An interesting question and my answer

I just had a really interesting question presented to me by a truly brilliant man who has struggled and succeeded in having a great life despite having had a hard time in school due to his dyslexia.

He asked me why I was working so hard to get my kids what they need to learn to read, spell and write when there are so many new technologies out there that help with these things?  He has utilized things like audio books and computer programs and now has a PhD himself.

While I believe that his question is truly valid and I took no offense my answer goes something like this:

School in it's standard form (and believe me that is what it is in Catholic school) is a game with rules and expectations.  Without the special instruction (and personalized pace) that my child is currently receiving dyslexic children are perceived by many as not being as intelligent as those children for whom sitting still in class, turning in the required worksheets in the required amount of time and so forth are not so difficult. 

Nothing could be further from the truth of course,  their brains simply operate differently and require different and sometimes more stimulus to learn what comes easily to some.

I explained that had my child stayed in the school she was originally in she would have come through illiterate (or barely literate).  She and her parents would have been accused of any number of things such as not working hard enough on homework. I know this from 2 examples of children of this happened to.

I personally read with my child each and every night before bed while she was in kindergarten and first grade.  I knew instantly when she began to get Orton Gillingham because I saw it working in her nightly reading.

Without being at the school she is in now,  with total immersion in a method that works with teachers that understand her brain, I believe she would have suffered and blamed herself throughout childhood no matter what I said to her.

So these days we do still work hard here at our house.  Homework and tutoring throughout the summer months.  I wont say it's nose to the grindstone but really there is a lot more expectation than what I personally grew up with.

In a dyslexic person like my child  I think of the brain paths which work with language as bumpy roads with potholes.

While I hope that by concentrating on rebuilding those roads with a  method that works doesn't compromise her brain strengths in other areas I still believe that it is essential for people to be literate even with new technologies to help them.