An Old Report Card

The memory box of life is not so often visited. Once a while, yes, in search of one thing or the other; mine was my bank details. In 2008, I came to Ghana for a visit and decided it would be a good idea to open a savings account. I started laying down the foundation for a possible repatriation in the future. The plan was simple; send some money every month to be credited to my savings account.

In reality that never flourished and the account laid dormant for a while, un be known to me, that meant the account was permanently closed by the bank. To get my money back, what little I put in there in the first place, after returning in 2012, I had to produce a letter or any such documentation, to prove I am indeed the owner of the said account and funds; not even a driving license would get me through as a form of identification. I got frustrated and the banker explained in not so many words, that to safe guard the funds and stop corrupt activities by his fellow work colleges on the account of past experience, the bank decided to adopt such a policy. Knowing Ghana and the greed of some people I couldn't argue with such explanation, even-though  I was still left in a frustrating situation.

I went back to my mum, who I left as a custodian of my documents; honestly, between her, my sister and myself, we are still looking for where the documents could be. This became my reason for going into my memory box.

Out came my old report card, really bad grades and to top it off, the teacher signed under with a little note which, stated, " A very troublesome boy, likes playing football". Back to the future I have got my master degree an MSc in construction project management, with very good grades.

So why was I, so unfocused in my young youth, truthfully it was partly because the teachers could not keep me attentive long enough and with that I would lose my concentration and look for other ways of entertaining my self. I was hyper and very energetic. This meant, I needed stimulation in ways very different to that of the average student, and with that these teachers from my past failed.

Fortune on my side, I was still able to go ahead and find ways of concentrating and methods of learning, that suited my energetic and stimulus mind. In the working world, I am just as good and best with thinking on my feet, a good social skill and a likable character.

The question remains, are we all the same, in the way we learn and the way we are able to maintain our concentration? if the answer is no, why then is there no tailored teaching techniques developed to suit each groups of students, in other for them to fulfill their full potential.

Please add your view to the subject of discussion. Tell us how you were at school, what kind of student and what has become of you, not in so much detail only if you so choose to. The idea here is to bring awareness and motivation to today's student, from the very young to the young adult and give them the hope and support to fulfill their full potential.

Should you need any confidential support email dey-help@gmail.com and we will get back to you

NB: Still searching for the bank details, seriously I want my money back Mr. Banker

By: Kodjo Deynoo 

Tips for Teaching Pre-School Dyslexic Children

There is a large body of research linking speech and language difficulties in early childhood, to later literacy problems. Because much can be done pre-school to help a child at risk, early identification is really important.

Although some children may have difficulties with some parts of their learning, they are just as bright and able as their peers - in some cases even brighter! They are often creative and imaginative. At the same time they also have difficulties. If a child shows a cluster of difficulties, you will need to take action.
Here are some hints on identification. The list is worth keeping handy - the chances are there's at least one dyslexic child in each nursery class.
Watch out for the child who does not outgrow the following possible indicators:-

• has difficulty learning nursery rhyme
• finds difficulty paying attention, sitting still, listening to stories
• likes listening to stories but shows no interest in letters or words
• as difficulty learning to sing or recite the alphabet
• has a history of slow speech development
• gets words muddled e.g. cubumber, flutterby
• has difficulty keeping simple rhythm
• finds it hard to carry out two or more instructions at one time, (e.g. put the toys in the box then put it on the shelf) but is fine if tasks are presented in smaller unitsforgets names of friends, teacher, colours etc.
• poor auditory discrimination
• finds difficulty cutting, sticking and crayoning in comparison with their peer group
• has persistent difficulty in dressing, e.g. finds shoelaces and buttons difficult
• puts clothes on the wrong way round
• has difficulty with catching, kicking or throwing a ball
• often trips, bumps into things, and falls over
• has difficulty hopping or skipping
• has obvious 'good' and 'bad' days for no apparent reason

A child who has a cluster of these difficulties together with some abilities may be dyslexic, but remember that the levels of development and speed of learning at the pre-school stage differ significantly for each child.
If you find such at risk children, consult with the special needs advisor. There are programmes and games to help with development in speech and language, motor skills, auditory and visual perception and memory.
Source www.beingdyslexic.co.uk  and Copyright: Unkown - Let us know by emailing today - dey.help@gmail.com

Famous Dyslexic People.

