Jennie Sjursen 0:00
We'd love to travel, but often find it difficult for our child with dyslexia. Is there any way we can make it easier for all of us? I'm Jennie Sjursen. X special educator turned dyslexia interventionist. It wasn't so long ago that I too, was overwhelmed by balanced literacy versus structured literacy, education speak, and everything in between.
Jennie Sjursen 0:22
Fast forward after many, many hours of self driven education. And you'll see I've built a thriving dyslexia practice helping students from ages six to 18. My specialties, working with, quote unquote difficult almost always to the student, and breaking down the complexities of dyslexic to everyday language strategies and action steps. Before we dive in, can you do me a huge favor? Would you mind sending this episode or just sharing my podcasts with three of your friends, I've been working really hard to put out valuable content to support parents with dyslexic children. And I want to make sure it gets into the hands of the people that need it most. So grab the link to this episode or podcast texted to three friends. Or you can just click the share button and send it that way. Whatever works for you, but I would be forever grateful. Thank you. I have to admit, this was not the topic I originally had planned for this episode.
Jennie Sjursen 1:22
But then the other night, while on vacation, I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep. And I thought about all the things that I as someone with ADHD have to manage while traveling. I thought to myself, I should really do an episode on traveling with dyslexia. And well, here we are. Dyslexia has a sneaky way of impacting all areas of your life, which can make traveling with a dyslexic child its own unique set of challenges. Some of these challenges include managing public transportation, timetables, time management, and organizational skills.
Jennie Sjursen 1:56
Well, let's take a closer look at public transportation timetables. Because Dyslexics when reading often switch words with what's familiar to them. They can often confuse similar looking or sounding place names, especially when they are standalone and not used in a sentence. There's no context clues. For example, a dyslexic might mistake Cheshire, Connecticut for Chester, Connecticut, or Venice, Florida, for Venice, California. Or maybe they know they're going someplace in the Northeast, and it begins with an H. But they're not sure if it's Haddam or Hamden.
Jennie Sjursen 2:33
Once they figure out where they're going, they now have to tackle booking forms or public transportation schedules. It's not unheard of for them to book a car or flight for the wrong day, week or month. buses and trains pose other challenges, misreading signage, ending up on the wrong platform, or getting off the wrong station. We haven't even tackled timetables or time yet. timetables are often printed in small font and contain an enormous amount of information on something that's designed to fit into your pocket or backpack. The small close font is it difficult to accurately track the information, think skipping lines midway through and not realizing it. Also, depending on where you're traveling, the schedule may show information based on a 24 hour clock. Instead of a 12 hour clock. I myself find that a difficult change. Managing time has its own difficulties. As we've already noted, the 12 hour versus 24 hour clock is one hurdle to overcome, but so is reading an analog clock.
Jennie Sjursen 3:37
While reading an analog clock is often difficult for many dyslexics. I find this to be more of a generational issue. I found that even the younger non dyslexic kids in my own family don't know how to read an analog clock. You have to explicitly tell them where the hands will be at a particular time.
Jennie Sjursen 3:55
For example, if I say bedtime is at 8pm, I have to tell them that means when the big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the eight. Wrapped up in all of this is time blindness. Dyslexics and ADA Jers can seriously struggle with time blindness. Time blindness is when you miss judge how long it'll take you to do something or get somewhere think Miss flights or trains because they miss judge how long it would take to get to the airport or station or not being properly prepared, not packing or bringing money to buy a meal because they didn't realize the trip would take so long. I have to admit personally, I struggle with time blindness all the time. I always misjudge how much time I have versus how long a task will actually take. Which leads us to organizational skills. If you have a hard time recognizing time, planning ahead is going to be very difficult.
Jennie Sjursen 4:54
Oftentimes you leave little time to pack and those weak planning skills are also going to lead to leaving behind essential items, which happens frequently on this last trip, I forgot my little mini Wi Fi. There's so much to manage and so much we as proficient leaders take for granted. So what are some strategies for making travel and easier, smoother experience?
Jennie Sjursen 5:16
First plan, lots of planning. Go over the itinerary until your child has a solid understanding of where they're going and why. For instance, understanding that to get from Detroit to Providence, they're going to have to take two planes, Detroit to Baltimore, and then Baltimore to Providence. If you can go over maps of buildings, stations and cities in advance. If you know your train comes in on a particular platform, and the next train out is on a different platform, find or create a map of landmarks inside the station, they can identify and follow. Arrive early so they can get their bearings and the lay of the land.
Jennie Sjursen 5:57
Check details and basic scheduling information, bus numbers, scheduled times walking routes, you get it, have the destination address and contact details in their mobile device. You can use a notes or voice recorder app or even send them a voice text message. Just so they have the information in case you get separated. Welcome to different apps and assistive technologies you can use on your phone. Some apps, you can take a picture of just about anything, and it will read aloud the words and the image. Use Google Maps to pin locations. Save voice notes in your phone using the note app or voice recorder app, you get the idea. Pack a day in advance. I am so not good at that. But this is a tip I love.
Jennie Sjursen 6:44
Create a packing checklist for your child. But instead of using words, use graphics or pictures. This way they can take ownership and responsibility for packing their own bags. I love this. finally have a backup plan when things go wrong, and they will have a plan for how to regroup. It can be as simple as buying a new charger or external battery for a phone or pinning a spot on Google Maps and having everyone regroup there we have any further questions about traveling with a dyslexic child.
Jennie Sjursen 7:17
Please feel free to sneak into my inbox. We'd also love your input. What would you like to hear from us in the future? Is there a topic we haven't covered yet? You really want to learn more about or do you have a pressing need and you're not really sure how to handle it or move forward? Send us a DM on Instagram or drop us an email at jennie@literacy untangled.com It's je n n i e at literacy untangle.com We can't wait to hear from you. Until next time. Bye bye I hope you enjoyed this episode of literacy untangled if you love this episode as much as I did, head on over and rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you want to continue the conversation or share your takeaways, head on over to our Instagram at literacy untangled and comment on your favorite part. I can't wait to hang out with you again soon. Bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
