Charlie is Interviewed by Mom

Tell me about dyslexia. What is dyslexia, in your understanding?

It’s a small problem that we have with reading and writing and spelling and stuff. But it’s also, once you can get over that—I’ve worked really hard, and I’m actually reading Harry Potter now. . . . once you can get over the reading and writing disability part, it’s just this . . . you just basically just say to your friends, “Hey guys, I’ve got a disability that makes me really awesome!”

I just notice so many things I can do that my friends can’t. Like I can control my dreams better. I can think of stories way better. I can write my stuff and I can actually read books, sort of.

That’s interesting that you said that. Because your sister also said the word “disability” and the word “awesome” when I asked her. So have ya’ll talked about that? Those concepts?

Yeah, sort of.

. . . .

Another problem I have is it’s hard for me to sort out my thoughts. But I thought of this great way. It’s like, you know, one of those old cassette recorders where the thing spins around and you pick what you want? [He means a jukebox.] That’s what I have in my head. I have like, little pictures like, I would think of a squirrel. And I would have a squirrel on the front of that picture. And I can remember all the squirrels. Like the things I’ve seen squirrels do and stuff.

. . . .  

And I have tons of them. I have like, pictures I want, and I fish them out of my head. . . . and if I focus hard enough, I can stare at a blank sheet of paper and sketch something on it sort of [with his imagination]. And then just trace it [with a pencil]. But that’s just one of the many amazing things that this disability will let you do.

OK, so do you think that there’s things you can do because you are dyslexic that you couldn’t do if you had a different learning style?

Yeah, probably. I wouldn’t be able to sort out my thoughts so well. Like my mom [wry smile], it’s hard for her to think ahead, or to sort out two problems [at the same time].1

. . . .

You can remember stuff. Like, you can go to the mall, you can find the Lego store. And next time you go to the mall, you can go straight to it. Because your brain is extremely amazing.2 And you can just go, you can remember exactly where something is, because you put it in a folder. It’s easier if you sort it out in folders, because you can open them and give them labels and stuff.

OK, so tell me, where did you get this image of using “folders”?

Umm, I was stressed out. I fell asleep, and I woke up and sketched it. And then I had it.

OK, so what are the folders like?

It’s like a big tube, with tons of floating folders around it, and I flip through them. I imagine my hands flipping through them. And when I find what I want to look at, I open it. And I just lie back, and my imagination will roll pictures and stuff and put it together for me. And I fall asleep.

OK. So, you do this a lot when you’re about to go to sleep?

Uh huh. But if I want to, like if I see a picture of, like some tissue boxes and stuff? Like, I saw one [at the grocery store] that was like, “germy.” It had germs on it. So I sketched that in my head and put it in a folder, and when I got home I was able to sketch the germs again.

OK, so you don’t have to be about to go to sleep.

No, it’s just, I use it to remember stuff. So, and then I can, also when I’m about to go to sleep, I open those folders. I put stuff in them and close them in the day, and at night I open them and go through them.

And I also imagine like, if I don’t want to think about something, I imagine putting whatever I don’t want to think about in chains and putting it away, putting it in jail. And I also remember putting it in a notebook, and tearing that page out and throwing it away. And I have a clean new page to open another folder on and look at it.

Yes, that seems quite unique to me. Because I don’t think that I visualize things at all. . . . OK, so you would say that’s a benefit of dyslexia?

Mm hmm.

What would you say are some of the challenges?

Um . . . reading and writing. . . . If you think, “Well, I have a disability,” well, you’re going to think that all the time. That’s what it is. It’s going to be that to you. . . .

Like when I was in first grade, we had these little readers. And I remember thinking, like, “My friend is on the hundred and twentieth one,3 and I’m on the third one.” And it was just, so funny4 to think about that now. Since I can read really well, and write pretty well. . . .

. . . .

It’s actually fun once you get over it, because if you can master the writing part, and the reading part, you can read liturgy, and you can stick it in a folder. Then you can take those images and stuff and put them down in amazing stories.

What do you mean, “read liturgy”?

Like, read books?

OK. You mean like, “read literature”?

Yeah, read literature.

OK. Got it.

So when you read books, you’re automatically in a story, away somewhere. So if you can find that folder, away from the book, you can play that liturgy back in your head. And it’s just fun to do that.5

. . . .

OK, now your sister said that she has not ever felt embarrassment from being dyslexic. And I know that you might have had a harder time because we didn’t know you were dyslexic at first. So you might have suffered a little more?

Yeah, it was, I couldn’t get, I would get literally 10 out of 20 on my [spelling] test and all my friends were getting 20 out of 20. . . I nearly failed most of them. Yeah, it was kind of hard. . . . You need a lot of encouragement. . . . And I think I’ve only gotten 20 out of 20 like five times in my whole life.

Right. And you were working very hard.

I was working very hard. Probably harder than anybody else.

. . . .

But, what I really like doing is telling my friends, “I have dyslexia.” And they are just shocked. And they say, “What’s that?” And I tell them, “It’s the awesome disability" and keep them guessing.

Do you think that maybe you like being different?

Yeah, I’ve always liked being different. Like when I get black eyes [which he's done] or when I break my arm [which he’s done three times], it’s really fun to be different.

Right. To sort of stand out?

Mmm hmm.

So what’s your favorite word?

Probably supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Because I’ve never spelled it.

[laughing] So you haven’t conquered that word yet?

No, I’ve never conquered it.

What’s been your favorite book, so far?

Umm… probably, um… I like the Wicket series, because they’re easy to read, it’s a ton of action and stories and character. And in each of the books so far, there’s been one-half paragraph and then something happens. They’re just interesting and they’re easy to read, but they’re good stories.

