Do you feel like you have tried everything, and your child still struggles just to read and write? I am a homeschooling mother, and I felt the same way when Anna, my eight year old daughter, couldn’t even tell the difference between the letters “b” and “d”.  We had tried everything!

So we dug through a mountain of phonics workbooks.  We bought DVDs.  We played online reading games.  I tried new curricula, but nothing solved the root problem: symbol confusion  Even an experienced reading tutor failed to unlock the mystery.  But one day her reading tutor was out of town and Anna was working with the substitute teacher instead.  The teacher said, "Honey, your little girl has Dyslexia.  These workbooks are useless."

Finally, after learning everything I could about Dyslexia, current research, available therapies, and brain development  I realized that I had a very gifted child in my house...who needed serious help.  I looked into Dyslexia Therapy, but our family did not have hundreds of dollars to spend.  After much research and time working with my daughter I began to put together a therapy designed just for her.  I believed that I had to just find a way to use her talents and strengths to overcome her weaknesses in reading.  I simply studied my daughter's reading and spelling mistakes and discovered some intriguing patterns.  I later discovered that these patterns are common to most dyslexic children.  I was solving a wonderful mystery that would eventually help many children to overcome their struggles with letters and numbers.

Anna did not want to "do school".  She wanted to draw and play mind games.  So I used drawing and mind games to teach Anna how to read and write.  With Anna's help I developed a series of pattern games that combined art, words, and symbols with learning.  We played art and pattern games for hours using just a pen and paper.  Suddenly Anna could finally tell the difference between b's and d's!

Anna loved the puzzles and within days she showed improvement.  Just a few weeks later she was picking up books and sounding out words with a smile on her face!  She discovered the joy of reading and ended up developing beautiful handwriting too.  We used art and fun games, not phonics practice, to overcome the reading and writing challenges associated with Dyslexia.  Yet at the same time she was maximizing the areas of talent and strength that make Dyslexia a blessing!  Anna began using the strongest area of her mind, not the weakest, to learn reading and writing.  This gave Anna a fresh way of seeing letters and numbers.  It was like a new beginning!  Now Anna is thriving in EVERY subject in school, but art is still #1.

Anna's art work now appears in many of the Dyslexia Games Activity Books - especially the books with animal art.  Share Dyslexia Games with your child.

~Sarah J. Brown

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