I first met Kilian, the main character in the book early this year when I provided intervention to him. While observing how I work with Kilian, his mother, Katherine was inspired which led to her writing this children's book to help young children understand their dyslexia.

A truly inspirational book borne out of a mother's love for her dyslexic son. It captured the heart of a parent who witnessed her son's struggles with learning difficulties.

More than that, it was written to bring hope and encouragement to young children, to help them understand the unique way they think and learn and to embrace their strengths to help them overcome their challenges.

Colourfully illustrated with an ocean theme, it would definitely appeal to the imaginative minds of our wonderfully creative dyslexics.

The book is now available on Amazon and the kindle version is free until 1 January 2024. Don't wait! Get hold of a copy to bless someone you know who needs a book like this.

Edena Goh was bullied and had low self-esteem over her learning condition, but found that embracing it inspired others​

By any standard, Edena Goh is an accomplished student. She studied triple science in secondary school, was head pre- fect and scored seven points for her O levels. She did it all while being dyslexic.

“It’s been a difficult journey,” says the articulate 18-year-old junior college student. Her mother Christina Tan, 51, says her younger daughter has al- ways had a big vocabulary.

The teachers at the phonics enrichment programme she at- tended when she was around age five were impressed enough to recommend her for a grade jump, but every time Edena had to sit a reading or written test in a one-to- one setting, she threw a tantrum.

Ms Tan noticed differences between Edena’s reading and writing abilities and those of her other daughter, who is 18 months older and whom she declined to name. “What she could verbalise, she could not recognise, even if they were very basic words, high frequency words, even nouns,” she says.

The lawyer-turned-entrepreneur pressed for answers from the enrichment centre, childcare centre and doctors. Everyone said the girl was fine. Edena remembers that Chinese lessons during her kindergarten years were especially taxing. “I had no idea what they were saying. It was like an alien language to me,” she says.

During her Primary 1 orientation, Edena was one of two children who cried as she was over- whelmed. She could not complete the activity sheets given. Ms Tan then decided to defer her formal education for a year, having realised Edena was possibly dyslexic after speaking to a psychologist friend.

“Because we saw how lacking in confidence she was, we didn’t want to push her into primary school. I was really concerned about her mental well-being. That’s some- thing that will have a long-term effect,” Ms Tan says.

One in 10 people worldwide have dyslexia, a lifelong learning condition that affects reading and writing.

Of this group, 4 per cent have dyslexia severe enough to warrant im- mediate intervention, says Ms Sere- na Abdullah, assistant director (curriculum) in the English language and literacy division of the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS).

It supports almost 4,000 pre-primary to tertiary students with dyslexia and other specific learning differences, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, she adds.

Based on the Department of Statistics Singapore’s figures, there were 656,369 students enrolled in educational institutions in 2020, which suggests that an estimated 26,255 students may need dyslexia support.

​Edena went for occupational therapy for a few months and had a full assessment by an educational psychologist. She also attended the Davis Reading Programme for Young Learners, a modified Davis Dyslexia Correction programme, as her mother felt phonics-based programmes had not worked.
The Davis Dyslexia Correction programme was founded in the United States in 1980 by Mr Ron Davis, who developed a way to overcome his own severe dyslexia ​in adulthood.

Ms Tan says the Davis approach believes that dyslexics are mostly picture thinkers who experience perceptual distortion – in terms of vision, hearing, time, balance and coordination – when disoriented.

It teaches dyslexics how to reorient themselves using visualisation techniques as well as master high frequency words using clay to make customised “pictures” they can think with, thereby replacing confusion with certainty, she adds.

However, the non-traditional approach is not widely recognised and critics have said it lacks inde- pendent evidence-based studies to back its claims.

The Orton-Gillingham approach, which was founded more than 80 years ago, is more commonly used for teaching dyslexics. It is diagnostic, structured and multisensory, and uses systematic phonics instruction, says Ms Serena of DAS.

Edena remembers dreading evenings when her mother would return home and drill her with assessment books and reading materials. Ms Tan admits she was strict and impatient at the time.

Now, she tells parents she works with to “cut the kids some slack. It’s not that they are not trying hard enough. They are, they just need time and we need to recognise that they learn differently”.

Ms Tan became a Davis method facilitator four years ago and runs Singapore Dyslexia Intervention Services. She also supports special- needs caregivers as a CareConnect champion under CaringSG, an initiative for the special needs community.

