The Job

THRIVE Education Center specializes in helping students who have language based learning challenges, specifically dyslexia.  What does that really look like in children?  Is dyslexia "one size fits all?"  

Dyslexia literally means difficulty with language.  It comes from the Greek Roots dys which means difficulty, and lex which means words or language.  We were all dyslexic when we were born.  Ever thought about that?  There was no dyslexia until there was written language.  Up until people decided that oral language was not reliable enough to use to preserve their history, there was no written language.  Because dyslexia has to do with written language and the reading or interpreting of written language, it could not exist until written language was developed.  We, when we were born, had to be taught to read or interpret written language.  The ability to read is not innate - we are not born with the ability to read.  We must be taught to read.  Until that happens, we have difficulty with language, and in turn are dyslexic.  The pictures which represent language, (graphemes - ABC's), are as confusing to us as emergent readers as they are to children who have dyslexia.  The difference?  People who are not dyslexic can make the connection between the picture and the sounds they represent after only a few repetitions of that sound-symbol relationship.  For a student with dyslexia, it takes 20+++repetitions of the sound-symbol to make a memory, which is how learning occurs.

Understanding how difficult it is for a student with dyslexia to learn to read is to understand the student.  The task of reading is the hardest job that student will face.  Reading is the job of school.  Every subject includes reading...even math.  The basis for all subject areas is reading, and it is the thing that is the most difficult, almost impossible thing for a student with dyslexia to do.  Imagine going to your job every day for six to eight hours a day and having to perform a job that you cannot do, but everyone around you seems to do easily, and then being paid or "graded" on how well you do it.  This is the day after day job that a student with dyslexia must endure...working with insufficient training to do the job successfully.  I don't think I would be happy with my job or feel good about myself for not being able to do my job.  I might avoid going to my job, become frustrated or angry with my job, lose confidence in myself because of my inability to do my job, and eventually quit my job.  I would not want others to know I could not do my job.  I would feel embarrassed, and I would not want to continue to try and do that job.  Anxiety and depression could easily follow.  I would feel so badly that I disappointed my family because I could not do my job.  This job, that everyone else seems to do so easily, I cannot.  I would feel like a failure.

As you watch your child struggle day in and day out with the job that your other children or you yourself do so easily, remember...they don't want to fail at their job.  They need extra training to do their job.  ​The progress will be slow, painful, and tiring.  But with perseverance and encouragement, the training will work and the job will become doable, and they will succeed in their job.  ​You are now, as their parents, helping them to receive the training.  They will begin to do their job well, and you have made that possible.  

Still in training too,
Cheryl