The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia

I was very excited when I heard about “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia” a James Redford film about people with dyslexia. In the film, they state that 10 million children have dyslexia. As a reading teacher, that feels true--I run into dyslexic students fairly often, and end up thinking about dyslexia more than almost anything. It’s usually pretty obvious when you have a student in your class with dyslexia. Their handwriting and spelling usually give them away. They will go to great lengths to avoid putting themselves on display in any way, and often disappear when it comes time to take a test. They’re also usually among the most creative and interesting students you will ever get. Sometimes I get little glimpses into their world when they’re willing to take a chance and open up about what it is like for them, but most are too embarrassed to talk about it.

I think this would be a great movie to show students. Even today, a remarkable number of kids who have dyslexia are never formally diagnosed, and spend a good portion of their lives wondering, “What’s wrong with me?” The kids who already know they have dyslexia can say, “Oh yeah, I do that too!” And the kids who aren’t affected can see what it’s like for some of their classmates. And a lot of teachers don’t have any training in working with students with learning disabilities (like dyslexia) so they don’t have a clue why they’re seeing what they’re seeing in class.

Some of the things people in the movie mentioned that made their school experiences so difficult included:

Knowing from the very beginning of school (as early as kindergarten or first grade!) that something is VERY wrong with you, and not knowing what or why (until getting formally diagnosed, which often doesn’t happen until 3rd grade). In the meantime, you get to sit there watching your classmates sailing right past you, and wondering “why do they get it, but not me?” Almost as bad is having all your teachers assume the reason you’re not “getting it” is because you aren’t even trying. Ouch!

A lot of people had trouble with reading and spelling. A lot of teachers/instructors penalize students for spelling things wrong, and one guy said he had it so bad, “I even misspelled my own name.” But it wasn’t just reading--some students said they had just as much trouble with math because they kept reading the math problems wrong.

In general, people mentioned having severe performance anxiety in while in school. This manifested as being constantly “tired” or “sick” because of the crippling fear of being asked to do something they knew they couldn’t do. There was a lot of shame involved in people’s memories of school. One person mentioned being unable to remember their locker combination (and having to carry everything around all day because it was too embarrassing to admit that they had forgotten it again).

But the film if anything, exudes hope. Dyslexia is a paradox, but it’s not a death sentence. School is just a small piece of life. For many of the adults, in spite of all predictions to the contrary, college was easier for them. Some people mentioned the “strengths of dyslexia”: how it actually helped strengthen or diversify their problem solving abilities (they realized they were non-sequential thinking (non-linear) global thinkers, which is useful when you’re in a situation where you need to think outside the box). Others discovered they had talents in other areas, like the girl who said, “I dance my feelings out.” The main message from the people interviewed was, “Don’t laugh at my dreams.”

For teachers, who are wondering about how to help students with dyslexia, some of the things the people in the film say THEY find helpful (in coping with academic work) are:

-being sure to read material more than once -reading material that was accompanied by lots of pictures helped (you need to be able to “see” the material to really understand it. So the more visual something is, the better) -making tons of flashcards -underlining or highlighting text (distilling text down to its most important ideas) -listening to books on tape -writing EVERYTHING down (executive functioning) -spelling out loud, or using kinetic spelling techniques Official website: http://www.thebigpicturemovie.com