One of my sons is seventeen and a really great guy with a lot of friends. He’s gone on mission’s trips, shot paintball and rode dirt-bikes with friends, and been employed for over a year. I’m not sure any of his friends or coworkers know that he is dyslexic. We tried several techniques while he was in elementary to help him with his reading skills and reversals in his writing. But there is no easy fix; it’s a long hard road and a lot of work.
One summer he completed a ten week course in Vision Therapy. He had two, one hour sessions a week with a therapist where they used a variety of techniques to improve reading, memorization, eye control and reversals. They did tracking exercises on a computer, on paper with mazes, and with a pencil – a string – and a paper clip. They would choose a letter or number, like “d” for instance, and circle all of them in a paragraph. They also taught him the neat little trick with your thumb – index finger and middle finger where your left hand makes the “b” and your right hand makes the “d” and “b” comes before “d” when you hold them up and in the alphabet. They memorized the presidents of the United States using a regular sheet of paper with cartoon drawings that jogged the memory, like a washing machine with a “ton” of laundry and a van with a bear running beside it. They gave us “homework” so we could continue using these techniques at home.
We also had him read out loud to us for several years to help improve his reading skills. He really struggled for a while but showed steady improvement. I began Homeschooling him after he finished the second grade so I was able to sit next to him while he did his school work. When he was writing and reversed a “d” or a “p” or a “9” I would catch it immediately and have him change it. After a year or so he began to catch them himself and correct them.
He still isn’t great at spelling or math, but he is a hard worker and has high self-esteem. We have him training to be a certified welder at the local college now because hands-on-learning is so much easier for him and he really enjoys it. I’m not sure he would have his current confidence level if he had been placed in special education classes at public school or if he had received poor and failing grades.