Dyslexia In Elementary Education

When it was announced in class that we will be required to attend a presentation about dyslexia in the next session, a single question crossed my mind: “What does dyslexia mean?” Therefore, I was curious and looking forward to attending the event in order to find an answer to this mysterious word. At the end of the presentation, I discovered that I am familiar with the meaning behind dyslexia since I can remember.

As I walked into the event’s room, the presentation seemed a bit monotonous and the audience was not interactive. However, as the charming young lady was numerating the symptoms of dyslexia, I got interested as the things she was mentioning were a description of several classmates I had during my elementary education.

First, “dyslexia

I remember now how all those classmates I had between third and sixth grade, who used to find troubles writing or spelling words, forming sentences and understanding the questions of the exams, may have had dyslexia. I cannot imagine a crueler act than shouting at and humiliating a young kid in front of his/her peers in class for something he/she can neither control nor fix on his/her own. How can a kid recover from such an unfair punishment and also be expected to get better grades in class? No wonder that there is a sort of hostility towards school in general among Moroccan students. Moreover, the ignorance of the parents concerning this disability contributes in the mistreatment of their child. The broken hearted pupil goes back home to face additional frustration created by his/her parents’ accusation of laziness and

Second, “the window on language learning closes gradually in early childhood” (Myers, 2014, p. 322), hence, it is indispensable to run tests in Moroccan schools to identify the dyslexic pupils before it becomes too late to solve their linguistic problems. Then comes the third step which is giving the diagnosed students extra care. In other words, extra hours, both in school and at home, to work on their problems and help them overcome the difficulties they face. Therefore, the relationship between school and the family should be strengthened more in order to help the concerned pupil. The best example of this strategy is the young lady who gave this presentation who is a dyslexic person whom, with the help of her parents who believed in the power of practice, overcame the obstacles in the classroom as she is now a PhD