A year later, Edena was back in school, this time with the ability to read a book during silent reading time – using a ruler so she would not skip lines.

But her struggles with learning brought on unwanted attention in the form of bullying. “I used to be called ‘stupid’ for not being able to learn Chinese and for being a slow- er learner than my peers. I think that lowered my self-confidence. Since then, even with a decent PSLE score, I carried this burden of not being good enough,” says Edena, who had a score of 237 and was exempted from Mother Tongue.

Ms Tan says that while her daughter was a slower learner in the beginning, she is a “big picture thinker” like many dyslexics she has seen in her practice.

Edena easily grasps concepts and thinks out of the box, which has helped her excel in school.

Her condition still flares up during stressful times such as examinations, when she gets “a bit disoriented sometimes”.

​But she says: “My parents have always encouraged me to just do my best. That helps to ease my anxiety as well, thinking that I don’t have to be the best – I just have to do my personal best.”

Still, dyslexia was not something she volunteered to share with her class- mates. The turning point came in Secondary 3, when she organised a camp for school leaders. During the camp, participants shared their insecurities and realised it was all right for leaders to have weaknesses as long as they sup- ported one another.

Edena says: “Whenever I share about being dyslexic with others, most of the reactions I get are those of shock because they see that I’m doing well. It encourages me even further that others draw inspiration from me.”

As she embraced her condition, her dreams grew larger. Edena was one of eight finalists in the Halogen Foundation’s National Young Lead- er Award 2020. The foundation is a charity that nurtures young leaders.

If she could, she would aim for the stars. Her eyes light up as she shares that her “ultimate dream” is to be an astronaut. She also hopes to be an engineer as she enjoys robotics.

“Entering a male-dominated industry is something that is very empowering. And I think that follows my story of trying to inspire other people,” she says.

Looking back on her journey, she says: “Although it was a tough journey, struggling with all this self- doubt, I wouldn’t change anything.”

But she says she hopes that dyslexic kids starting Primary 1 in 2023 “won’t feel so insufficient and insecure about themselves”.

​“You are special, even though you do not realise it now.”

GET HELP EARLY
Starting primary school can be a source of anxiety and stress as dyslexic children navigate a new environment and get used to new expectations, says Ms Serena Abdullah from the Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS).

She says “a lot is required of a child even at Primary 1. Students are expected to have ac- quired emergent literacy skills and be able to read, write and spell fairly proficiently by the time they embark on their primary education”.

Timely intervention, either through school- based dyslexia remediation programmes or edu- cational therapy at DAS (das.org.sg), is important.

She encourages parents to set up an “eco- system of support” with their child’s school. They should also look out for challenges in literacy, behaviour, executive functioning and social skills, and seek help early.

ACCEPT YOUR CHILD
Many parents have a traditional view about learn- ing, which is to learn the lesson ahead of the teacher’s class, says Ms Frances Yeo, principal psychologist and programme director of Thom- son Kids Specialised Learning (www.thomsonkids.com).

It is part of Thomson Medical Group and offers help for children with learning differences.

This mindset does not work with dyslexic kids as their fundamental literacy skills lag behind those of their peers. “When students with learning disorders are given academic instruction that is beyond their level, they feel over- whelmed and stressed,” says Ms Yeo.

Over time, this builds up and can cause every- thing from low self-esteem to thoughts of suicide.

What is more important is that parents accept that their children learn differently, even though it may be hard to hear negative feedback from teachers or deal with feelings of helplessness, she adds.

TRUST THAT THEY ARE TRYING
“Overcoming a learning disorder is very difficult and takes time. There are no quick fixes, no medications that can make it go away,” says Ms Yeo.

Parents who support their children even through the smallest of wins help them develop “a growth mindset or an internal narrative that encourages them to see learning difficulties as a challenge that they can someday overcome”, she adds.

Learning is a long journey and not doing well in primary school may not be the catastrophe parents fear, she notes.

“Children need space to grow physically, emotionally and academically. This also means par- ents must trust that their children are trying their best, even though the improvement in grades may not be obvious.

“I feel that the hardest thing for many parents is to learn to manage their own anxieties and not project these onto their children.”
Stephanie Yeo

Are you looking for a book you can read to your dyslexic child to help him/her better understand his/her learning challenges?

An inspirational children’s picture e-book, produced by award-winning creators Emily Lim-Leh and Josef Lee, makes a good conversation starter with your child and also for sharing with others who may not know what dyslexia is.

