Many parents, teachers, and family members share a similar learning challenge with their child or student. This provides them a unique insight into the daily struggles a learning disability can create. For those people, however, for whom learning is not a challenge, it can be particularly frustrating and discouraging to not fully understand what it must be like to see the world in the way their child does.
Flipping letters and reading backwards is the most widely known symptom of dyslexia or language-based learning disabilities. This can be a symptom, but is not nearly as common as many believe. In fact, there are a whole host of symptoms of language learning disabilities that can occur in any combination in each individual case.
How can those without a learning difficulty come to understand what it must be like to complete ordinary tasks with such struggle? The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) has developed a program to help parents and teachers do just that. Their program, Experience Dyslexia® simulates common experiences of someone with language difficulties through six stations.
Participants work their way through the stations and take part in activities that simulate:
- A beginning reading problem
- An auditory processing problem
- A visual-motor and writing problem
- A letter-word identification problem
- A copying and writing problem
- An auditory discrimination problem
No two dyslexics are alike, but these are some of the most common difficulties experienced by this population. Those who participate in this simulation often report having a much clearer understanding of the difficulties that people with dyslexia and other learning disabilities experience daily.
October is Dyslexia Awareness Month and, as a result, there are several Dyslexia-related events in the Bay Area next month.
The IDA is hosting two screenings of the film, Journey Into Dyslexia and holding panel discussions following the film. The dates and locations for these events are:
Oakland Public Library
Saturday, Oct. 6
10:30 am-12:30 pm
San Jose Martin Luther King Library
Saturday, Oct. 20
10:00 am-12:00 pm
The Learning Disabilities Simulation is being hosted at:
Children’s Health Council, Palo Alto
Tuesday, Oct. 30
6:30 pm
How have you heard learning disabilities be described or how would you describe your own struggles?