Tom Cruise

 

Woopi

Bill Gate

Is Dyslexia The Hair Dresser's Story

Last night I met a very interesting lady, who came to braid my sisters' hair. Initially, she was reluctant to come out of her shell and said very few words when I tried to interact with her. I thought she was either rude or the kind that had so little to say. I left the company of the hair dresser and my sister so they could carry on with the business of the day.

In my room I heard the hair dresser chatting, laughing and giggling as she carried on with my sister, so then I interrupted again,  I made a joke, said I loved her laughter and she smiled. After a few such banters, which become a game of trying to get her to smile as a bet, she her jovially refused. Mind you, each time she lost and couldn't stop herself from smiling.

The conversation moved on to the reason why she left school early to become a hair dresser and an explanation of why she was so withdrawn, when I started interacting with her. This beautiful lady said something I found very poignant, her fear of her grasp of the English language meant she felt very uncomfortable in environments and situations where she would have to express an opinion so no restaurants for her she said.

She then added, 'I left school early because I just couldn't get what I was being taught; it all just went over my head and felt very frustrating when others around could just pick things we were being taught with ease. After a while I told my Dad I was going to quit schooling and learn a trade, at least that would secure my future'. For what she did with my sisters hair, I would gladly say she has indeed secured her future with a trade and skill she is very good with.

However, I couldn't but hear the faint silent whisper, of loud regret she felt for not furthering her education to a level that would have made her comfortable and confident in expressing her views in a social sense and even building a progressive business and expanding.

Was her issue with the difficulty she felt learning at school a result of dyslexia?
Does she even know what that word is?
Has she ever heard of such a word and what could it have meant for her;
In her days at school while she was struggling to comprehend what she was being thought.

In a culture where the very bright are praised, "credit given where credit is due" and every one else is stigmatized with the notion of failure and unwillingness to self help, without any notion and understanding of dyslexia by the teachers and parents, who form the supporting structure. How does one, swim against such high tied and make it to the other end.

Dey-help is a new charity organisation, which aims to help bring awareness and educate students, parents, teachers and others in such situations; organisations with stakeholder interest in the development of the most valuable resource a country can have. In case you are wondering what that resources is, it is education.

Attached below is a link to a questionnaire, which is to help establish the real issue on the ground and develop tools to facilitate the change needed. I would be grateful if you the reader could fill the questionnaire and also forward it to as many friends, colleges and family members as possible, we need the communities support to make this a success.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGMxUXpvSE1mSU1HWlFfNy1md0xNZmc6MQ

The Common Signs of Dyslexia in Adults

A list of check points to indicate if an adult is dyslexic.

Teenagers / Students

The difficulties noted below are often associated with dyslexia if they are unexpected for the individual's age, educational level, or cognitive abilities. A qualified diagnostician can test a person to determine if he or she is truly dyslexic.

• May read very slowly with many inaccuracies.
• Continues to spell incorrectly, frequently spells the same word differently in a single piece of writing.
• May avoid reading and writing tasks.
• May have trouble summarizing and outlining.
• May have trouble answering open-ended questions on tests.
• May have difficulty learning a foreign language.
• May have poor memory skills.
• May work slowly.
• May pay too little attention to details or focus too much on them.
• May misread information.
• May have an inadequate vocabulary.
• May have an inadequate store of knowledge from previous reading.
• May have difficulty with planning, organizing and managing time, materials and tasks.

