Dyslexia is the term used by British people whereas Americans describe this condition as a learning disability. It doesn’t affect anything else other than the skills like reading, writing, spelling and numbers; in some cases it may affect the motor skills also. It is quite necessary to understand that it is not a disease but a disorder .As the brain of the dyslexic process the written information differently; the child will have difficulty in comprehending it. It is like making a person to read a language that he doesn’t understand like latin or greek. Parents and teachers of the dyslexics must be sensitized to the facts and remedial measures of the disorder. Sometimes, the disorder may be genetic.

Priya was highly worried about her 9 year old child, Varun. Despite being an intelligent child Varun was not upto the mark in his academic performance. She also got a feed back from his class teacher who attributed his underachievement to carelessness and laziness. Priya got worked up over this remark and decided it was time to cease Varun’s play station time which was his favourite leisure time activity. She grabbed the play station and firmly said he would not be allowed to play the game unless he improved in his academics. But it didn’t help him to make any improvement. It was only then that Priya decided to consult a child psychologist. After undergoing some specific tests to diagnose the actual problem, the verdict was that Varun was suffering from severe dyslexia.

Priya was highly worried about her 9 year old child, Varun. Despite being an intelligent child Varun was not upto the mark in his academic performance. She also got a feed back from his class teacher who attributed his underachievement to carelessness and laziness. Priya got worked up over this remark and decided it was time to cease Varun’s play station time which was his favourite leisure time activity. She grabbed the play station and firmly said he would not be allowed to play the game unless he improved in his academics. But it didn’t help him to make any improvement. It was only then that Priya decided to consult a child psychologist. After undergoing some specific tests to diagnose the actual problem, the verdict was that Varun was suffering from severe dyslexia.

Albert Einstein ,Graham Bell, Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Walt Disney, Agatha Christie, Thomas Edison are the people known for their remarkable contributions in different fields. They are immortal because of their uniqueness. The commonality among them all is …Yes they all are dyslexics!!!!

What is dyslexia?

The above is the writing of a typical dyslexic child. Dyslexia is the term used by British people whereas Americans describe this condition as a learning disability. It doesn’t affect anything else other than the skills like reading, writing, spelling and numbers; in some cases it may affect the motor skills also. It is quite necessary to understand that it is not a disease but a disorder .As the brain of the dyslexic process the written information differently; the child will have difficulty in comprehending it. It is like making a person to read a language that he doesn’t understand like latin or greek. Parents and teachers of the dyslexics must be sensitized to the facts and remedial measures of the disorder. Sometimes, the disorder may be genetic.

Treatment is dependant on the root cause of the disorder. It cannot be diagnosed with just one test but a series of tests on different areas like memory, auditory skills, phonetics, reading, ability to read unfamiliar words, handwriting, Arithmetical skills, motor skills etc. In case of any dyslexic child half the battle is won when the problem is identified. Proper remedial measures would make dyslexics do wonders.

Common characteristics of dyslexics:
Those who suffer from dyslexia exhibit similar signs. One may show all the signs whereas others may show some of the following:

    Tend to reverse the letters while reading like ‘won’ as ‘now’
Will get confused with similar letters like b and d or u and n
Tend to change words like left as felt
Tend to omit letters like reading as ‘shot’ when the word is ‘short’
Will read the word correctly at one place and read the same word wrongly in another place
Tend to write the spelling as their sounds like writing ‘right’ as ‘rite’
Reading slowly without noticing the punctuations leaving out words and sentences
Difficulty in telling the numbers according to its sequence
Very slow in writing/reading and untidy handwriting skills
Usually dislikes reading anything; instead wants somebody to read out for them
Difficulties with right and left ;same with directions east and west

(Source:http://prevention.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&issueid=9
&id=1687&Itemid=1&sectionid=5)

Parenting a dyslexic child:

Parenting itself is a difficult and risky task as one is not sure about the outcome. The very fact that in most cases mothers are the first ones to identify that their kids are having some learning difficulties and it is not the teachers or school, says a lot about the importance of parenting in the treatment of the disorder. It hardly needs mention that parenting a dyslexic child should be done with care and concern by adopting necessary skills.

First and foremost, parents should do the following:

Accepting the reality: As this is not a disease, parents should understand that it cannot be cured but can be managed. They should make arrangements to go in for proper diagnosis and necessary remedial measures.
No Parental Pressure: Do not compare the child with his peer or siblings. Do not humiliate or punish the child for under performance.
Networking: Inform the school and teacher about the child and take part in all his school activities enabling the child to cope with the condition
Special Education: If inclusion is not followed in his current school put him in a special school that makes him feel at ease and not threatened.
Sensitization: Parents and teachers should be highly patient and careful enough to deal with a dyslexic child.
Support: Help the child in his home work and other academic activities. Make the child computer friendly. Use the same language used in school to communicate with the child. If the medium of instruction is English, then use the same English to communicate at home also. Teachers and parents must approach and handle the kids in a uniform manner, when it is concerned with remedial measures
Rewarding: Using token economy the child can be encouraged and motivated
Awareness about the special facilities: A medially proven dyslexic child should be given extra time during examinations, allowed to scribe and be exempted from studying more than one language.
Develop interests: A parent can introduce the world of reading to the child by first reading for them and later encourage reading by themselves with increasing level of reading difficulty
Making a difference: Parents of dyslexics can be proactive and share their experiences and knowledge and spread the awareness in the community. Parents must also update their knowledge on dyslexia by knowing the latest approaches and developments

