About dyslexia, Teaching a Dyslexic Child Creative Writing is Easy

Teaching a Dyslexic Child Creative Writing is Easy

Dylexia is only a handicap if you let it be one

Dyslexics are often misunderstood; many people believe that having Dyslexia means you can't read or write at all, although this might be true for some people with very severe Dyslexia, the majority of Dyslexics have some reading and writing skills to varying degrees.

In fact older Dyslexics often got through school without anyone knowing they were anything else than "a little slow" when it comes to reading and writing. However with every dyslexic the writer has ever known, they are always far from "Slow". Their thinking and problem solving abilities are usually outstanding, they are so quick, they leave most people 3 miles back down the road.

Dyslectics range in severity from just having certain words that they can't ever remember how to spell, having many words that can't be spelt correctly, to only being able to spell 2 or 3 letter words. Often dyslectics with a medium dose of Dyslexia can read and can find other peoples spelling mistakes. I certainly always could.

They can see a spelling mistake, not know how to spell the word but still know it is wrong. other times, they can see the word is misspelt, and can usually find the right word out of a list of words, like with Micosofts Word spellcheck.

It's often thought that people with dyslexia can't read, that in my case is a load of huey, I have read many epic's novels over the years, and although I might stumble over the odd unfamiliar word, I read pretty well, I can't read aloud however, and since in school reading aloud in the early years is common, it's how I got the title of idiot or slow.

Reading can often be an issue, but it's often more to do with the number of words in a paragraph and the size of the font used. It's common practice with a dyslexic reading on a computer, to highlight the line they are reading, and then reading is or can be relativity easy. To highlight part of the text just left-click your mouse at the start of some text and holding the mouse button down, drag or push the mouse pointer down one or more lines.

You will note with my writing, I use far to many paragraph breaks, I usually don't make a paragraph any longer the 4 to 6 lines, this is as much for my dyslexia as for the reader, reading long paragraphs is extremely difficult, even if you don't have dyslexia.

Depending on the severity of the dyslexia, most people can lead quite normal lives and even when the condition is severe, sufferers usually just find jobs that use their other inherent skills, many dyslexics are very artistic or creative in some way. As with other disabilities like blindness the human spirit or body makes up for less in one area by providing more in another area.

So if your child is diagnosed with Dyslexia don't despair, they aren't doomed to a life of being simple or slow, you are guaranteed to have a child that is very creative in some way, often in several ways.
Probably the very best thing you could do for a child that is dyslexic is to buy them a computer, and encourage them to write. This may sound like the worst possible idea, but let's explain further.

All word processing programs have a spell-check, and spell checks or more the auto correct feature are a real gift for people with dyslexia. The spell-check/auto correct  will need a bit of programming to begin with, which you as a parent will have to do, but once done, your child will be able to write with relative ease, and the more someone practices the better they get.

A spell-check can be programmed to correct any spelling errors as the person is typing, and you will quickly notice that your child will make the same spelling errors all the time.

You may think that having spell-check on auto correct will never help your child to spell correctly, and that's true to a certain extent, most dyslexics say they spell the same words wrong as they did when they were children.

1.  The problems with not letting a program fix the spelling errors immediately, are the child/person will see they have made several spelling errors and will become discouraged about writing more.

2.  Seeing a word spelt wrong only instills the misspelling in the mind of the writer so even with practice your child will probably not learn the spelling of the word anyway.

Read this quick page of how to set up auto spell correct for dylexics
http://sicktodeathnz.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/how-to-set-up-spell-check-for-dyslexic.html

To give an example of a word that is often spelled incorrectly by dyslexic writers; we'll use the word brochure.
There are about 4 ways that the writer of this article spells brochure: with an 'ire' instead of 'ure' happens often... 'brouch' is probably the most common mistake. The spell-check has been programmed to pick up any of these incorrect ways of spelling and change them to the correct spelling, which is why the full word cannot be given as an example here.

The majority of children, probably only use about 100 different words on a regular basis when writing, occasionally using extra nouns. Often people with dyslexia can spell 2 and 3 letter words, so it's only the longer words that need to be programmed into the spell-check. But even if your child spells 'the' with the 't' and 'h' transposed word processor will fix it. Spell-check can be configured to always correct misspellings.

You will find your child is so liberated by not having to worry about spelling; they will probably get right into writing. The first project might be a diary then onward to bigger and better things.

Being able to express yourself without ridicule is a wonderful thing, and your child will always remember how you took that time, and gave them that freedom.

Writers Bio

Lynny Brown an SEO in San Diego; works from home. After spending 15 or so years housebound with chronic back pain. Being in constant pain, and wanting to get away from pain, she found the computer and internet a wonderful distraction.
Gradually though the pain grew worse, and she ended up using the computer from bed, laying flat on the bed, with the keyboard propped on her stomach, the mouse on a book beside her hip, and the computer monitor on a kitchen table that straddled the bed.
As the pain grew worse, so did her dependence on painkillers. In April 09 she met a chiropractor via craigslist, that offered to swap SEO for his pain relief techniques. A few months later she was up and walking without medication. Now 12 months later she is quite healthy.
She is a self-taught SEO, learning these skills before even knowing what Search Engine Optimization was, back in 1999. Learning SEO came from simply wanting to see her own website rank highly in search engines. As it turns out her SEO skills have given her life back as an added bonus.

Note November 2012:
The above bio was written about 3 years ago, and much has changed. After living almost out of pain for a very short time, I was involved in a car accident in San Diego, a woman talking on her cellphone while driving, rear-ended our car while we were stopped at traffic lights, she didn't even try to slow down before she hit. I got severe neck whiplash injuries,  and 10 days later, a blood clot from my neck moved up into my brain, and I had a stroke.
After the stroke, I was unable to work, and not having medical insurance, I couldn't afford to live or die in america, so I can home to New Zealand, where I live both with chronic pain again and the effects of the stroke. I'm still unable to work, I have had to go bankrupt, and my marriage of 10 years to an american is over.