Jay Lawlor explains Dyslexia in Children and how you can Help
My wife and I are the proud parents of a 9-year-old boy named Nathaniel. We adopted Nathaniel in 2006 from an orphanage in China. He’d been living there since he was an infant. While the staff at the orphanage did all they could for him when he was young, Nathaniel was born with a cleft palate and they simply didn’t have the money to correct the problem fully. My wife and I were fortunate to be able to provide the best medial care for Nathaniel when he became a part of our family. He had a surgery to correct the problem.
We recently discovered that Nathaniel has dyslexia. We weren’t entirely surprised by this, as we knew that children who were born with a cleft palate sometimes have learning differences, but we wanted to do all we could to help Nathaniel succeed. Getting educated about dyslexia was a big part of this process.
People with dyslexia have difficultly reading. This is common knowledge. But people with dyslexia may also have difficulty with oral comprehension. They may have particular trouble following a rapid series of spoken instructions. This does not mean that people with dyslexia aren’t intelligent. In fact, the opposite is true. People with dyslexia typically have average or above average intelligence, and they can be remarkably creative. Albert Einstein and John F. Kennedy are two notable examples of people with dyslexia who went on to live remarkable, intellectually challenging lives.
The key to supporting a child with dyslexia, my wife and I have learned, is to advocate for the appropriate learning environment. Children with dyslexia may simply not function well in a standard classroom, and they may need a bit of added support to truly succeed. They may need to record the classroom lessons, so they can play them back at a later time at their own speed. They may need extra time to complete tests that require reading or writing. They may need organized places at home to study, where distractions are kept to a minimum.
My wife and I are also quick to praise Nathaniel for the gift of his creative mind. We take him to Tae Kwon Do, where he excels, and we praise him for his advancement. We support him, and we celebrate his achievements. It’s just our job, as his parents.
Jay Lawlor is a celebrated economist who has worked as research economist for celebrated economist Jeffrey Sachs. He provided analysis of the UN Millennium Development Goals, determining how funding from the Episcopal Church could help. Jay R. Lawlor lives with his wife and son on the East Coast, and he spends his time on projects about the confluence of economics and religion.
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