Adults

• May hide reading problems.
• May spell poorly; relies on others to correct spelling.
• Avoids writing; may not be able to write.
• Often very competent in oral language.
• Relies on memory; may have an excellent memory.
• Often has good "people" skills.
• Often is spatially talented; professions include, but are not limited, to engineers, architects, designers, artists and craftspeople, mathematicians, physicists, physicians (esp. surgeons and orthopedists), and dentists.
• May be very good at "reading" people (intuitive).
• In jobs is often working well below their intellectual capacity.
• May have difficulty with planning, organization and management of time, materials and tasks.
• Often entrepreneurs.

The Common Signs of Dyslexia in Children

A list of check points the could indicate your child is Dyslexic.

If a child has several of these indications, further investigation should be made. The child may be dyslexic, or there may be other reasons. This is not a checklist.

1. Persisting factors.

There are many persisting factors in dyslexia, which can appear from an early age. They will still be noticeable when the dyslexic child leaves school.
These include:

• Obvious 'good' and 'bad' days, for no apparent reason,
• Confusion between directional words, e.g. up/down, in/out,
• Difficulty with sequence, e.g. coloured bead sequence, later with days of the week or numbers,

A family history of dyslexia/reading difficulties.

2. Pre-school.

• Has persistent jumbled phrases, e.g. 'cobbler's club' for 'toddler's club'
• Use of substitute words e.g. 'lampshade' for 'lamppost'.
• Inability to remember the label for known objects, e.g. 'table, chair'.
• Difficulty learning nursery rhymes and rhyming words, e.g. 'cat, mat, sat'.
• Later than expected speech development.

Pre-School Non-language indicators.

• May have walked early but did not crawl - was a 'bottom shuffler' or 'tummy wriggler'.
• Persistent difficulties in getting dressed efficiently and putting shoes on the correct feet.
• Enjoys being read to but shows no interest in letters or words.
• Is often accused of not listening or paying attention.
• Excessive tripping, bumping into things and falling over.
• Difficulty with catching, kicking or throwing a ball; with hopping and/or skipping.
• Difficulty with clapping a simple rhythm.

3. Primary school age.

• Has particular difficulty with reading and spelling.
• Puts letters and figures the wrong way round.
• Has difficulty remembering tables, alphabet, formulae etc.
• Leaves letters out of words or puts them in the wrong order.
• Still occasionally confuses 'b' and 'd' and words such as 'no/on'.
• Still needs to use fingers or marks on paper to make simple calculations.
• Poor concentration.
• Has problems understanding what he/she has read.
• Takes longer than average to do written work.
• Problems processing language at speed.

Primary school age non-language indicators:

• Has difficulty with tying shoe laces, tie, dressing.
• Has difficulty telling left from right, order of days of the week, months of the year etc.
• Surprises you because in other ways he/she is bright and alert.
• Has a poor sense of direction and still confuses left and right.
• Lacks confidence and has a poor self image.

4. 12 or over.

As for primary schools, plus:

• Still reads inaccurately.
• Still has difficulties in spelling.
• Needs to have instructions and telephone numbers repeated.
• Gets 'tied up' using long words, e.g. 'preliminary', 'philosophical'.
• Confuses places, times, dates.
• Has difficulty with planning and writing essays.
• Has difficulty processing complex language or long series of instructions at speed.

12 or over non-language indicators:

• Has poor confidence and self-esteem.
• Has areas of strength as well as weakness.

Copyright & Source: http://www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk/

Dyslexia

Dyslexia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    

Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read,^[1] and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid naming. Dyslexia is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction^] It is believed that dyslexia can affect between 5 and 10 percent of a given population although there have been no studies to indicate an accurate percentage.
There are three proposed cognitive subtypes of dyslexia: auditory, visual and attentional.

Reading disabilities, or dyslexia, is the most common learning disability, although in research literature it is considered to be a receptive language-based learning disability. Researchers at MIT found that people with dyslexia exhibited impaired voice-recognition abilities.

Accomplished adult dyslexics may be able to read with good comprehension, but they tend to read more slowly than non-dyslexics and may perform more poorly at nonsense word reading (a measure of phonological awareness) and spelling. Dyslexia is not an intellectual disability, since dyslexia and IQ are not interrelated, as a result of cognition developing independently.