MAXLEXIA minute, early academic trauma

School can be a very difficult place to go if you are dyslexic!

Some of these early academic traumas can literally crush a child and have lifelong negative repercussions on both their personal and professional lives!

These experiences can include

• words said aloud or implied about a student’s intellect
• insistence to read aloud in front of the class
• ridicule at their inability or unwillingness to do so
• a struggling dyslexic student hearing that they’re not working hard enough
• interpreting behavioural issues as a sign that the student doesn’t care
• timed tasks
• and many more…

Kids with dyslexia are very intuitive and emotionally connected and will pick up on these subtle and not so subtle cues.

• many of the dyslexics I’ve worked with have been called “stupid” and worse in their school settings.
• one of the most difficult things for them to do is read aloud in front of their peers
• insisting that they do, will only lead to failure and ridicule
• when they refuse to do so, it is not a sign of disrespect but merely one of self-preservation
• dyslexic students typically work 5x harder than most of their classmates
• setting strict time constraints on a task increases anxiety and reduces performance

In my experience working with peeps with dyslexia in math, the most important thing I discovered was for me to suspend everything I believed I knew how to do best. Instead, my greatest lesson, was to listen and learn from them. This inspired me to be more creative and expansive in the way I explained things and in what tools I used to assess their understanding of mathematical concepts. I realized that more important than the curriculum… was instead, to preserve every student’s self-esteem and self-confidence!! This is the biggest factor to guarantee academic and personal success in life!

Giving dyslexic students the opportunity to share how they see unique ways of solving problems, will help increase their self-confidence. This leadership role will also serve to shift the perspective of how their classmates perceive dyslexia. Any initiative that helps dyslexic students thrive in the classroom has the added benefit of being good for ALL students regardless of their learning profile!

Once I did this, my mind was blown and I saw such unexpected brilliance in these students who were failing math in school. Focusing on student’s self-confidence and self-esteem is THE single most determining factor I discovered, that changed the course and outcome of their lives!

The process by which we collaboratively worked through each and every one of their dyslexic life journeys, is what lead me to create MAXLEXIA so that everyone can see and celebrate dyslexic brilliance!