Jennie Sjursen 0:00
I keep hearing conflicting things about dyslexia. One person tells me that through the use of special glasses and overlays, my child's dyslexia will go away. Another person told me to prepare to support my child into their adulthood because they have limited chances at success. Is any of this true? I don't know what to believe.
Jennie Sjursen 0:22
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. 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 a quote unquote difficult almost always to the student, and breaking down the complexities of dyslexic to everyday language strategies and action steps.
Jennie Sjursen 1:00
As many of you are well aware, October is dyslexia Awareness Month. And in honor of that, we decided to do a two part series, debunking the top 10 dyslexia myths. We're going from the bottom up. So in today's episode, we're covering 10 through six. Let's get started. 10 dyslexia is a barrier to success. This one hits home on many levels. I've had people flat out tell me that a child won't be able to pursue a dream like becoming a vet, purely because of their dyslexia.
Jennie Sjursen 1:35
I've had parents share their fears that their child will never be able to go to college, and that their child's life will be limited because of their dyslexia. This is far from true. My own father is a personal example of this. He struggled all throughout school, worked hard to get his BA and eventually became a successful businessman. He's not the only one, Agatha Christie, John F. Kennedy and Sir Richard Branson. All Dyslexics all found success in their fields. Most Dyslexics when asked will tell you they did not follow the, quote, normal path, and it took a lot of work.
Jennie Sjursen 2:13
But the combination of that different path and work is what made them so successful. Nine all Dyslexics have the same symptoms. We've talked about this before? No to Dyslexics, not even those in the same family have the same symptoms. Dyslexia is a spectrum disorder with many symptoms. One child's may have difficulty hearing sounds and decoding words, well as aunt or cousin has difficulty recalling words and mixes up sayings and idioms. Same family totally different symptoms.
Jennie Sjursen 2:46
And because dyslexia is a spectrum disorder, the severity of the symptoms also can range from mild to moderate, and from moderate to extreme. Again, the severity of the symptoms varies from person to person, even in the same family. Eight, dyslexia is over diagnosed. dyslexia or specific learning disability in reading is the most common learning disability representing at least 80% of all students identified with a learning disability.
Jennie Sjursen 3:16
This is even with a wait and see or they'll grow out of it approach us at many schools. Dyslexia can be identified as early as five and a half years old and early remediation is key. If a student's dyslexia is caught early enough, and the proper remediation is provided they can and we want them to have this graduate out a special ed. This does not mean they never had dyslexia, it means they learned the strategies they needed to become a proficient reader.
Jennie Sjursen 3:46
I do have one caveat to this though. COVID threw everything for a loop, and so many children had poor instruction during a key period of their learning in their lives. When a student is identified with dyslexia, one of the factors taken into account is that their reading difficulties are not due to poor instruction. I do wonder if many COVID error students will be misidentified with dyslexia down the road, due to the poor instruction they received during the COVID years. This is one that only time will tell.
Jennie Sjursen 5:00
are tinted lenses or filters are effective directly or indirectly in the treatment of learning disabilities. That said, Of course, if you have a vision problem, you are going to have difficulty reading. I am incredibly nearsighted and without the proper visual tools, glasses, contacts, whatever. I can only read a book or my phone if it's like right in front of my face. But my visual issues have no effect on my ability to process language and read.
Jennie Sjursen 5:30
One does not cause the other six, dyslexia can be cured, again, was a big ol Nope. Dyslexia is neurobiological. A dyslexic brain just works differently. The way their brain processes language is different than the way a proficient reader does. Because it's biological, it's ingrained. It's not like a broken arm that can have a cast thrown on it and be healed. What can be done is intervention and remediation. successful intervention and remediation provides the Dyslexic with strategies and skills they can use when dealing with language, whether our reading, spelling or writing.
Jennie Sjursen 6:11
The dyslexia is still there, they still have language processing issues. For example, maybe one remediated dyslexic can now accurately decode, but they have been and will always be a slow reader. So they know they need to give themselves more time to read something than the average reader would, through hard work and remediation. They can read, but the dyslexia is still always there, and can still affect major life decisions.
Jennie Sjursen 6:39
And that wraps up part one. If you have any further questions about dyslexia, 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 Jenny at literacy untangle.com That's J E MMI e at literacy untangle.com We can't wait to hear from you. Until next time, buh bye.
Jennie Sjursen 7:13
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.
