Families logo

A Day in the Life...

Dealing with Dyslexia

By Liz HarmonPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
Like

A day in the life of a homeschooling mom of three... and the challenges that involves.

When your oldest loves to create her own stories and hear books read aloud... but keeps mixing up simple four letter words because her brain plays tricks...

When she struggles to find the words to say to perfectly express herself, because they constantly get turned around in her head...

When she stares at her math book for 20 minutes just to work on a single problem because she simply can't understand it...

This is the world I live in... watching my daughter struggle every day to do things her younger sister and brother can do with ease. I watched her stare at books with longing, knowing she couldn't understand the words inside. I watched her eyes fill with tears when she gets something wrong for the tenth time in one morning. I've seen her beat herself up time and time again in an effort to get it right, only to come up short.

My oldest, Emma, has come to terms finally with her dyslexia, but that doesn't make it any easier with which to deal. She still looks at books and her math homework like they are the glyphs inside the Roswell spaceship, and I can't fully comprehend her pain.

Reading and math came naturally to me, so when we hit the walls dyslexia built in her mind, I was at a complete loss as to how to best help her succeed. I can't tell you the number of times we both ended up in tears after class, the banging of our heads against the wall in frustration, or the look of utter defeat in her big brown eyes.

Knowing she has it doesn't stop the judgement or stares or unsolicited "friendly" advice. When your child is entering 4th grade, yet has the reading level of a late kindergartner or early 1st grader, and you homeschool... you're made to feel like YOU should be wearing a dunce cap or cone of shame. Your child is made to feel inferior, unintelligent, and often trampled in the dust.

Even other homeschooling parents don't always offer you support or sympathy. You feel like you're fighting a losing battle. Discouragement sets in and latches on to your heart...

Hope was out there for us to find thankfully. Through another mom's blog, I discovered one of the biggest early helps for Emma with her spelling! (PSA, never underestimate the power of a fighting momma...) This blog gave me the idea to have her write the words a minimum of three times while saying each letter as she wrote it. Her vocabulary expanded marvelously, and she began remembering the words more. Hallelujah!

Next, it was slowing her reading down to a manageable speed so she wouldn't make as many mistakes. Now, the problem here was she already read at a snail's pace... but she would try to rush through the parts she thought she knew, only to misread six words out of ten. Cue the teeth grinding and aggravation of the parent who can only sit through three pages when it takes the innocent child ten minutes to read those three pages. It was rough... not even gonna lie.

Finally, I found a book on Amazon (ah, that glorious superstore of the web) designed for kids with dyslexia. I exuberantly tell Emma I ordered it to help her... and she groans. Kids, right? At this point, though, she had come to dread reading, so I can't say I blame her. Anyway, book arrives, we do the first couple of lessons, and wouldn't you know, it's not as bad as she expected. Ha. Not even ten lessons in, her reading proficiency and fluency has gone from maybe 10 words per minute, to close to thirty-forty words per minute. It was like angels singing over her!

Point of all this is to say, hope is out there. Dyslexia doesn't have to have the final word. There will be slow days where nothing makes sense, and then there will be triumphs where your child's face is beaming with pride. Live for those moments...

children
Like

About the Creator

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.