My daughter was four when her cousin, who was three, came over to play and I heard them in the bedroom playing an ABC game that I had purchased to help Melissa learn her ABC’s. I could hear my niece in the bedroom saying her ABC’s first forward then backward. Hearing her shout out those letters with such confidence gave me an uneasy feeling that I got very familiar with over the next few years, because as hard as I had tried Melissa still did not know her ABC’s, they seemed like a foreign language to her, she couldn’t grasp onto them.
That feeling that something wasn’t quite right stayed with me through kindergarten, first grade and second grade, as I met with her teachers and was told not to worry. “Melissa is right in the middle of her class”, they said. “She is doing fine, all kids learn at a different pace, don’t worry”. But I did worry, because I knew something didn’t add up. I read with her night after torturous night as she struggled with the same simple words page after page. She would get a word down on one page and turn the page and it would be gone, she would have to start all over again trying to figure it out. The nightly reading sessions turned to weeping as often as not and I was at a complete loss.
By the second grade she was starting to lose the light of learning, school was not for her, it was not a language she could understand. She was becoming withdrawn, she couldn’t connect, she couldn’t understand the language and she was beginning to check out. I set up a meeting with her teacher expecting the same, “everything is fine”, pep talk I was becoming used to but this time was different. This time her teacher was Cheryl Anthony and she listened to my concerns and handed me a Dyslexia fact sheet and asked me to read through it and see if I thought it applied to Melissa. Reading the list I wanted to cry with relief that it had a name, finally someone was listening to me and offering some options. Cheryl discussed testing and tutoring with us and we had Melissa tested and immediately began having her tutored in the Barton Reading and Spelling System.
Four years later, Melissa is in the seventh grade and a consistently above average student. She manages all of her school work and homework independently and only occasionally needs my help studying for tests or for major assignments. She loves school and has confidence in her strengths and strategies to manage her weaknesses. She has even started reading for recreation within the last few months. I believe that without the tutoring we were able to offer her my story would be much different now, and I have cause for my belief. Because, now I know that what Melissa sometimes calls her, “cursed dyslexia gene”, affects both sides of Melissa’s family. I have seen it manifest over three generations of people that I love. Dyslexia left unaddressed can affect every major decision in a person’s life, including level of education, career path, income, and self confidence, as well as untold daily decisions. I am convinced that early detection, testing and the right tutoring program at the right pace for the child can mean the difference between living with a curse and unlocking a gift.
Thank you, Cheryl, for giving Melissa the tools to unlock the gift.
Kasandra