This e-book resource is produced as a voluntary community initiative in support of Epworth Community Services’ work in literacy intervention for children-in-need and to raise awareness of how early support can help these children.

​How many of you can read the text easily without having to pause and figure out the sequence of letters in order to make out a recognisable word?

One of the symptoms of dyslexia we look for is to observe whether the child is persistently misreading words (such as house for horse, was for saw, etc).

Our minds typically scan the whole word (and not every letter of the word) when reading. When in an oriented state, we do not make reading mistakes.

However, a dyslexic is easily confused whenever they encounter letters, punctuation marks and high frequency words. Those symbols trigger disorientation which in turn leads to perceptual distortion which results in mistakes. Having accurate perception is important for reading accuracy. A dyslexic’s place of orientation when perceiving a text is often not at the optimal place. Putting oneself in an oriented state is the key to turning off the disorientation and gaining accurate perception.

​Francis is a Physical Education teacher at Outram Secondary School. He is also the recipient of the President’s Award for Teachers 2020. Francis was instrumental in transforming the school’s water polo team, leading them to the finals in the interschool league in 2011, after their last one 19 years ago.

Trained as a Teacher for Special Needs at NIE, Francis suspected he could be dyslexic and was formally diagnosed six months ago. With the diagnosis, things are coming together for him. He now understands his strengths better and what works for those with special education needs. Working with his fellow teachers, the school implemented study groups where students help each other to learn. This set up has yielded impressive results as the students grew in self-confidence which translated to academic achievements.

How did you first find out that you are dyslexic?

I was trained as a Teacher for Special Needs. As a lead teacher, I mentor teachers in the school in special education needs. As I delve deeper into this area, I began suspecting I could be dyslexic. I remember reading a book on the strengths of neurodivergent children and saw some of the traits in myself. Six months ago, I went through an assessment at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore which confirmed my suspicion. I wanted a diagnosis so that from a dyslexic's perspective, I can share why some of the teaching pedagogies such as collaborative learning actually works.

What was life like as a student prior to your dyslexia diagnosis?

I knew I was a slower learner compared to my peers. I started picking up reading only in secondary school and languages were not my strength. My teachers used to call me lazy and my handwriting was untidy. But I did notice that I learn faster than others in certain areas. For example, I was quick at grasping concepts and can see 3D images easily.

My secondary school had an after-school study programme where students were divided into smaller groups to help one another learn. That was very helpful for me. I was always stressed about keeping up with my peers in class. Having a group of friends helping each other made the learning environment less pressurising.

As I grew older, I developed lower self-esteem. I started reading self-help books as I wanted to build a positive growth mindset. Each time I tried something and failed, I told myself it was another chance for me to try again. As I build up my confidence, I started getting better at what I do, such as playing sports and my studies in the university.

What inspired you to become a teacher?

I believe that if more teachers form study groups and help the students build self-confidence, more of them would enjoy studying and do better in life. That influenced my decision to be a teacher. As a teacher, I now understand why many students are inattentive in class and I tried different methods to engage them.

For example, I formed study groups in my form class and in the water polo CCA I am in charge of. I also encourage the use of peer coaching and collaborative learning with other teachers. This has helped many teachers engage with more students. In my school, more teachers are now using collaborative learning as the main teaching pedagogy. Students are given a problem to solve at the start of the lesson. Through inquiry-based learning, students with special education needs learn better. Tapping on their strengths and helping each other increase their self-efficacy.

I am sure you came across many students who struggle with different learning challenges. What words of encouragement do you have for them?

As a teacher of 15 years, I see many strengths in students with special education needs. While most of us focus on their failures or weaknesses, they should be recognised for their strengths.

Very often, a person with ADHD finds it difficult to focus on boring lectures. They need something that challenges them and I have seen many ADHD students who are good at solving challenging science problems.

The slightest of sound could be magnified and bother a person with ASD, but this same trait allows him to spot the small details.

Although dyslexics take a longer time to read, we ended up having better understanding and could grasp the concepts. Those students that I know of who are dyslexic had a knack for linking the different concepts together. They definitely make very good peer teachers.

Does having a diagnosis make any difference to the way you look at your learning difficulties and is there any positive outcome arising from the diagnosis?

As I was diagnosed only six months ago, there hasn’t been many changes. My personal transformation has been a growth mindset and self-belief. I think people who are neurodiverse need to stay positive. It is easy to see ourselves as being inferior to others and give up on ourselves.

