多 抄 寫 繪 畫 能 治 閱 讀 障 礙

Vernique2005

Dear sschiu:

From your description, I tend to think that you son actually does not not have problems in visualization.  If he can identify different brands of cars, it means that he actually knows how differentiate different shapes and signs (even very minor ones).  That's probably why he hates puzzles.  He feels very good with trains, and knows that he cannot do well with puzzles.  Some young children tend to excel in the area that they are good at and completely neglect other areas.  As a result, one sense becomes very very outstanding, and others are lacking.  You really need to inspire him to try other things. My young cousin was like that before.  He kept on playing guns for 2 years without trying anything else.  But we taught him that it's ok to make mistake and it's also ok to fail sometimes.... We urged him to try new things and get rid of his gun toys.  At first, he repelled all others, but he later on learned that different toys would give me different experiences. Now at age 7, he even loves "Gundam" and can assemble very big ones.

Does your son have dyslexia (閱 讀 障 礙)?  (I am not trying to offend you, just trying to know more about your boy. That's all.)  It seems like your description of him is very similar to that of a dyslexic child.  He is talented visuallly, memorize very well, but cannot write.  What you have told me so far: cars/stations, etcs are all 3D objects.  He does not know how to write on a 2D piece of paper, and he does not know how to assembe pieces together to form complicated shapes.  You mentioned that you boy cannot write well.  When he makes a mistake in writing a character, does he come up with mirrow images/mixed parts?  還是他什麼都沒有寫 (像默書時把格仔留空)﹖

ALAL

It's a good pre-training for learnig piano with the toy typewriting. See if I can find it. Meanwhile, may be I ask him to type an email to others.

I am not sure the cost for the piano lesson.

pl check pm.

sschiu

Vernique2005,

Don't worry, I won't feel offended, we are having constructive discussions for the good of our kids, right?

I am not sure if he has dyslexia, we have never tried to check this up.....(ALAL, did you say you took your son to check up his abilities? Please kindly advise where I can get such services?)

For writing, let me explain in more detail, if you don't mind. Up to now, his school has taught him to write a lot of chinese words already, the most recent ones include 夏天, 太陽. he can COPY them stroke by stroke, he can even memorize how the teacher taught him (like reciting a poem!).

If you talk about dictation, he can remember how to write simple words only, like 田, 小....and often he makes mistakes on tiny details. However, for difficult characters like 夏, he just forgot completely how to read it after learning to write on the same day!!! This is what I worry most!

For English, he has no problem to write all 26 big and small alphabets, and can spell some words like his own name, cat, dog, etc.

If he is "talented visually", like what you think, why is he particularly weak in chinese characters, and in playing puzzles?  

Does it mean he only has 3D perceptions while cannot interpret 2Ds?

May be I can provide more information: he can play the piano. He has been attending Tom Lee's class for over 6 months and he manages to play simple tunes with two hands together.

Thanks again for your reading!

Vernique2005

Dear ALAL and sschiu:

Hi! Before I move onto the discussion, maybe it'd be worthwhile for me to give you both a bit biographical info about myself.  I am currently living in Canada, but travelled to the US last week (that's where I bought all those math instruction books and toys for special education).  Currently, I do not have a formal job.  In the coming sept, I will go back to HKU and enroll in the research master program (MPhil) for English Literature. I am not a mom, but I have dyslexia myself (and have overcome it).  I first come to this website when researching on dyslexia.  That's why I stayed here and began a nice meeting with you two!  

ALAL: I have got your e-mail address regarding the math textbook.  I just came back to my home in Vancouver. I am planning to read over the whole book (300pages) before e-mailing pages to others because I want to make sure that the exercises would be helpful to dyslexic kids.  I will get this done within a week for sure.  
Please let me know how your son's doing regarding the typing game.  If he is comfortable typing, we can think of something new to inspire him continually!

sschiu:
I would strongly suggest you to bring your boy to an assessment for dyslexia.  If he's ok, then we will all be happy for you.  If he needs extra help, it's better to begin as soon as possible.  Do you notice that the words which you gave me: 田, 小 are both symmetrical?  (dyslexics tend to rotate a word in their minds and confuse themselves with those images) It means that no matter how he flips the words in his mind, these words would still be in the correct form.  If you give him something like 畫, I bet he can learn it even better than 陽.

