Does your child have ‘trubble reading?’

By Sharon Dubinsky, M.A., LDT-C

You’re probably thinking,“How can a reading specialist make this kind of a spelling mistake?”Actually, I did it deliberately.When a child writes words this way, it can be a red flag — an indicator that they may not be learning at their best.Think for a moment — does your child makes the same kind of errors?

The following sentences were written by an 8-year-old. Her initials are A.P. She is in the second grade and has average intelligence. She wrote sentences that were dictated to her.This is what she wrote:

Aen most grenk hir milk

Saven ants had a pick nick on my ham sandwich

10 months after receiving specialized instruction.A.P. repeated the same exercise.

Ann must drink her milk.

Sevan ants had a picnic on my ham sandwhich.

How did it feel reading the first set of sentences? Does your child have similar spelling issues — making these kinds of spelling errors, or having difficulty reading on grade level? Imagine being a child with this type of reading/writing difficulty.Your child, like AP, may be one of thousands of people who have a reading disorder known as dyslexia.

What is dyslexia? It is usually a genetic disorder, handed down from one family member to another. Dyslexia doesn’t care about your financial situation, religion, race, educational background, or if you’re a boy or girl. It is a special type of reading disability that is first noticed when a child begins to read, spell and write.

Imagine you are a child with this type of reading disorder. Every second of every day, in every class, and in every subject, you struggle with not only reading, but with written language as well. How do you think you would start feeling about yourself?

Most dyslexics appear bright, highly intelligent, and articulate, but are unable to read, write, or spell at grade level. They usually have a high IQ, but do not test well on written tests. However, they may test well, academically, on oral tests. Dyslexics are often labeled as lazy, careless or even “dumb.”They may suffer from poor self-esteem and have little or no confidence. It should be stated that many dyslexic people are talented in art, drama, music, sports, designing and story telling.

AK is a fifth-grade student.When she first came in for tutoring she had a great deal of difficulty spelling.AK is an intelligent child, who is very verbal and has excellent listening comprehension. When shown a picture of a king and asked to write a simple sentence about the picture, she wrote: thes men is a kning (no capitalization, no punctuation). Next, she was shown a picture of a baby bird hatching out of its egg. She wrote: this brd is haching.A final example, AK was shown a picture of a horse and a cow and asked to write a sentence telling what the second animal was (cow). She wrote:This anml is a kow.

Many dyslexic children have trouble spelling sight words as well. Sight words are words that cannot be sounded out such as: any (eny), many (meny), does (dus or dose), said (sed), they (thay), done (dun), and was (wus).

New Jersey has many wonderful schools with excellent teachers. However, most teachers are not trained to teach children with this type of reading disorder. In this age of education, with budget cuts at the classroom level, most classrooms now contain 25 or more students. Under these conditions, it is extremely difficult for teachers to give the highly specialized one-on-one instruction these children need.

Dyslexic children require a specialized reading program that is multi-sensory. A multi-sensory approach enhances memory and learning because the child is taught how to make connections to what he/she sees, how the letter (s) sound, how the letters feel by tracing over them, and how the letters feel by using large muscles to sky write them.

If your child is of average intelligence, but is having trouble reading and/or writing at grade level, reads very slowly and haltingly, often repeats words, adds words, mispronounces words, deletes words, and makes common spelling errors, then the teachers at Brunswick Reading and Speech Center can help.They use a scientifically proven approach to help children overcome this problem, while raising their self-esteem and confidence levels as these children succeed academically. This reading program is called Orton- Gillingham. Orton-Gillingham is a language based method of teaching reading that is success oriented. Children are taught in a structured, systematic fashion. They are taught how to use all of their senses to make sense of the English language by promoting better retention of the phonetic codes in the English language.

Many famous people have learned to triumph over the characteristics of dyslexia without letting dyslexia prevent them from being what they were meant to be. Some of these famous people are: Walt Disney, Cher,Winston Churchill, Whoopie Goldberg,Ted Turner, Henry Winkler, Jay Leno, and Thomas Edison, just to name a few.

Leaders are readers.When a child reads and spells better, they do better in every way.They begin to enjoy learning again and their grades start to improve. Most importantly, they feel better about themselves. Just imagine how this stronger self-image will impact the other areas of their lives!

For more than 12 years, the teachers at Brunswick Reading and Speech Center have helped reduce the stress the educational system places on struggling children who suffer with learning disabilities. They have also supported parents by offering them hope and security that their child can and will succeed.

It is natural for concerned parents to have questions about how to improve their child’s ability to learn and prosper. At Brunswick Reading and Speech Center, they offer a private initial consultation at no cost. Feel welcome to schedule an appointment to visit the facility and learn more about the program. For more information, call 732-254-4433 or email [email protected].

Sharon Dubinsky , M.A., LDT-C, is the director of Brunswick Reading and Speech Center, A-2 Brier Hill Ct, East Brunswick. Brunswick Reading and Speech Center uses the Orton-Gillingham approach and all of the teachers are Orton-Gillingham teacher certified.