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Many students with dyslexia develop an anxiety disorder due to their academic struggles, public shame when forced to read out loud in class, and/or being teased or bullied by classmates.
If your child has many of these warning signs of anxiety, you must take steps to reduce their anxiety.
One way is to tell your child that he or she has dyslexia.
If you explain it correctly, it will be such a relief for your child to discover that their struggles are not because they are stupid or because they are not trying hard enough.
But before you have this conversation, make sure YOU understand dyslexia well. One way to gain that understanding is to watch my free video called Dyslexia: Symptoms & Solutions.
Watch all 4 parts.
Then you could say something like:
Dyslexia means you’re really smart, but your brain processes sounds differently. That makes it difficult for you to hear sounds within words clearly. That’s why it’s hard for you to “sound out” a word when you’re reading.
That’s also why it’s hard for you to spell. Good spellers don’t memorize the letters. They just listen for the sounds. But since you are not hearing sounds very clearly, you have to try to memorize the letters. And memorizing is really hard when you have dyslexia.
So, we’re going to find a tutor who can help your ears become more sensitive to sounds. Once your ears get more sensitive, reading and spelling will become a whole lot easier.
By the way, we’re going to shorten your homework assignments for a while so you’ll have time to meet with a tutor at least twice a week – without having to give up your favorite activities.
But once you’re able to read and spell as well as everyone else, you’ll have to go back to doing the same amount of homework as everyone else.
And dyslexia is not all “bad news.” It also means you are gifted – naturally talented – in one or more of these areas (share those areas here).
In fact, lots of people have dyslexia – about 1 in 5. And many famous people have it. Let’s see how many people you know on this list.
So telling your child they have dyslexia is not giving them an excuse to give up. Instead, you are providing an accurate explanation of why reading, spelling, and writing have been so hard, and why they must get special help (to improve those skills), and that dyslexia is not all bad news. It comes with natural talent in many areas that can lead to success and great careers as an adult.
Thank you, Cheri Rae of DyslexiaLand, for sharing this graphic.
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