The relationship between visualizing 3D and 2D objects is a very abstract idea.  In fact, I have been thinking about that for a long time (still without obtaining a concrete answer).  What I come up with right now is that MAYBE 2D objects are symbolic while 3D ones are very physical.  2D pictures/words are like signs/signals to normal people.  But to dyslexics, these symbols just don't click to them when they were very young, so they come up with other representations of the sign systems.  My thinking is very preliminary, and I still haven't proved it yet.  But that tends to explain why people with dyslexia aren't generall good at math (they are usually great artists.....)

I actually learn much better in English than in Chinese. I know a girl who is dyslexic, and her English is also better.  sschiu's boy seems to be like this, too.  ALAL:  how's your boy's English?  Does he learn English more easily than he learns Chinese?

sschiu

Vernique2005,

Thanks for sharing your personal background!! Your coming mission sounds challenging, wish you have a fruitful career and contribute to our next generation!

Yes, you are right about symmetry of the characters. I'll observe more and see if that is true with my son.

Do you mind sharing how you overcame your dyslexia?

Did you face a lot of difficult moments when you were young? Did you lose your confidence in learning?

Yes, my boy's English is very good, I mean his oral English, donno if that is relevant.

Another thing you may be interested to know. He is not fluent in Cantonese to express himself, and he has lower confidence (as observed by teachers and my friends) in class and daily life. We suspect that is because he has been learning 2 languages since young at the same time! Do you think that is relevant?

If yes, I will teach my younger daughter Cantonese only. I don't want to repeat the mistake.   :cry:

Vernique2005

Hi sschiu:

I did have lots and lots of troubles when I was young. To sum up, I think I had problems both physically and psychologically (what a poor child).

From my parents/friends, I know that I was very precocious. I learned to speak at 6 month (not just mom/dad, but also things like food, water, grandfather, no, etc) My mom said that I could memorize the whole family tree when I was 1.5 yrs old (I had ten uncles on my mother's side....)

It seems to be quite exceptional, but my suffering was more than what I gain, I think.  I was addicted to spinning myself on the same spot of the floor so that when I stopped, my surrounding would still be spinning.  I didn't know why I liked it, but I made me feel comfortable. (Unfortunately, my parents yelled at me for making myself dizzy) I would look at the corner of a wall for a long long time, imagining that the corner has 1/8 of an invisible sphere (and also imagining the other 7/8 of it that is outside of the corner).  There are many other activities I did that are not too normal to others. I think the worst aspect of all is that I began to have sleep problems beginning at 3.  At 5, I once couldn't sleep for 3 days. I saw images floating from curtains, so I was very scared. I told my mom, she just thought that I had been playing to wildly during the day.........

I think it was until my brain couldn't stand it that I began to "cure" my own symptoms.  Mainly I forced myself to control those floating images (which also affected my writing abilities).  It took a long time, and as a matter of fact, I still have them when I am sick/tired.  Throughout my school life, I had been complained over and over that my writing is messy... I don't think it really hurt my confidence though. When I was young, I had a rather strong personality. I even reasoned to others that "doctors write very horribly as well.. they are still respected, right?" I could do that partly because I moved to Canada later on,where the teachers are not very strict in students' writing "style".

My coordination skill wasn't that great either. I was kicked out of a ballet group for being disobedient! (Yeah.. how could I be "obedient" when I couldn't make the bodily movements???)

It's indeed about 2 years ago when I took education courses at university that I realized I have had dyslexia throughout my life! Since then, I researched intensively on the subject (just to know myself more).  I was always thinking that there's a ghost everywhere..  and I was always scared.  So the more I know, the less I am afraid of it.  I did use some original methods to cure it, though.  If I had to put it in a category of dyslexic therapy, I think I did it through orientation/
coordination therapy.  I also had good music trainning from a great master who trained me how to use force and relax my body, which helped quite a bit (maybe it's my own kinesthetic therapy then).

I dont' blame my parents for not observing my learning difficulties.  They indeed spent much more time and money hiring me tutors and piano teachers than all other parents that I know..... The result are satisfying though.  With the right combinations of teachers, I constantly got good grades at school and had good results for piano exams.

Also, I don't find it bad to go to too many classes after school.  After all, it's only when my brain feels "very tired" that I can have a good sleep.

