Dyslexia and Shannon
Shannon (not her real name) was just a young girl when she was diagnosed with dyslexia, and it is something that she will have to deal with her entire life. Dyslexia is a learning disability that impairs a person's ability to read, and it can lead to many other difficulties. It is very important that dyslexia is properly diagnosed and treated, so that people like Shannon can learn coping skills that will help them throughout their lives and hopefully they can find ways that they are able to better control it. It is important to understand that dyslexia is not a intellectual disability and has nothing to do with IQ, Shannon is a bright 9 year old today, and she deals with dyslexia on a daily basis.
Shannon was first diagnosed with dyslexia in her early years of elementary school; her diagnosis came in 1st grade. Shannon's teachers started to notice that she had difficulty with things that most kids her age did not, but her testing was always good, and she had an above average IQ for a 9 year old. Some of the most telltale signs of her dyslexia were that she was having trouble learning the alphabet and what orders the letters went in. She was also having trouble segmenting words into individual sounds and blending sounds to make words. For her, one of the biggest difficulties also was reading written words and mixing up sounds in polysyllabic words. Sure, it was cute when she said "aminal" or "bisghetti", but her teachers quickly learned that there was something going on and they brought it to the attention of her parents.
Too properly and formally diagnosis Shannon's issue, the teacher suggested that she sit with the reading specialist that was present in the school. They also told Shannon's parents to make an appointment with their pediatrician and see if they had any routes of diagnosis that may be suggested. But, the reading teacher, who was well trained in this area and had seen a lot of cases of dyslexia in young children, felt that Shannon had a fairly comprehensive case of dyslexia and said that it was relatively easy to diagnose. They asked Shannon's parents to follow up with a school psychologist who was on staff and was able to second that diagnosis and let Shannon and Shannon's parents know that she did suffer from dyslexia. Now, it was going to be a matter of finding a treatment program that would best fit Shannon, the level of her dyslexia, and help her stay at the level of her peers in the classroom. It is always important to keep children with dyslexia at a mainstream classroom level, since they are not suffering from an intellectual capability, you don't want to punish them by pulling them away from their peers. The only time that they should be separated from their peers would be for a session with the reading specialist.
The first thing that was done for Shannon was they set up a program at school for her to track how treatment was going. Since she generally excelled in school and was just having trouble with reading, they left her in the mainstream classroom, which is generally the case. They did, however, suggest that she had a daily session with the reading specialist that worked with the school so that they could work one on one treating her issues with reading, putting words and sounds together, and getting items mixed up. This session happen daily during the reading time for the rest of the class so that she didn't get behind in what her peers were doing. Aside from that, Shannon's parents had a few things that they were working on at home, all suggested treatment options. They started using multi-sensory learning methods at home so that she was learning not just through reading and hearing information but by using many senses at once. They also worked with her at learning and saying her words and letters properly. There are a lot of games that Shannon's parents were able to play with her where they can incorporate treatment into a fun and rewarding time for her. These were all great ways that Shannon's parents were able to help Shannon deal with her dyslexia.
A diagnosis of dyslexia doesn't have to be a big deal, in fact it is something that can be easily coped with and easily dealt with as we saw with Shannon. She is now a happy, functioning, productive 9 year old. Sure, she still has one to one sessions with the reading specialist, and will probably continue to, and yes her parents work with her at home, but her dyslexia is manageable and under control. She is flourishing in school and seems to have no issues being in the mainstream classroom with her peers.
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