I spend a lot of time, here, discussing autism. That’s because I have an autistic son.

I have not spent a lot of time discussing dyslexia.  Which is odd because Cyclone, my older son, is dyslexic.  As is my husband. As is my dad.  As is my sister.

I have been virtually surrounded by dyslexic people.  My mother was a vision therapist before she retired, unsurprisingly, so I learned quite a bit about this.

Dyslexia is most often passed from father to son.  If the father has it, there is a fairly high chance that a son of his will have dyslexia as well. (The percentages for passing it along to a daughter are lower, but as my family is evidence, it can happen.)

The very best thing one can do as a parent of a possibly dyslexic child is to begin “vision therapy” at birth.  No, I am not advocating anything extreme, honest.  I began with the basics, myself.

Pattern the brain with lefts and rights, using the child’s own body as a map.

When bathing the baby, whenever you hold their limbs to wash them, you simply tell them which limb it is. “Now we’re washing the right arm. Now we’re washing the left leg.” You can continue it, if you wish. “This is the right ear. This is the left ear.” And so on.

Do this when dressing the baby, when changing their diapers, when feeding them…in as many interactions as possible in that first year.  This way, the child will associate his body with proper right and left patterns, and these patterns will be hardwired into his brain.

Even if the child is NOT dyslexic, this is a GOOD THING. Everyone should know their rights and lefts.

I’ll add more to this tag in the future.  Can’t imagine why I hadn’t done it before.

Tags: dyslexia