Decoding Dyslexia is a grassroots movement started October 2011 in New Jersey by families concerned with the limited access to educational interventions for dyslexia within the public schools. Their purpose is to raise dyslexia awareness, empower families to support their children and inform policy-makers on best practices to identify, remediate and support students with dyslexia in public schools.
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with other language skills such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words. Dyslexia affects individuals throughout their lives; however, its impact can change at different stages in a person’s life. It is referred to as a learning disability because dyslexia can make it very difficult for a student to succeed academically in the typical instructional environment, and in its more severe forms, will qualify a student for special education, special accommodations, or extra support services. (International Dyslexia Association)
Dyslexia affects 1 in 5 children not only affecting their academic lives, but also their self-confidence. You see Dyslexia is an invisible problem. Unless a teacher is trained in the signs and symptoms of what Dyslexia looks like they cannot tell that the student is Dyslexic. To a teacher, it looks as though the child is working hard but they cannot see all the steps a brain has to take to make sense of the words on the worksheet or book.
Many kids with dyslexia worry that there is something wrong with their brain. That’s a saddening thought. Thanks to recent research, though, there is scientific proof that a dyslexic person’s brain is normal and healthy. In fact many of the great inventors and thinkers in our history have or had Dyslexia. Have you heard of Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison or Mozart? Of course you have! What about Steve Jobs, Will Smith and Tom Cruise? We all have! These people overcame their difficulty with Dyslexia and reading and became successful in their fields. As a matter of fact, NASA was known to seek out and hire Dyslexics because of their creative and out of the box thinking!
When you have dyslexia your brain takes longer to make certain auditory and written connections, and does it in more steps. It especially has trouble matching the letters you see on the page with the sounds those letters and combinations of letters make. And when you have trouble with that step, it makes all the other steps harder.
Unfortunately by the time a child in 3rd grade is diagnosed with Dyslexia their self-esteem has plummeted and they tend to view themselves as dumb or stupid because they can’t keep up with their classmates. It is heartbreaking to see these smart and creative children go to school with this mind set. Most children will try their best not to go to school by complaining of sickness to avoid the situation all together.
According to the Learning Disabilities Association of America, children who slip through the cracks are now suffering undiagnosed with Dyslexia as they become adults. Many of them will drop out of high school, frustrated by school failures. If they are girls, the numbers indicate that a very high proportion of them will become pregnant almost immediately upon leaving school, seeking life fulfillment outside of the academic experience that proved to be so unrewarding. If they are men and lucky, they will find jobs – for the most part entry level and dead end jobs – and get on with life as best they could with low literacy skills
Those not so fortunate will turn to crime or become victims of crime. Our nation’s prison populations educated estimates range from 40% to 65% or even higher for inmates and parolees who have learning disabilities. As many as 65% of the children incarcerated in juvenile correctional facilities prove to be eligible for special education services.
It seems very clear that the best way to address this problem is with PREVENTIVE measures to help children early in order to prevent the inevitable spiral mentioned above. Does it not make sense that the money and time spent training our teachers to detect and then help our children far outweighs the expense of dealing with the situation once they are adults?
This is where the local group of Decoding Dyslexia comes in. They are simply a group of concerned parents gathering to ensure their students have the best educational success through following the national best practice standards of instruction for teaching dyslexic students. Due to no fault of their own, many teachers and administrators are never taught the details of dyslexia in college and are not qualified to identify or use the multisensory structured language programs essential for effective teaching to help dyslexics.
The Oklahoma chapter of Decoding Dyslexia was developed when Michelle Keiper organized a small group of six to start a group meeting in Tulsa In April, 2013. In May 2013 she flew to NYC for the first national meeting for Decoding Dyslexia with Dr. Sally & Bennett Shaywitz Co-Directors of the newly formed Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity at the Yale University School of Medicine. In June the first parent meeting was launched welcoming the public, at that meeting the chapter tripled their number. In honor of Dyslexia Awareness Month in October, they partnered with Captured Time Productions and Area 23 to bring a screening of Harvey Hubbell’s film Dislecksia to Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The Tulsa Theater overflowed as they filled the theater to capacity with over 100 in attendance. At the end of October, they held their first meeting in Oklahoma City launching a second group of parents now meeting in OKC. The Oklahoma Chapter is currently working with legislators to help make a difference and affect policy change. Their next event will be Dyslexia Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol on Tuesday February 18th at 10:00am.
Contact Information:
Kari Huskey
Revel Media
405-999-5800
Michelle Keiper
Decoding Dyslexia Oklahoma
918-691-6118