Sorry about my long story.. now back to your son.  I don't think learning two languages at a young age is the reason why his Chinese is bad.  English is in fact an easier language to learn. There are 26 alphabets after all.  If his English oral is ok, why not learn in English?  I attended a private school in HK that teaches students everything in English (other than Chinese lesson). I felt more comfortable there.  Do you think your son would be like that?  One good thing is that due to society's perception that "knowing English well is everything," getting into an English school may give your son a better image (which may raise his confidence as well.)  Even if he does not want to switch school, attending activity classes in English may also help!

Dickyma

希望能將此報告給全港老師看.
    

Vernique2005

然後拿我去開腦研究﹖ 哈哈哈﹗ 其實很多人都有這個現象﹐ 只是多數人都因年紀太小而沒辦法表達出來。 我想香港應該每班都有1至2個這樣的孩子罷﹗

如果想多看有關閱 讀 障 礙的成功例子﹐ 可以試試香港閱 讀 障 礙association recommends 的書。 應該有很多﹐ 問題是老師們有沒有興趣去看。。。。

sschiu

Vernique2005,

Thanks so much for your recommendation!

Your parents must be scared about your behaviour when you were young! You were lucky to have got good teachers. I think you managed to get into good schools too. At what age did you think you were alright? It seems you are very good at both English and Chinese!

Thanks for sharing!

Vernique2005

Hi sschiu:

Yes, you're right! My mom was quite scared about my behavior, and she always thought that I was being rebellious!  (I almost thought that you didn't reply because you were scared of my past, too! However, my father is very creative and understanding, so my childhood had a very nice balance.  (While my mom rectified me into the "right/normal" path, my father played with me all the times so that I could gain emotional support from him.)

I think I began to "cure" my own symptoms when my headached became unbearable.  I was about 5 years old then, not yet in grade 1.  When I did the assessment test in HK for primary 1, I actually got the lowest math score for the whole grade! hahhahah! Every teacher at my school was shocked because they thought me to be quite smart! It's after that test that my mom sat beside me all the time when I did my homework.  Actually, as long as there's somebody beside me,  I'd naturally do better whether that person was actually helping me out or not.  I think it's my personal flaw; I was rather dependent and I cried quite easily.  

I began to have great improvements starting from grade 2, but then words like "horse and house" still confused me. By grade 4, I was the one who got the highest English score for the government's assessment test in my grade.  I would say that I was "alright" since then, but still needed support from parents.

I think the ultimate reason why I managed to continue on my study is that my father never yelled at me for doing that grade 1 assessment test badly.  He just laughed and laughed because he found it funny to be ranked as the last ! (As a very loving father, he sincerely believed that his own daughter should be the best, after all)  So instead of blaming me for that, my parents just taught me the whole math book again on their own.  We used the "happy learning" approach that most North American teachers use right now, and it worked very well on me.

When I reached Form 1, my mom just told me that she couldn't teach me anymore because she didn't attend secondary school herself.  She told me to be a good girl and asked me to learn on my own.  So I guess I was completely "normalized" by form 1.  

gongonma

Vernique2005

不用開腦研究那嚴重，讀障多的是！我家孩子 3sd below...
8個月經已會叫人，說話好到不得了！
4歲已問why星星有不同color?
科學化的explain比佢聽 - 有關大氣、星球遠近、星球溫差等"似"很明白。6、7歲時再問佢一樣答到。
但文字對他來說是要命的！
多運動，especial on the floor, can help a lot!!!
有障礙的孩子很多地方還未整合、耐心的幫忙。
只要 耐性 + 擁抱 + 愛心 + 100耐性 就一定有出路！

Vernique2005

gongonma﹕

除了認字有點問題以外﹐您的小朋友真的很聰明啊﹗我絕對agree that "只要 耐性 + 擁抱 + 愛心 + 100耐性 就一定有出路!"---這快變成我們的口號了﹗  

讀障這條路我已經走過了﹐ 我相信你的小朋友也很快可以﹗你有什麼心得就多點一起分享啦﹗我相信除了
耐性 + 擁抱 + 愛心 + 100耐性﹐ 對讀障的了解和認識都是成功的關鍵﹗

你在另一個post 所說的2-digit 加法就是我用的方法 (其實很多有dyslexia 的小孩都是這樣計數)﹐從這可見您真的很用心去了解孩子﹐我對您好有信心呀﹗