EM
ASHLEY'S LEARNING CENTER
MARCH | 2023
NEWSLETTER
e s p m i l G A t s u J
VOL: 1 ISSUE:- 3
A PARENT’S CRY What joy was felt when my friend’s 7lbs 2ozs baby boy was born. He was a bright little boy who seemed to be aware of everything around him. My friend became concerned though when she realized her son did not make eye contact and he seemed to be in his own world. Jen, my friend, thought nothing of it as Brandon seemed to meet many of the developmental milestones. She noticed though, that while he was in his own world, he was often fixated on one activity. Without engaging with his brother and sister, he would rock back and forth, back and forth. If his little fingers got hold of one of the threads in his socks, he would pull on that thread until the sock was unraveled. There were times Brandon would scream, uncontrollably, and regardless of how she tried to soothe him, he continued to scream. Taking him to church, to a restaurant or to the supermarket became an exhausting task and soon my friend did not socialize. Often Jen would be embarrassed as she observed the glares and stares of strangers and even family members. She was sure that she was flawed as a parent and often cried herself to sleep in utter despair. Things became even worse when he was two and a half years old and she attempted to take him to daycare. He would be accepted but very soon she would get the call to come for him as the school could not cope with what they called his ‘temper tantrums’. It was not until Brandon was five years old that he was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. The reality and implications of the diagnosis rocked my friend’s world and she knew that the journey had only just begun.
THE MORE YOU KNOW! Boy You Can’t Read. Too often when students are unable to read, it is quickly assumed that it is due to a lack of effort or access or that they are just not academically inclined. International research tells us that, “Between 70% and 80% of people harboring limited reading proficiency suffer from dyslexia” (Steven Zauderer, Cross River Therapy 2022). Dyslexia is a Learning Disability first researched by Rudolph Berlin, a German ophthalmologist in 1877. The term, which means, ‘difficulty with words” describes a neurological condition that makes it difficult for a person to process language. This challenge causes the discrimination between letters and sounds to be a problem and so reading and spelling become quite a task. While a person never outgrows dyslexia, they can be taught strategies that allow them to become successful human beings. Bill Gates, Whoopi Goldberg and Winston Churchill are a few of the many successful persons diagnosed with dyslexia. How many of the children in our schools in TCI may be dyslexic?