Dyslexia Part 3.dyslexic Children Are Logical And Should Be Taught In A Way Appropriate To Them.

March 8, 2010 - PRLog -- Unlearn.
Teaching almost all my students to unlearn was a big problem. Teaching them something new is one thing but teaching them to unlearn something that they have learned and practised for a year or more is not easy at all. I found that the child’s face went blank when I pronounced certain words. It took me a while before I found out the reason. This was because of the way these children have been taught in tuition centres and in kindergartens. They had been taught the sounds of alphabets in the wrong way. Almost all my students gave me the same answer to questions as to what sound the letters b, f, t, s (and many other letters) made.

I rang a few of the tuition centres and asked what they meant by phonics and most of the centres gave me some sort of answer. However when I asked them to pronounce some of the alphabets for me this was their response. They pronounced ‘f’ as ‘fur’,’t’ as ‘ter’ ‘s’ as ‘sir/shr’. Therein lies one of the biggest problem for the dyslexic children. The non dyslexic children somehow overcome this problem but not the dyslexic children. This is because it is not logical to them. When something is illogical their mind shuts off.

As I have mentioned, in my earlier post, the dyslexic child learns logical things very quickly but his mind shuts off when it does not make sense.

{This is the conclusion I have come to after teaching all these bright dyslexic children. Their way of thinking is simply different from the non dyslexic children. If we can teach them the way they should be taught they will learn much faster and will not be called “language disabled”. It is just like the left handed person who can do everything a right handed person can do except that he does it in a slightly different way. How would a right handed person feel if a left hander were to call him ‘disabled’ because he could not catch a ball with his left hand as well as the left hander could? Teaching a dyslexic child to learn by our present teaching method is somewhat like asking a left hander to write with his right hand. One difference would be that the left hander's mind would not shut off and he may end up learning to use his right hand.}

How do I go about explaining what I have said above? For instance when I taught the word ‘fox’ some of them could not accept it, as to them ‘f’ made the sound ‘fur’, and as such how could ‘fox’ sound the way it did. It should sound as ‘fur-ox’.

There was one student whom I used to get very angry with as she would not repeat after me. I used to think that she was stubborn and I complained to her mother. It took me some time to realize that she was not being stubborn. I regret to this day the fact that I got angry with her and shouted at her. She had simply refused to repeat after me as her mind had shut down. I could see this from the blank look on her face. (If there are any psychology students out there I would appreciate your input in this area. Is it possible for anyone to just shut down their brain/mind?)

Subsequently only when I asked her to pronounce the letter ‘f’ did I get to know why she did not repeat the word after me. To her the letter ‘f’ carried the sound ‘fur’ and the word’ fox’ could not sound the way I pronounced it to her. As far as she was concerned it should have sounded ‘fur ox’ and she was not going to repeat something that did not make sense to her. Parents of dyslexic children should take note of this very important observation I have made.

The same went for many other letters which had been taught wrongly by the tuition centres. So my students had to unlearn most of the sounds of alphabets which was no easy task for them, nor for me.

In case you're wondering, the sound for ‘f’ is the beginning sound of fish or fast. When you make this sound your mouth is almost closed and you blow air through your front teeth. The sound for ‘s’ is the ending sound in ‘hiss’. You make that sound with the teeth clenched or almost closed.

While waiting to pick up my son from kindergarten in the late 80’s I have heard teachers teaching the alphabets in the following manner - 'a' 'er' apple; 'b' 'ber' bed, 'c' 'ke' cat and so on. (This was done in a sing-song manner). Now why won’t the logical dyslexic child be confused? 'a' 'er' apple and the child is lost – his mind shuts off. Here the sound that 'a' represents is 'air' and not 'er'. This is a very serious mistake made by many of the kindergarten and tuition centres.

By the time they are in primary 2 or 3 they are considered stupid or lazy by their teachers and placed in “D” or “E” class (‘A’ class being the best class and ‘E’ class being the worst). These children in class ‘D’ and ‘E’ are almost completely ignored as they are considered stupid. Soon the dyslexic kid himself begins to believe he is stupid and he goes into a shell when it comes to learning. To hide his 'stupidity' he becomes aggressive and starts misbehaving. They are promoted each year until they are in Form 5 (O level). Go to any school in Malaysia, except for schools like MRSM where the cream of all the students are selected and placed, and you will find a few students in each form who can’t read any English at all.

The first thing you as a parent need to do is to ensure that your children are going to kindergarten and tuition centres where phonics is taught correctly. It would be better not to send your dyslexic children to tuition centres at all than to send to one that teaches phonics wrongly. Once they have learned the things wrongly it will be very difficult to unlearn.

If they don't unlearn--->their mind shuts off--->when their mind shuts off they refuse to learn anything new that will continue to not make sense--->when they don't learn their school mates call them stupid (even some of the teachers do)--->when they begin to believe they are stupid they become aggressive and ....

Many parents think that once they have sent their children to kindergarten and later to school their duty is over. No, this mind set must be changed. You have to ensure that you pick a dedicated tuition teacher who really cares about children. Periodically talk with the school teachers as well as the tuition teacher and listen to what they may have to say.

The following quotation is especially for teachers:-
"Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations, produced by enthusiastic effort and infinite labour in every country of the world. All this is put into your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honour it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it to your children. Thus do we mortals achieve immortality in the permanent things which we create in common."

-Albert Einstein

# # #

Luqman Michel. I have been teaching dyslexic children for more tha 5 years.
You may find the articles in my blog: http://www.parentingdyslexia.com