After my diagnosis, I have a better understanding of the traits I possess. I can see my ability in connecting the different teaching pedagogies and applying them effectively in the classroom.

Some parents are still reluctant to send their children for diagnosis for fear of labelling them and putting them at a disadvantage. Now that you are an adult and looking back at your younger days, what are your thoughts on this?

Since my diagnosis, I have been able to explain to parents the benefits of being neurodiverse. The world needs people who are innovative, able to see the big picture and are self-directed learners. These are traits commonly present in neurodiverse people.

When parents heard this, they are more incline to send their children for assessments. I also share about my own learning difficulties and my strengths with my students. After hearing my experiences, more students are starting to realise their strengths and this helps to boost their confidence.

How do you perceive dyslexia now that you are an adult, and do you see dyslexia more as a learning difference rather than a limitation?

It is definitely a learning difference. Yes, I do struggle in some areas, but with the help of technology, things are much easier for me compared to before. I have also overcome my limitations by using different strategies such as asking my colleagues for help.

The learning process for dyslexics requires active involvement. Quoting Ron Davis, he said “the creative process and the learning process, if not the same thing, are so closely associated that we will never be able to separate them.” Creativity is therefore an essential part of the learning process.

If we create something in the form of memorisation, what we have is something memorised. If we create something in the form of understanding, what we have is understanding.

Ron said that if you create something, you can own it. If you can own it, you can experience it. If you can experience it, you can master it, and if you can master it, it becomes part of your thinking process.

Try observing your child when he/she is reading. Make a note of the words your child substituted, skipped, inserted, misread or hesitated. Excluding those words your child is unfamiliar with, you will notice that most of the words where mistakes are made are high frequency words such as ‘the’, ‘of’, ‘at’, etc.

Being picture thinkers, these words often produce a blank picture for the child whenever he/she comes across it. The child may know how to spell and/or pronounce the word, but because there is no picture representing what the word means, it becomes a source of confusion for him/her.

To resolve the confusion, the child needs to ‘create’ for himself/herself the meaning of the words he/she has difficulty using, spelling, reading, writing or understanding.

In the Davis approach, we do this through an exercise called Symbol Mastery (see pic). Using plasticine clay as a medium, the child gets to engage his/her creativity in the course of learning and the outcome is that he/she receives a learning experience that is more impactful and permanent compared to memorisation (which many of our kids do) or writing 10 or 20 times in order to learn each spelling word, etc.

To draw a parallel of what I mean, no matter how often we watch someone riding a bicycle and read about what needs to be done, the understanding of it won’t keep us from falling over the first time we get on the bike. Mastering riding the bike requires that we get on the bike and experiencing it for ourselves personally. We have to create that experience in the real world in order to master it.

Therefore, when dyslexics create the meaning of the word (that causes confusion) in clay, and then add what the word looks like and sounds like, they are doing what is similar to getting on the bike and experiencing the learning for themselves. That is what mastery is and when a word is mastered, it no longer causes confusion for the child and actual learning can then take place.

I find the concept of disorientation unique in the understanding of dyslexia.

All of us disorientate. We disorientate in order to fall asleep. We disorientate when we day dream. Simply put, disorientation is the mind processing our imagination as though it was reality.

Have you ever experienced being in a stationary vehicle, when another vehicle to the front or side of you moved unexpectedly. Suddenly, you felt you were in motion when in fact you remained stationary. Due to the conflict of sensory information that your brain and eyes register, it causes the brain to compromise and distort both perceptions, thereby creating a perceptual illusion.

In the case of dyslexia, this natural process of disorientation is triggered by confusions about the identity or meaning of a symbol. As such, the lower the threshold for confusion, the more prone a dyslexic tends to disorientate.

In my experience, my daughter’s threshold for confusion is so low that any word taught to her only registered once and the next second, she would disorientate and appear not to have recognised the word just learnt.

What then are the signs of disorientations to watch out for? Some of these include omissions or alterations of letters, numbers or words, skipping a line while reading, stopping or hesitating, speeding up or slowing down, frowns or looks confused, concentration intensifies, voice tone becomes monotonous or changes pitch, starting to rock or tap the foot, changes in size of written letters or writing goes off at a slant.

To experience what it’s like being disorientated, try the stroop test exercise. First, say the words (eg blue, red, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, red….) in the box above as fast as you can. Next, say the colour of the words (eg green, purple, yellow, red, yellow, red, blue, green) as fast as you can.