The thought of going to school itself will be traumatic for a dyslexic child if he doesn’t have a support system at school. It is the responsibility of a parent to make sure that the school authorities and teachers are informed about the child’s learning disorder and ensure that he is not neglected or offended by his teacher and classmates. With regard to home, if the dyslexic child has a non dyslexic sibling it is the responsibility of the parent to ensure that the sibling has a good understanding about the disorder of his dyslexic brother or sister. This would in turn avoid sibling rivalry issues and would create a conducive atmosphere for the affected child to grow in. Or else the child will become extremely depressed, anxious, rebellious and may develop behavior problems, which in later stages would lead to addiction and even to suicidal tendencies. At any stage, a dyslexic’s parent should not lose heart and hope. Once they understand that the disorder is nothing but a neuro-developmental problem and child needs special care, parents should be more optimistic and should not use the academic performance alone as the yard stick to measure their intelligence. It is said that dyslexics can be excellent entrepreneurs with good problem solving and oral communication skills as their problems are not with intelligence but with language.

Once the parents accept the fact that dyslexia is not a disease but a way of being, they have to develop necessary parenting skills. They should learn to celebrate every small success of their child. They need to develop infinite patience and a positive attitude. They are to be prepared to give the child enough space so that he can be ‘on his own’. They should not get offended when somebody says that their child is a dyslexic, instead, they should protect the child and teach the child to take criticisms in a positive way. Parents should transpose their own feelings with the child’s needs. Instilling the right attitude and hope in a dyslexic child would make him face challenges. This in turn would help them to walk on the successful path. Acknowledging even a small achievement of a dyslexic will motivate him to bring more and more triumphs.
Strategies to handle dyslexic Children

Love and Time:

A dyslexic child needs nothing from his parents other than LOVE and TIME.As toddlers, parents help and teach the child to walk. Parents need to extend the same support, in the case of a dyslexic child, throughout their lives or till the child is well equipped to tackle any problem. They need to assist their kids in doing their homework, assignments etc. Parents need to be more patient as these children do things at a very slow pace. Kids show improvement over a period, through repeated practice. Parents need to give their full attention and show unconditional love towards their dyslexic child. This would produce miracles in the child’s performance. The film “Taare Zameen Par” has created a wave among the public and brought the so called dyslexia to lime light and showed how an understanding and dedicated teacher could transform a child’s life. The parent should know to balance his/her time between a dyslexic child and other sibilings. They should manage to give full attention to the dyslexic child and take care of the other children at the same time.

Identify the skills present in your child:

It is very important to encourage them to indulge in the activities of their liking and interest. The parents should identify those skills like drawing, singing, painting and allow them to develop those skills. They must give them opportunities to explore new avenues to excel in those lines like taking part in competitions, giving them more information about their interests etc.

Choosing the right methodology/Approach:

Each child is unique in its own way. Especially, with dyslexic children, the way they learn is different from child to child. Some like to learn through paintings, some by listening to stories, whereas some like to experiment things like doing puzzles, games etc.,. As parents, one must understand the child’s capacity and adopt a suitable approach accordingly. Be innovative and follow different techniques to teach the child

Professional Help:

It is very necessary to have reviews with professionals like special educator or educational psychologist. It will help every parent to develop their knowledge and to know more about their child’s progress.

Yoga and Meditation:

These techniques will help to stabilize the mind and gain more confidence. It also develops concentration. These techniques are good for over all health of a dyslexic child. It is better to instill this habit at an early stage. A good yoga practioner will be able to guide parents about the type of yoga the dyslexic child can follow. Good concentration and a stable mind would help the child to face challenges and overcome obstacles. Parents should understand the benefits of such techniques and guide their children in the right path.

Conclusion:

Parenting a dyslexic child is an art requiring specific skills. The needed skills are learned from like minded parents, society and experiences. The gathered information could be filtered using one’s morality, personality, feasibility and sensibilities so that it would work well for one’s own family. The most required and mandatory parenting skill is discipline. Dyslexic children need hard boundaries so that they develop consistent behavior and follow the remedial measures regularly. Also, a dyslexic child’s educational success is not only dependant on the educational institution but on the amount of involvement parents show in their child’s education. Efficiently dealing with a dyslexic child is one of the important parenting skills which have to be adopted by every such parent to bring up a dyslexic child successfully.
References:

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.keezer/experiences_of_parents_with_dyslexic_children
www.indiaparenting.com/health/data/health45.shtml
http://prevention.digitaltoday.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1687&issueid=13