Saw a boy with dyslexia today, exactly the same age as my older boy. He's clearly very bright, and chatty, but has difficulty reciting the alphabet, with writing, mixes up his b's and d's and reverses his j's and calls "12" twenty and can't seem to find the right words when he's explaining to me about "important things" (like minecraft, for instance).
He's such a lovely kid.. cheeky, but easily redirected, so bright, so cheery. But if he doesnt get the help he needs, that exuberant little spirit is going to be crushed by our extremely unforgiving educational system. Thankfully he is identified early by a family friend who is dyslexic himself. Now he can get the right help (hopefully) and learning doesnt have to be as painful as it is (hopefully).
It makes me wonder about two things:
1. Reading and writing--skills we seem to think come so naturally as we grow, or as our kids grow.. are really not natural at all! It's natural to speak, but not so natural to put it down in written symbols. In fact, we only started doing it in the last, what, thousand years? maybe more. I'm not a historian. But u know what i mean. Reading and writing actually have to be TAUGHT, and cant be just picked up like that.
2. So over here in Singapore we emphasize reading and writing even in preschool education. But children all over the world are only expected to read simple words by 5, write by 7. Why are we expecting kids in Singapore to read AND write by the time they are 4? Why is it that if they are not able to hold a pencil in a tripod grip by 3 years old, we say they have "poor fine motor skills", instead of "hey he's 3 years old"?
Why are more and more kids being diagnosed with dyslexia and attention deficit disorders? Is it true that they have learning disabilities, or is it that our educational system is over emphasizing the reading and writing modality to learn? There are plenty of other ways to learn, aren't there?
Today I am thankful that a) the abovementioned boy is going to get help. I will check in on him in a few months time and hopefully i can hear some good news. b) my boy of the same age is reading and writing well, and probably, hopefully, is going to cope in our educational system.
But if he doesn't.. or if my younger boy cannot survive in our local system.. will I have the courage to take him out of the system before he gets crushed (like many of the 9 to 10 year old dyslexics i had seen in the past few months)?
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