Which is easier? How does it make you feel when you try to say the colour of the words (instead of the words) the second time round? I feel my brain a bit “jammed” as it goes back and forth trying to “sort out” the data my eyes see, what my brain is telling me and what my mouth wants to read.

It is important to appreciate that during this state of disorientation, information given or learning imparted to a dyslexic can be mis-seen, mis-heard or misinterpreted, which explains why the child mis-reads was for saw, mis-hears the pronunciation of a word, or confuses an explanation given, for example.

Following my previous post which talked about a dyslexic’s perceptual talent, it is equally important to understand a dyslexic’s thinking style.

We typically think in 2 ways: word thinking and picture thinking.

Word thinking is simply thinking with the sounds of words in your mind. It is a monologue that goes on in your head.

I often find myself engaging in word thinking for example, when I rehearse a presentation I’m going to give, or sorting out a problem in my head, etc.

Picture thinking, a preference for most dyslexics, is about mental imagery. It is thinking with any of the senses (sound, smell, taste, feeling, visual) in our imagination.

A dyslexic chef I once interviewed described how he can mentally picture the taste of a dish he is creating before actually testing it out in reality.

When you give direction to someone, we most likely see pictures of where the person needs to go and the pictures then give you the words to say to the person.

Dyslexics find it easier to retain information when they see mental images as opposed to words.

Try this experiment. Ask your child to draw a couple of random pictures (simple ones and suggest drawing 6 pictures upwards) and write down similar number of random words not related to the pictures. Then get your child to point to each of the drawing and name it, then point to each of the word and say it.

Next, ask your child to close his/her eyes and see whether it’s easier for him/her to recall the drawings or the words. This exercise should give you a clue as to whether your child is more of a word or picture thinker.

To prove my point further, the picture above is a spelling list shared with me by the parent of a dyslexic boy (who had undergone the Davis Dyslexia Correction Programme). See how he doodled next to the words. By drawing a representation or idea of what the word means, it helped him to attach a visual image to the words.

Unlike before where he used to just memorise his spelling words (and even then, not all the words would stick for him), his retention of words has gone up once he understands and knows how to work with his strength (creating mental pictures) rather than weakness (memorising).

Dyslexia has been widely viewed as a disability. Parents often commented that their children speak well, seem bright but struggle with simple tasks like reading, spelling and/or writing.

Many do not pay enough attention to a dyslexic’s perceptual talent. This include the ability to see, hear, feel and sense what is imagined as though it was real.

Dyslexics can also view and interpret the world in creative and innovative ways. They can also shift their point of perception in order to create mental images, make connections and resolve confusions.

That said, how does this perceptual talent also cause learning problems for dyslexics? Seems paradoxical, isn’t it?

When dyslexics engage their imagination, they not only see reality, but also creative possibility. Have you looked at clouds (reality) but also see other objects (creative possibility) out of those same clouds? The more powerful the imagination, the more creative possibilities one can see.

Applying this understanding, when a dyslexic looks at letters or symbols, he/she could come up with many creative possibilities depending on how powerful the child’s imagination is, and in so doing, the further his/her mind moves away from what the reality is. This in turn results in mistakes during learning tasks.

Can you start to see the connection as to how a dyslexic’s talent can also cause learning problems?

Outcome is often not proportionate to the effort put in by dyslexics when it comes to learning.

This is such a frustrating situation that even young kids feel it and give up easily at the early stage of learning, if nothing is done to help them.

That was my struggle in the initial stage of discovering my daughter’s learning challenges. I had hoped and prayed that she would not give up on herself.

What turned the page for me was the shift in perspective in understanding dyslexia. Many today still understand dyslexia as the reason for causing the challenges dyslexics face.

One man, however, theorised that confusion (with words, symbols, environment, etc) is what caused the dyslexia. The more confused a dyslexic is, the more the dyslexic symptoms (such as mistakes made when reading) will show. Conversely, the dyslexic symptoms will diminish when the confusion is replaced with certainty.

His idea was revolutionary and it answered many of the questions I have when I looked at the many bright but struggling learners I meet, including my daughter.

Are you still seeing your child struggling despite the many ways and resources poured in to help your child catch up with his/her learning? Do you find that it’s an uphill task when it comes to completing his/her daily homework? Are both you and your child exhausted from the effort put in just to make that small progress?

Perhaps you would like to pick up the book, the Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis and consider the Davis approach to tackling your child’s struggles, just like I have.