THE DYSLEXIA SOLUTION

#83 • June 2009

NEWSLETTER

June always brings e-mails from worried parents asking whether they should get their  kids started on the RfS program over the summer so that by the time September comes they will in better shape. The answer is easy.  NO.  Dyslectic kids, more than anyone else, need a vacation from schooling, words, books and writing and have a chance to do something fun.

But what about a kid who has started, let’s say, in April or May?  Should he keep going during the summer so that he won’t forget everything?  Same answer: NO.

 He won’t forget everything.  My experience has been that whatever training you  have  done using the disks and the I-Card will stick pretty well, with maybe a couple of lessons to review in the fall. Again he needs free time away from the pressure of schooling when he can do things that are interesting and fun. Sometimes you even find that without the strain of schooling he has actually  improved a little even without the review.

I try to keep my language lady-like in these newsletters, so I won’t even try to tell you what I think of schools that force a failing child to wreck his summer because the school couldn’t figure out why he didn’t learn. I taught at summer school years ago as part of teacher training for certification and it looked like chld abuse.  Don’t start me.