Reading_from_the_End_to_the_Beginning

Whitney Moore English 111 09/07/10 Reading from the end to the beginning There’s nothing like settling into your favorite chair and devouring page after page of a really good book! On the other hand, there’s also nothing more frustrating than opening up a book and having your mind bombarded with a confusing jumble of letters and words. When I was younger, my first introduction to reading was not that of the typical childhood experience. I had been diagnosed with a learning disability called Dyslexia. Dyslexia is a reading disability that makes it difficult to determine the meaning of a simple sentence as well as difficulty learning to recognize written words. I had suffered with Dyslexia up until third grade and through my adversities with this disability, learned to develop a deep appreciation for the art of reading and writing. Throughout my whole first year of kindergarten my parents and I had no idea that I even had dyslexia. At ages four and five, my parents read my favorite books to me and I would memorize them word for word. Whenever I saw the picture I recalled the corresponding dialogue and repeated it. Due to this, my parents did not realize that I struggled with reading until later in my year of first grade. I had done well in all my other subjects, so they figured I would get better as the year went on. They realized something was not right after my struggles continued. During a conference with my teacher they all hoped that it was just because of the transition and I would be fine after I got used to it. Later on during that school year, my teacher realized that my troubles with reading was more than just a transition issue and brought it to my parents’ attention. She told them that she thought it was dyslexia and that they should get it checked out just to be sure. After my parents spoke to her, they took me to a specialist. After several tests he diagnosed me with a mild case of dyslexia. As soon as my parents were aware of what the problem was, they were not sure if they should have held me back a year or have let me tried to get through it, so they had set up a meeting with my guidance counselor. During the meeting, my counselor agreed to arrange extra practice sessions so I could get on the same reading level as the rest of my classmates, so my parents and I decided that I should stay where I was. It was a lot easier for me to focus once I knew why I had a difficult time reading. My teachers really helped and worked with me when I had trouble. They gave me helpful exercises and showed me little tricks that made it easier for me to understand. For instance, instead of embarrassing me by pointing out misspelled words one of my teachers would ask me to highlight which words did not look right. Many of my teachers would give my list of homework assignments on paper instead of having me copy them down. That way I wouldn’t miss anything. My parents had also given me extra practice after school so I could get caught up. Both my parents and my teachers gave me a lot of encouragement which made me have a much more positive outlook on the situation than I did before. Between the help from them and my teachers; I had made a lot of progress. By the time I reached the middle of my third grade year, I could read very well and I had pretty much caught up with the rest of the class. Although there were times that I got frustrated, I was happy that I was able to overcome my dyslexia and I was also very grateful to my parents and my teachers for helping me out as much as they did. I was also lucky to have had only a mild case of dyslexia because there were many people with cases much more severe than mine. It was tough but I learned a lot from it and I think that is why I love reading as much as I do today.