If you’re new here, or missed me talking about this before, I have Dyslexia and Nakiah(my oldest) was recently diagnosed with Dyslexia. In the last few weeks I’ve had several friends ask me what made me suspect it so I figured I would share the bullet list of things I noticed and some of my other thoughts on the subject.
Here is a pretty good website that explains what Dyslexia is. They talk a lot about learning in the classroom and that doesn’t apply to us, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try some of their tips and tricks. As long as I keep things light and fun like a game my kids are up for it.

Most people think that Dyslexia is all about writing, reading, and spelling. It does affect those areas of life, but some of the things I noticed with myself and Nakiah don’t have a lot to do with any of the three. It’s hard to tell what’s “normal” for a certain age and what isn’t, especially when you aren’t keeping up with what kids are learning in the public school system. Here is what I did notice:

• Challenges with the Alphabet – mostly lowercase letters – which can be tricky because some letters have multiple sounds. Others look very similar to each other.
• Writing letters and numbers backward.
• Flipping letters and numbers.
• Difficulty remembering left from right.
• Has a hard time learning to tie shoes so she prefers slip ons only for the time being.
• Trouble with buttons and snaps on clothing.
• Up until recently she had trouble with Rhyming.
• Difficulty with speech and pronouncing words – flipping her words when speaking. I do this all the time.
• Trouble remembering symbols.
• Trouble following directions that go beyond one step at a time – I can’t say to her “the applesauce is in the fridge, on the 2nd shelf, towards the back in the red bowl, on the right side.” That’s too much information at one time.

You know how sometimes you mix up your right from left, or how you had trouble remember which way the bump goes for the lowercase b and d? It can be 100 times worse for someone with Dyslexia. I don’t remember learning how to read, I just remember always loving to read. I’m a bit of a speed reader…if I go slow I’ll flip flop my words and letters like crazy. I’ve mentioned before how I mistake was for saw and 501 for 510. I usually do stuff like that at first glance. Nakiah has developed her own system for remembering numbers. If the number is 51 she’ll ask me “mom, for 51 does that 5 go in the front and the 1 goes in the back?”  Yes. “For 15, the 1 goes in the front and the 5 goes in the back? That’s right. She also uses that for spelling words.

I used to worry and wonder if being unschoolers and not using formal curriculum made things worse for her, but I have mostly given up on that line of thinking. I say mostly because I still have my fears and worries at times, and it was until the last six months when I finally learned to chill out. There are plenty of kids who don’t have dyslexia and didn’t learn to read until they were 10-12 years old! I know someone and here’s a list of links on kids learning to read on their own. Would she be reading by now if she didn’t have Dyslexia? I guess we’ll never know. Even though it feels good and free to live outside the box, it can also be scary. Most of us grew up thinking and believing in this one way to learn and be taught.  I remind myself that she’s not incapable of learning to read….it’s a mixture of her not being ready, no interest, and having Dyslexia.  Nakiah plays a lot of video games and we have a fair amount of books, so she’s exposed to print on a daily basis. The only way she would never learn to read is if we were all illiterate. She does recognize a lot of words by sight, but she still can’t recall it to write it out or type it out. Her vision is 20/25, and she views the world in a three-dimensional way….very visual and hands on. She has a talent for drawing from memory, and often remembers places we’ve lived or visited from the time she was 2-3yrs old.

I really prefer to put the focus on what she does know instead of what she doesn’t. I believe in her and trust that she will learn the things she doesn’t know when the time is right for her.

I recently found this website that has a special font called Dyslexie Typeface. I love it! Just a quick skim of their website had me hooked. Digging deeper I really started to like the font. It’s so much easier to read….the letters stand out so clear and they’re spaced apart perfectly. They talk about making the bottoms of letters heavier so they can’t be flipped, and enlarging the letters so they looks less alike. There’s so much more, please check out their website. This is genius! Books are being made with this special font. I’m going to look around and see what I can find.

I see so much of myself as a child when I look at Nakiah. The big difference is that she’s way more confident in herself than I was at her age. I remember cheating on my math tests when I attended the Christian school. I also remember being paddled for it because that was the punishment for cheating. I wish I could’ve explained to someone why I felt the need to cheat…I just had the hardest time with numbers, and comprehending word problems. Going into public school I was picked on every day. I was called stupid and even had one of my teachers in high school call me out to make fun of me in front of the entire class.

Nakiah doesn’t have to worry about that. She lives her days freely. She can express to me when she’s having trouble remembering days of the week, numbers, letters, and counting money. If she asks me how to spell something she doesn’t have to worry about me turning it into some kind of quiz…I tell her how the word is spelled. I do not believe that she needs to learn about adversity by being picked on by her peers for learning differently than they do. She doesn’t need her self-esteem crushed like that day after day. My goal with unschooling my kids isn’t academics anyway, and I know that floors some people, but my focus is on them enjoying childhood. There’s no way they can’t or won’t learn!  They are free of memorization, grades, and tests. I have no doubt that Nakiah will learn how to keep going and push herself when it’s right for her and not because I or someone else says so. When she gets frustrated we back off and can try again later. Sometimes later is months down the road and sometimes it’s the next day. It works for us.

This is a glimpse into how Dyslexia and Unschooling look in our daily life.

I came across articles on dyslexia from Freeplaylife  and she has talked in-depth about what living with Dyslexia looks like for her daughter… if you want to read about another family living the unschooling lifestyle with Dyslexia.

I was not compensated for mentioning Dyslexie Typeface. I just think it’s a really cool idea, and Nintendo uses it!