. . . .

Ummm.. when I’m writing down stuff, and I know that I’m missing just about every single word that I write, I hate it when someone comes along and says, “That’s wrong. That’s wrong. That’s wrong. You need a period there, you need…” I’m like, “I know I need that stuff. I just don’t, I don’t, I can’t do it right now." I just have to get it down.

So if there was one thing about dyslexia that you said you hated, it would be…

That people, they will always be correcting you on your spelling and stuff. Basically, what I do is I say, “OK, well you edit it, then.” And then they walk off.

[This makes me laugh.]

They don’t want to edit it, so. Because it’s so bad. . .

So how are you solving that problem?

Well, I keep on writing. And I’ve got an editor mom.

So that works out for you!

She enters it into the computer, and she edits it for me.

Mm hmm! Last question before we go eat lunch: What do you see yourself doing once you’re an adult? Like as far as, how would you fill your days?

Writing books. Completely. I just, I can take stories and I can think of them in my head. So well. But I can’t get them down on paper. Yet.

1. My linear thinking makes me quite a good living, thank you very much.

2. It's called spatial learning, show off.

3. A bit of an exaggeration, but it sure seemed that way when he couldn't get past the second reader and his friends were on 8 and 9.

4. I noted that his facial expression didn’t communicate "funny," however.

5. It's fun for us to watch you mix up similar words!

Claire Ellen is Interviewed by Mom

Tell me about dyslexia. What is dyslexia, in your understanding?

“It’s an awesome disability!”

First, tell me about the “awesome” part.

Well, it’s awesome because you can imaginate things much more than you can do other things. So about the awesome part of it, you are very good at creative stuff. Me and my brother are really good at Legos, and I suggest when you’re schooling you move your hands with something because it will help you remember and help you do better.

If you just work hard enough on your reading, it will go pretty well. I still love reading even though I’m dyslexic. It’s very fun.

But even just a little bit of dyslexia can make you very creative.

OK. Tell me now about the “disability” part.

Well, it’s not really a disability, once you know how to read real well. Me and my brother are almost on that stage. But when we see new words, we still have to sound them out and take longer. But the only really weird thing about dyslexia is, you know sight words like “and”?

Yeah.

Well, our dyslexia doesn’t just make it hard to read; sight words like “and” or “is” or “are” are hard for us to remember.* But big words like “answered” is easy, for me, to remember. Most people, when they learn sight words, they start with the small ones and easy get those down, but when they get to the big words, it takes them a long time.

But dyslexia has only one other problem. When you guess too much and you really don’t read very well. Even if you do read a few correct words, [it’s] your guess [that really] makes those words sound right.

All kinds of books, like Frindle, to be exact, are good books but they’re really very hard for dyslexics. They have new words that they make up, like “frindle.” So when the books introduce the new word, you try to learn that as sight words, and when you take the time to learn that as sight words, you find that when you start reading again that you wasted time making that a sight word, for it was only in one book.

[note: I read Frindle aloud to them, and she learned the word from seeing the cover as I read.]

You seem to really be happy about the creativity part of dyslexia. Tell me more about that.

Well, the creativity part is a part where you can make your brain do things that most people cannot. You can design things in your head without having to write them out on paper. So like things like well, things like folders and inventions that you make are one-of-a-kind things.

And moms, you know that if your kids are super creative and make things like art that you don’t think you would ever see, it’s probably a good sign that they have dyslexia—and if they struggle with sight words.

Now back to the folders: Well the folders usually are different colors in your head. You make a story, put it in one of the folders, and while it is still lingering in your head, you take a folder out and you can remember all the story. It works really well for me and my brother, especially if we want to have dreams. So what we do is we take or we make a new folder and we spin it around and just keep remembering it, have it open until we fall asleep. Then your brain should play that folder and you should have that dream. I’ve had that happen to me before.

[note: I’m not sure if this image came from the folders we use for homeschooling or from the interface on our Macbooks, but they both talk about putting certain ideas in “folders.”]

But my brother always says, when you are dreaming, all you need to do to make your characters stop doing weird thing is to pretend like you have two hands in your head. And you imagine them [the character] jumping and they’re jumping around in circles and twisting, not really jumping. [So the character is twisting, but you want him to be jumping.] You need to take your two hands and solemnly place them on the character and make the movements with your hands and while you’re holding him, make him jumping. [motions with hands]

So when your hands go out of the picture, you see him jumping, because you’ve fixed your mind on him not just wiggling and jiggling around.

So, dyslexics have another thing: they can make very cool inventions without even knowing what they’re doing. They can take sticks and paper, and other things that other kids would not even think to have fun with and they can make games and fun and other things that anybody can imagine.

[note: Many learning styles can do the same thing, I suppose, but I can’t fault her for her confidence here.]

I have to admit that dyslexia really isn’t a disability. Unless if you’re talking about the disability of being too awesome.

Now, I know that sometimes your dyslexia has caused you some frustration and aggravation. Tell me about one of those times.

Well, the only time when I get frustrated with dyslexia is when its hard for me to read the really good books that my brother can already read. But to introduce my name, which you probably have been wondering this whole time. My name is Claire Ellen. And my brother is Charlie.

Have you ever felt embarrassment because of your dyslexia?

Nope, nope, and nopity nope.

[I consider this last answer a good sign that we’ve done well and had marvelous teachers not only to teach them but to train us as parent-teachers as well.]

*Note: Why this was the case stumped me for a long time, until I read Ronald Davis's The Gift of Dyslexia and better understood the kids' "picture thinking" tendencies. Because these shorter words don't have ready "pictures" to associate with them (how do you "picture" something like to be?), they are harder to store as symbols in the dyslexic's brain.