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Show Anguished over her child's inability to learn, a worried mother heard oj a strange disease called dyslexia; then she knew why... "They Called My Son Retarded But He Wasn't Learning rhythm helps dyslexic children overcome their handicap. By BOB GAINES IHE worried principal snapped shut little Lonnie Peterson's school record. "I don't know what we're doing JL wrong, Mrs. Peterson," he said. "You brought us a happy little boy. But now he's withdrawn and different." For Mrs. Janet Peterson, a teacher herself in the Baltimore area, the principal's words only confirmed her growing fear that something was troubling Lonnie. She now recalls, "I knew that he was basically a bright little boy. He had been so excited when he started school. But now his teacher told me that in class he seemed confused and rarely answered questions. He was beginning to develop a stutter." Leaving the principal's office, Mrs. Peterson decided that Lonnie's learning problems might be solved through special tutoring. She was mistaken. She had to go through years of worry that her youngster, as many people told her, was retarded. She suffered many disappointments before she learned the truth, that Lonnie was (and still is) n a victim of dyslexia, a disease which strikes nearly 10 percent of the nation' male population omd 3 percent of the female. What is dyslexia? It seems to be a malfunction in the electrical circuitry of the brain. Normally, if a person is the left side of his brain is dominant; if he is the right side is dominant. The dyslexic's problem, according to many doctors, is that the dominant side of his body is the same as the dominant side of his brain. As a result, he is physically confused. He is often clumsy and un- - coordinated. He has visual problems. Lonnie, for example, had difficulty distinguishing certain letters. His "pV looked like "q's" to him, "b's" looked like "d's." A word such as "was" became "saw." Involuntarily, he was looking at words and numbers the wrong way around. The dyslexic child can have other problems. He finds it difficult to concentrate in class. He daydreams. He often seems nervous and jittery. What all this means to the dyslexic child is that he has a serious learning and functioning disability. If he does not receive special care, he can fall behind in his classroom studies. One physician has summed up the results among dyslexic children this way : "Eventually, almost all of them learn to read after a fashion, but so inaccurately that many occupations are closed to them." Fortunately for Mrs. Peterson, Lonnie was blessed with a stubborn determination to learn. She recalls, "We decided to see if he could work out his early learning problems by himself. We had no idea how serious his handicap was. But by the fourth grade, he d, left-hande- 4 Family d, Weekly, November 10, 1968 These programs encourage the youngster to use senses other than his Is Your Child Dyslexic? little-know- right-hande- still couldn't read well. Then Mrs. Peterson and her husband met a specialist in children's diseases and first heard the word "dyslexia." "In those days very few people were aware of the problem, and they were just developing techniques for dealing with it," she recalls. The first question Mrs. Peterson asked was, "What causes dyslexia?" The doctor could only say that no one knew (and even today medicine is in ignorance over the cause). Some doctors think it could be an injury inflicted on the central nervous system before, during, or after birth. Other doctors say the malady may be inherited. Mrs. Peterson's husband, who is an engineer in the Baltimore area, had a problem similar to Lonnie's when he was a small boy. He was a slow reader and depended on his mother to help him after school. The Petersons were told about special remedial reading and training programs, and Lonnie was enrolled. He responded eagerly and bicycled five miles to and from class every day. Dyslexia can rapidly turn a bright, inquisitive youngster into an unhappy school dropout. Every parent owes it to his child to answer these questions. Does he sometimes confuse his left from his right, up from down? Does he have difficulty telling time? Does he have a problem remembering dates? Is his handwriting close to being illegible? Is he awkward and uncoordinated? Does he frequently confuse similar words? When he does his arithmetic homework, does he sometimes make inexplicable mistakes (i.e., he knows 3x4 is 12, but he puts down 21)? If you answer "yes" to four or more of these questions, it is possible your child may have a visual learning disability. Don't jump to' any qukk conclusions. Some children take longer lo mature than others. But discuss it with your doctor. vision. One day, Mrs. Peterson and her husband visited Lonnie's summer school and found a classroom of children working on their "m's" and "n's" two letters that give dyslexic youngsters a lot of trouble. Music was playing and the children were humming as they wrote. The humming helped them grasp the concept of "m." In the same school, all the children had jump ropes. They were encouraged to practice with them every day. The jumping improves their coordination and sense of balance. "We learned finally that there should be no stigma attached to dyslexia," states Mrs. Peterson. "The dyslexic child is not 'stupid.' Some of the world's most brilliant men, from da Vinci to Edison and Einstein, are said to have had dyslexia." Thanks to the teachers who helped him, Lonnie learned to cope with his learning disability. Today he is 21 and attends an Eastern college. "Lonnie refuses to consider himself a handicapped person," says his mother. "He feels that while he has had it harder than others in academic areas, they have had it harder than he in those realms where imagination, creativeness, and mechanical aptitudes are of value." Lonnie has even taken to helping other dyslexics for instance, his mother. While talking to physicians about Lonnie, Mrs. Peterson learned that she herself suffered from a mild dyslexia. Her balance had never been too good. She had never been able to ride a bike or roller-skat"But the problem was that no one ever forced me to do these things," she says. "Then Lonnie talked me into puttirg on some ice skates and trying out the frozen pond behind our house. "I will never be as good a skater as he, but I can now ice skate." e. |