Ryan Lemley
Peter Bradley Personal Narrative 30-11-23 The Dyslexic Contest Dyslexia is how a person thinks. It is rewiring the brain to use the frontal lobe, the memory processing bit. When an average person takes in information, it takes 3-4 seconds to process whether it is going to short-term or long-term storage. Long-term memory could last a few hours or the rest of your life, but people with dyslexia use this space in the brain to read, process, and compute responses to questions. Due to slower processing speeds, which take longer than 3-4 seconds, dyslexics like more peaceful environments when taking in information (students talking, music, the teacher lecturing). This slower processing speed makes it harder for them to focus on a task at hand, and when there is a lot of background noise, it causes the brain to reach maximum capacity, or a fog clouds their thoughts. It is also the reason practice does NOT make PERFECT, and putting people with dyslexia through reading programs can be a painful and traumatic experience. I have seen too much misunderstanding of how dyslexia works and have experienced it firsthand. In the sixth grade, I was in a pull-out reading program. We would read children’s stories that were very simple and basic. It was to help us learn how to read, which I already knew. The reading teacher pulled me out of Social Studies class and moved down the hall to a room with all the chairs on top of the desks. In the far corner, there was a table that was a half circle like a doughnut where I would sit down and learn how to read. One special education teacher sat in the middle of the doughnut while four other students sat around it. They would make us each take turns trying to read a sentence, and if we paused, even for a second, they would read out the word to keep us moving. I remember reading books that were not actual books. They were just pictures with a few words on the page. The other students who were in there with me were not students with disabilities; they were students who never learned how to read, and it made me feel as though I was just bad at reading and I should know how to do this. I have been doing this forever, but I was just not quick enough for them to consider me “good” enough. After years of dealing with this experience of school making me feel not good enough, I finally decided to make a change. I started taking classes at an online school and was immediately met with a learning environment I had never experienced. In my classes, I got to work at my own pace for my assignments. I could spend 15 minutes on math to get all my work done for the week, and in other classes, like Social Studies, I would spend two hours on one assignment. It was hard to always get my projects done with the amount of reading there was, but whenever I had an issue with a task, I could always ask the teacher for help. They would always get alternatives to the assignment or read it out loud to me within a video. It gave me a space where there was not a sound around in the calm winter forest of my room. Unlike traditional schooling, it made it much easier to focus on schoolwork. They didn’t try to fix my brain; instead, they tried to work with it. Being supported this way made me feel seen for who I was. It was beneficial and felt amazing compared to my experiences in a more traditional school. When children are between the ages of 5 and 12, they start to compare themselves to others. According to Erikson's 8 stages of development, adapted by Healthline.com, “When your child succeeds, they’ll feel industrious and believe they can set goals — and reach them. However, if children have repeated negative experiences at home or feel that society is too demanding, they may develop feelings of inferiority.” This shows that kids need to feel they are doing well. When you’re repeatedly told that you’re bad at something, you start to believe it, and it takes a toll on your mental state. A lot of dyslexics struggle with feelings of inferiority. This results in a search for alternative validation methods, with dyslexic children comprising 90% of juvenile convictions; dyslexics make up only 20% of the population (Mauser). The problematic way that schools have treated learning has taken a toll on our society by under-serving one-fifth of their student population and setting them up for prison. It’s more ignorance than anything else and a misunderstanding that the kid never learned to read. Teachers should have a professional development day focused on understanding what dyslexia is. There are degrees in cognitive diversity, so someone qualified should lead the training. Students with dyslexia should have more agency and autonomy in how they are being accommodated. We need to push for change in the education system because dyslexia is how a person thinks. Work Cited Rhona Lewis. “Erikson’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development, Explained for Parents.” Healthline, Date of Publication Feb 8, 2023, https://www.healthline.com/health/parenting/erikson-stages. Maauser, A. J. (1974). “Learning Disabilities and Delinquent Youth. Academic Therapy,” 9(6), 389-402. https://doi.org/10.1177/105345127400900601. |