Shattering the Myths of Dyslexia #5: The Dyslexic has “Learned” Something with Rote Memorization

The dyslexic, especially in the early years of learning, tends to equate memorization with learning. What is interesting is that a very high percentage of dyslexics excel in memorization. The bottom line for the dyslexic: if we cannot convert new material into a 3-D sense, then we naturally attempt to find success with memorization. Of course every student wants to please the parent or teacher who is helping the child to learn, so that he or she can receive praise and avoid their disappointment. If children can remember the words, then it “sounds like” they can read the words!

Unfortunately, memorization is a very poor substitute for learning. Whether you're dyslexic or not, if you memorize something, you are fortunate if you retain 20% of what you memorized six weeks later! This is why a younger dyslexic learner will have a skill or information one week but forgets it the next week. This is not the case with learning – once you have learned something, you know it. In fact that is the original reason for testing, to measure if you have learned some material or skill, and can use it to do more than parrot back what you memorized. The most notorious list of written symbols most often memorized is the alphabet. In 14 years of working with dyslexic children and adults, I have yet to come across one who has mastered (i.e., learned) reading the entire upper and lower case alphabet.

The Learning To Read Program helps the dyslexic learner master the upper and lowercase alphabet by learning it backwards with skills that promote 3-D learning. We want to avoid rote memorization and at the same time promote the 3-D thinking required to learn and recognize these written abstract symbols. Once the upper and lowercase alphabet is mastered, many blind spots are cleared up in the dyslexics’ process of visualizing and reading a line of text. Typically, when I work with a student, I spend close to three hours mastering the lowercase alphabet backwards. It is a critical step in the dyslexic’s process of learning to read fluently with complete comprehension. In today’s public and private education systems, rote memorization is still primarily used to “learn to read” the 270 abstract words in the English language. The Learning To Read Program is one of the first programs of its kind that gives abstract words concrete experiences that help the 3-D Learner become skilled at reading, instead of just memorizing words and sounds of words.

Special Ed teachers are singing the praises of The Learning to Read Program. Please go to www.ReadingTools.org and click the “Real-Life Stories” button to view what the experts have to say about our program and approach.

Sincerely,
Bill Allen