A blogger at Yahoo 360 has posted about technology for kids with learning disabilities.
I wish to comment on that here because I actually have some experience in this area.
Our daughter (right) was born with dyslexia. It was diagnosed at age 7. When she was 3, I remember sitting her down before a game called "Fun With Letters and Words", having her hit the keys and watch letters and words appear on a DOS screen. I never connected the dots. She would hit the same key again-and-again, she would finish a level and then repeat it, again-and-again. Something wasn't getting through.
Once we had a diagnosis, my wife and I worked hard to get our daughter
help. We got a private tutor who informed us that she was capable of
reading (which was a relief). We followed other parents to a private
school which claimed it would help. Then we got lucky. We found real
help at a (now closed, sadly) place called the Lullwater School in
Decatur, Georgia.
Our daughter started reading in sixth grade, became an avid reader in high school, and is now in the Honors English program at her junior college, writing poems with real wit and humor. This has enabled her to start catching up with herself, to grow up in ways her peers did years ago. She's going to be fine. She is fine. Great, in fact.
The best technology, we thought, was a program called Inspiration. It's a tool for creating "mind maps," an alternative to outlining. Many dyslexics have trouble not just with words, but with concepts, and connecting concepts into something coherent. This program may help you. It did not help us.
What did help us was personal, one-on-one teaching, from trained professionals who understand what they are doing. In our case, we found, our daughter's dyslexia could be addressed through learning styles. We learn by seeing, by hearing, and by touching. Every one of us is strong or weak in these three areas. Our daughter needed a hands-on learning style. One exercise we would especially helpful was to coat our glass dining table with shaving cream and let her write her spelling words into it.
The most important ingredient in any of this was patience. We're all born with strengths and weaknesses. It can be hard to see the water in the glass of life -- most life glasses aren't simple designs. If you have a kid with LD, don't judge them. Love them, have their learning styles tested, spend the time with them to master the simple things.
They will reward you.
You are such a great parent. We should never judge our children. I had LD as a child, I know how it feels to be different. I'm glad your daughter is now great!
Posted by: Jennifer Palmer | January 21, 2008 at 09:06 PM