make sure our focusing tools is where it needs to be and do any fine tuning if need be. This is as easy as 1,2,3, balance.
• Then we play around with koosh balls (a type of rubbery stringy ball).   From there we are really focused and ready to do some reading.
• We only read for 5-10 minutes depending on how one is feeling. When we work on reading comprehension it might be longer and a good discussion of “the movie” that we have visualized while reading.
• Next, we would do clay work to master words. We talk about the “trigger words”, look it up in a dictionary (it is amazing to see how many different meaning one of these words can have), make all kinds of sentences until that word is really clear to us, then we get to create a model of the word in clay. Creativity is welcome here, but simple models work great. So for the word “on”, while Sophia modeled a child who rode “on” the camel, I modeled a boy flew “on” the plane. This was a bit more challenging then I had thought it would be – but I was happy with the model in the end. {“on” definition used “used as a function word to indicate means of transport“}
• Then we take a break, maybe a 10 minutes break, maybe 15 – just depends on what we together think is needed. “I love how I get to help make the decisions, ‘it is your program, after all, Sophia says’.
• We end our break with koosh balls or start our work session, however, you prefer to think of it. Koosh balls help to ensure we are focused and ready for the next task at hand.
• When we get back to work, we often do another reading exercise. If not reading, we work on spelling words; we tackle another spelling word that has given me trouble in the past. Using the tools, making the word in clay, and then mastering has me spelling the word in no time! The best part is, I remember the word.
• We continue the day in this pattern. The day goes by fast actually, and while it is work, it doesn’t feel like work. The best part was each day I felt proud of the models I did and surprised by how much working with the word helped me, I don’t have problems with these words anymore when I am reading or trying to write and spell them – weird but true.

Spelling word “apologize” learned during the Dyslexia Reading Program.

Clay model showing the meaning of “always” (at all times) done during the Dyslexia Correction Program.

The post A Typical Day with My Dyslexia Tutor appeared first on Learning Tools.

English class has always been a nightmare for me, I was hopeless at writing text, or at least coherent paragraphs.  In grade school, it was spelling and grammar that I hated. Then middle school we were writing about books we read, and while that wasn’t quite as bad (because I could use sentences from books) it was the sequence and organization of what I wrote that challenged me. In high school, I soon had to formulate words to express my own feelings about what we were reading. Writing spilled over into other subjects and whenever I had to write an essay I felt sick. In college, we are supposed to be experts and remember all those things from English class to write intelligent thought-provoking papers for all classes.

For me writing was excruciating, it was also a barrier to my goal, graduating from college. I was at a small liberal arts college and I don’t’ know if we didn’t have tutors, or if I was just too humiliated to find out. But, because I was determined, I faced the humiliation of asking friends to help me correct my papers. Wow, what a blow to one’s self-esteem after you have rewritten a paper two, something three, times before you show it to someone and then have it come back to you a red marked up mess. I remember fearing what my classmates me thought of me, I had only a trusted few I would ask for help. Now that I am well into my 40’s, I am not quite so vulnerable, my skin has been thickened over the years.   Now it is easier to tell my stories and explain what a nightmare writing can before some, just like reading late can be for others.

Dyslexia: not just a Reading Problem

For me, my dyslexia didn’t show up as much with my reading, I was able to get by, I was really good at asking others what they thought, for listening to others and discuss topics. Understanding what I read could be hidden. What I couldn’t hide was my struggle with writing coherent sentences. I still struggle at times when I feel rushed or do not have a clear picture of what I want to say. When I was young I would procrastinate on the writing portion of homework, but it was because I would not know how to begin. I don’t know how many times I was told by teachers and friends to just start writing and then go back and correct it and make it readable. So much easier said than done. I tried out this method, and since I didn’t have a better solution, I used it, but it was not an efficient method for me.

Writing down anything that came to me actually gave me too many words to deal with. The problem with just putting whatever down on paper is I can ramble and ramble. The sequence of thought and/or the organization of ideas can be all over the place, but beyond that was getting the right words. I have really struggled with getting the right words for what I want to say, I say it so many times and in so many different ways that I confuse myself and my thoughts become muddied OR I don’t’ say enough of the right things because it is too obvious to me and I assume the reader would see it as being obvious as well.

I remember in college struggling and telling a friend that the words are just in a jumbled up in the sky and I can’t seem to pull the ones I want to use down to explain something. I understand this better now, I wasn’t seeing the words jumbled up, I was seeing what I wanted to express as a picture. Ever heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words?” There can be so much to see in a picture, especially one that is evolving and complex. Without a good understanding of the meaning of prepositions, adjectives, and adverbs describing those pictures I felt stumped. I just told my teachers I was stymied, their suggestion was to just write everything I thought and then clean it up – stream of consciousness writing.

Now I understand what the issue was with this method — I am not a verbal conceptualizer, I am not thinking with the sound of words, and this method was trying to help me get the words out. The actual issue I was having was not knowing which word to use because I didn’t have the meaning of high-frequency sight words that make up 75% of the words we use.

