The Value of Dyslexic Thinking
Is your child struggling to learn with dyslexia? Studies estimate that between 5 and 10% of children live with the challenge of learning with dyslexia. For decades it’s been an uphill battle for such kids to advance through their education and learn the skills they need to thrive, but that’s no longer the case.
Years of scientific study have not only broadened our understanding of what dyslexia means but that dyslexic thinking has its own value. At Sunrise Reading Solutions, we offer dyslexia tutoring programs and understand the unique strengths children living with disorders have. Below you’ll find the hidden skills that students with dyslexia have and how specialized tutoring can help them succeed.
Dyslexia Understood
If you were to ask someone what dyslexia is, they’d probably tell you it’s a disorder that makes it difficult to read or write. For decades, people accepted that dyslexia resulted from low intelligence, poor school performance, or even laziness. As a result, public education failed to understand the needs of dyslexic children.
While the brain is incredibly complex, and there’s still a great deal we don’t know about it, research has shown that two sections influence language skills: the parietal lobe and the occipital lobe. The former is responsible for recognizing words and their meaning, while the latter helps perform these functions more quickly (and often automatically).
Those with dyslexia have reduced function in both of these areas, significantly delaying the time it takes for them to recognize written words. With that understanding, addressing these learning difficulties is easier. Our team offers private dyslexia tutoring at school, online, and at our home that plays towards students’ strengths and address their struggles.
What Are the Values of Dyslexic Thinking?
All too often, people focus on the difficulties of living with dyslexia without recognizing its strengths. These may not be immediately evident, especially to an afflicted child, so it’s essential that parents and educators lookout for these qualities and help cultivate and support them.
Stronger Memory for Details
Dyslexic students sometimes use text-to-speech programs to help strengthen their language skills. Reading and writing tutors often notice that dyslexic students can recall more details of the information they’ve processed than non-dyslexic students.
They can better track characters and events in narrative stories and remember the sequence of events more accurately. Such skills show that dyslexic students have the same capacity to learn and thrive when information is presented differently.
Enhanced Abstract Thought
People with dyslexia tend to visualize information, explaining why so many dyslexic adults find themselves in careers that rely on creativity. However, there’s another layer to this way of thinking that seems so normal to people with dyslexia that they may not even notice it.
Imaginative thinkers better understand ideas that are theoretical or are challenging to demonstrate physically. While this is great for creative expression, it also lends itself to problem-solving.
Greater Spatial Reasoning.
One way the dyslexic brain differs from others is in object recognition. Studies show that people with dyslexia have better spatial recognition and reasoning on average and can recall and visualize three-dimensional spaces and objects more accurately and in finer detail.
It’s thought that people with dyslexia have trouble reading in part because they experience more difficulty in recognizing and recalling two-dimensional symbols. Regardless, more significant spatial reasoning lends itself to various forms of problem-solving, engineering, and organization.
Robust Pattern Recognition
Have you ever wondered why so many scientists and inventors happen to be dyslexic? It may have something to do with pattern recognition. In fields where unconventional symbols convey complex information, visual and imaginative thinkers tend to thrive.
Thinking of these symbols as physical objects allow people with dyslexia to understand, memorize, and utilize complicated systems with greater ease. When tutoring dyslexic students, teachers find that patterns in all forms, be they visual patterns or how a schedule is structured, helps their students adapt to more challenging material and make meaningful progress.
Critical Thinking
Somewhat related to pattern recognition is critical thinking. Many of us who consider ourselves critical thinkers fail to see the patterns in our thinking that may lead to false assumptions, bias, and bad ideas. However, dyslexic pattern recognition overlaps with critical thinking to spot such thought patterns and dissect them to see how accurate (or inaccurate) ideas may be.
More bluntly, the dyslexic mind is adept at separating fact from fiction through critical thinking, partly because it has a broader view of any given subject. The uses for these skills are endless in the business world, where managers are responsible for making decisions that could affect the livelihoods of everyone in the company.
Help Your Student Thrive With Sunrise Reading Solutions
If your child struggles with their education, Sunrise Reading Solutions, can help. We offer tutoring services for elementary students with a focus on reading and writing.
Sunrise Reading Solutions utilizes the complete Barton Reading & Spelling program in addition to Foundations in Sound. Where needed, we supplement with drills and other Orton-Gillingham approaches that suit the specific needs of your child. All of our programs are fully integrated into an online format so as to remain equally effective during distance learning!
We are happy to provide both in-person and online tutoring to families during COVID-19. To prevent the transmission of the virus, we will only meet students at their school or home and utilize the most up-to-date health and safety protocols as set out by local health authorities. Whether you choose an online model or wish to meet in person, we provide the same standard of excellence across all services we provide.
Sunrise Reading Solutions can help your struggling reader achieve academic success without so much pressure and stress on you as the parent. Our customized approach is sure to help your student achieve great things, regardless of any difficulties they are currently facing.
Contact us today to learn about all tutoring services we offer and to get your young reader on the right track.
