Wednesday, October 8, 2003

Rebecca's Reading continues to be difficult

When your daughter comes home with a paper and she's written her entire name backwards, and didn't notice, it's time to think outside the box.

Either she's brilliant, lazy or something is wrong. Or maybe not.
I've looked up the warning signs of dyslexia. She fits the profile for all things having to do with reading, but with none of the other lifestyle signs I don't think that dyslexia is a true concern. So, what else.
Laziness has long been a factor of her inability to parse the written language. She gets frustrated extremely quickly and will readily give up and whine she can't do it. And yet, she tries on her own every day, so is she truly lazy?
Well, I think she's an artist. Letters are images to her brain. They work both ways for her and she sees what's supposed to be there, no matter how she's written it on paper. She has trouble with the fact that in reading it all has to be one particular way for it to work, as letters go in a row and words move from left to right.
She would rather memorize than figure out and she has the brain to do it. She can recite books, songs, and conversations, and she'll correct anyone who slips up on a lyric.
But I have to give her credit, because even with her memorization she is learning, and learning quite a bit. School is slowly focussing her eyes and her hands to the trials of the written language. Her handwriting is progressing beautifully, even if she does have to check each letter against a master. She can create it and put it in the proper place on writing lines. She is beginning to look -at- the creation of the letters instead of imagining what it she thinks it should look like. It's quite a step for her.
I do know this much. Once all this clicks, her world will bloom. She'll be reading for herself and more than that, her vivid imagination can be transferred to paper in more than a pictoral storyline.
I have no doubts that she will become the author in our family and fill our lives with stories that have no bounds. I can't wait.

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