Meaning Based Program

The Davis methods are meaning based programs, they use symbol mastery to give meaning to words that cause dyslexics trouble – exactly what I needed.   I remember a moment during the program seeing what made up the trigger words list. I had an “ah ha” moment, I remembered being in German class in high school, getting a test back that was of German prepositions. I was looking at the test where you match a word with a picture. I had done poorly on it and I was confused as to why I got so many of them wrong because I knew the English equivalent. Back then I couldn’t figure it out, now it is clear as day to me, I didn’t have the right meanings of the English preposition to match with the picture on the test.

The Davis Dyslexia Correction Program has helped me move beyond my fears of words. I now understand the meaning of words at a much deeper level. I also have the ability to be focused enough to see my errors. I can clean up my writing to a place where I can be pretty sure it is understandable to others. Before I really thought I was broken when it came to expressing myself, now I see it for what it is.

Writing Text: My Method

My method to write text is a combination of methods.  I use outlining, mind mapping, as well as stream of consciousness depending on what I am writing.  Email start with bullet points.   This writing I started with bullets as well, he is what I had down:

• English class nightmare- Writing hard
• Experience
• Method not helpful
• Why – picture thinker
• Trigger words
• What Davis did

I put this on my page and then wrote a bit under each bullet.   I tried a bit of stream of consciousness, but I am constantly coming back to my bullets to be sure that this is what I wanted to express.  For this writing, I ended up deleting quite a bit because it wasn’t relevant. I then reread it very slowly making sure that each sentence is the picture I want to present. I then put it away until the next day, look at it with fresh eyes.  I still like to have someone else look at it to find things I might have missed.

This method isn’t too different then what some teachers tell you to do, but what is different is me, the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding I have gained through mastering trigger words allows me to see it, reread it, and be present to words in a way that wasn’t possible for me before.

The post My Dyslexic Challenge: Writing Text appeared first on Learning Tools.

In school, I had “coping methods” that would at times get me to pass a spelling test. For me, the trick was, don’t study until 5-10 minutes before you walk into class, then cram like crazy.  I couldn’t think of anything before the test, couldn’t talk to anyone, just keep those letter in my head. One problem would be getting interrupted by friends or the teacher before the test; ignoring or pretending to daydream worked pretty well for that.

Another problem was when the teacher wanted you to write a sentence with the word, those teachers were so frustrating, and picky. The sentence piece always got me, I would end up losing the other words that I was trying to keep straight by concentrating on the sentence. I mean really, why can’t I write, “He was tantalized” for the word tantalize? Nope, that was never enough, teachers wanted something more.  For my sentences I would be lucky to get even partial credit.

If I tried to study the words well before the test like at home the night before, that made me more confused then ever. I remember my mom trying to get me to learn how to spell the word February. I would get the “ru” order messed up or forget the “r” altogether.   She would say remember the “r” is for your sister and she was born first, and then “u” came along. When that still didn’t work she added in “a ‘r’ is for right BUT it isn’t on the right side, it is in the same order as the alphabet, ‘r’ comes first before ‘u’”. Well… in theory that seems great, and now that I know how to spell February it seems like something I would remember. Yet, I remember, on numerous occasions being at school at my desk trying to remember what my mom told me. I wasn’t remembering the ‘r’ and ‘u’ in the order of the alphabet because I then thought of ‘r’ on the right. If I tried thinking of my sister, I would end up messing it up with thinking surely she said to think of me first and that is ‘u’. Why would I think of my sister first? I would second guess each thing, and then with my stress of taking to long on that word it would require me to sing the alphabet in order to figure out which was first. I had to sing it out loud, but that would get me in trouble so I would try to whisper it. As you can see from my retelling of the story, my inner dialog had me in much confusion and I would end up missing much of what was happening in the classroom.

Fast forward to being an adult. I stopped thinking of spelling, one of the joys of being out of school. But one day, I remember overhearing an employee talking about how annoying it was when she would get emails from her boss (me) that had words misspelled all the time, she couldn’t figure out how I became the head of the department she worked in. I suddenly felt shame and embarrassment.

I knew I was not a good speller. I thought about a few incidents when I had someone ask me what I meant in my email because they couldn’t understand it. I think I explained to them what I meant and then said, “I was typing so fast I made the errors” but really, I just hadn’t seen them. It was really at that moment, feeling shamed by my inability to spell that I started paying more attention to my emails. I would make sure my spell checker was on, and that helped, but it still didn’t fix the problem.

My training to become a Davis® dyslexia facilitator is what helped me overcome my greatest problems with spelling. When I was “the student” for a dyslexia correction program for a facilitator in training, I started to really see symbols and words for the first time. Wow, it was AMAZING, the focusing tools helped me to see my errors in spelling and then the method of writing the word in clay and taking a mental picture of it was profound. Before I honestly just didn’t know if something was spelled wrong at least half the time. I didn’t see it, sometimes I would have an inkling that it wasn’t right, but most of the time proofreading was a joke to me. I wasn’t focused enough to even find all the errors.

I know I now have the ability to learn how to spell any word I want to.   I have worked on the words that used to cause me so many issues, like character, definitely, and business. At times, I still have to think a moment about them, but if I look inside my mind’s eye and trust my gut, I get it right every time.

The post Confessions of a Bad Speller appeared first on Learning Tools.