Strength-Based Dyslexia Treatment for Right-Brain Dyslexia
Schools will identify students with learning disabilities.
Psychologists will identify the same child with dyslexia.
Many of these students learn differently and have a reading challenges. One might say these students have right-brain dyslexia.
Our key premise for students with right-brain dyslexia is that these students do very well when:
- They are taught to their strengths
- Their challenges are identified and addressed
- Parents choose to capitalize on their strengths
Schools and psychologists tend to think inside the box. As Mira Halpert, the developer of the 3D Learner Program (R) often says, What Box?
What BOX?
This video from Understood.org is on What is Dyslexia?
The video describes students with dyslexia who have right-brain strengths. With what we call right-brain dyslexia. the recommendations are for dyslexia treatments that quiet the right-brain and train a child to learn the same way as his or her left-brain peers. This article describes a different scenario, where we identify right-brain dyslexia and other challenges. Then teach the student with right-brain dyslexia the way he or she learns best. We also discuss the need to identify and address their challenges. The outcomes that are often quicker, more significant and build self-esteem and self-advocacy skills.
The video shows visual confusion that many students with dyslexia face and then takes an abrupt left turn and narrowly defines dyslexia as a problem with the sound symbol relationship.
What the video does not say is that …
These right-brain learners have what we call right-brain dyslexia — they have a problem with reading and they tend to have phonics-based challenges, they learn best when they see and experience information and they often have attention and/or eye-teaming issues. The key point is that
Students with Right-Brain Dyslexia May Do Best with Right-Brain Programs
A mom called us a few years back.
Her public school has diagnosed her child with learning disabilities – two years of in school help and her daughter was still 2 years below grade level in reading comprehension
The a psychologist diagnosed her daughter with dyslexia, the family invested $34,000 in a well known dyslexia treatment. Then her daughter’s reading comprehension was 3 years below grade level, her reading speed was a tortuously slow 115 words per minute, and homework was taking 2.5 to 3 hours. Worse than that, mom had to be there the whole time. The stress on the child and the mom were incredible and getting worse.
Questions That Screen for Right-Brain Dyslexia and Related Challenges
Then mom read the following questions:
- Does your child remember places visited, even from years ago?
- Does your child learn best when he or she sees and experiences information
- Is your child a lot smarter than his or her present results would indicated?
That was her daughter to a T. When mom completed our Success Assessment, it confirmed her daughter learned differently and it highlighted an attention issue she was aware of and an eye-teaming issue that she was not aware of.
Right-Brain Dyslexia — Students Learn Differently and Have Related Challenges
In reality, her daughter did have learning disabilities and dyslexia and her daughter was a 3D Learner who had what we call right-brain dyslexia.
How is that possible?
Schools test for learning disabilities — in this case a reading problem that did not respond to interventions.
The psychologist tested for dyslexia — a problem matching sounds and symbols — a phonics problem. This was true, but dyslexia treatments may not help the 3D Learner, that does not capitalize on the ability to capitalize on a student’s visual skills and neither identifies or addresses the attention and eye-teaming issues that often impact the 3D Learner — note, 3D Learners learn differently and many, but not all 3D Learners, have attention and/or eye-teaming issues – over 50% of the 3D Learners we have helped have both an attention and eye-teaming issue — where they skip words and lines when reading.
The good news is that with the 3D Learner Program (R) her daughter:
- Improved her reading comprehension 4 grade levels in 6 month
- She doubled her reading speed in that time frame
- Homework time decreased to an hour and fifteen minutes and her mother only had to check her work
- Self-esteem soared
- Her daughter was now doing well in regular classes
The majority of students with learning disabilities and dyslexia are 3D Learners (i.e. they learn differently and have an attention and/or eye-teaming issue.
Before investing in dyslexia treatments, you may want to screen for a learning difference and an attention, eye-teaming and related issues at 3D Learner
The post For Students with Right-Brain Dyslexia — Moms Make The Difference appeared first on 3D Learner.