by Abigail Marshall, DDAI Information Services Director
©DDAI. Reprinted with permission

Q6: How do you help a child who reads well, but has problems with writing?

A: Let's get rid of the word 'dyslexia' for a minute. Instead, we are going to talk about visual-spatial thinkers, people who think well aspect of symbolic thinking, such as working with words and numbers. We can give these problems another name 'dysgraphia' for the writing problem, 'dyscalculia' for the math problem. Some people would prefer to label each problem differently and simply treat the symptoms, through tutoring or occupational therapy.

The Davis® approach is different: we look at the underlying learning style, and focus on getting rid of the barriers. And we find that some of the underlying barriers are the same for kids who can read well but have problems with writing as they are for kids who can't read at all.

When we look at the underlying thought process, we can understand how a child can be 'dyslexic' but also be a good reader. Being able to recognize written words in a book is a different matter than being able to produce them on your own, and people who think in pictures can have a very hard time putting their thoughts into words.

The basic question is: does your son have a picture-thinker's learning style? If so, Davis® methods are going to work well for him. They will give words to connect to all the pictures in his mind, and Orientation will help tremendously with perceptual/motor skills related to writing.

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