Exceptional Children’s Week

1 Response to “Exceptional Children’s Week”

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• Duane Smith

  7 July 2010 at 6:13 pm

  The Sunday Mercury, July 4th, 2010, tells and interesting story of a young girl’s coming to terms with, and negotiating her dyslexia.

  “Mollie Donald’s learning difficulties led to tantrums so extreme that her mother Yvette had to physically restrain her. But she’s beaten her Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia – by juggling bean bags, reciting list and standing on one leg! Mollie, nine and from Northhampton, enrolled on a Dore course – a brain-training programme based in Stratford-upon-Avon. Within weeks, her reading age had improved, she could ride a bike without stabilisers and was much calmer.”

  The other day a woman called me, and asked me – how I think I was “able to overcome my challenges with dyslexia?” Having not studied dyslexia on a clinical level, and having never been treated for dyslexia – only diagnosed, this question inspired me to think about how and when it was that I started to deal with my dyslexia. I told the woman that things started to improve when I started writing and delivering speeches for public speaking competition.

  Formal speech composition and delivery requires a certain structure be employed and committed to. Once I started fully employing the foundational structure used in speech writing and delivery, I found that it was easier for me to focus on ideas and concepts. Not only did the required level of focus help me to understand, compose and deliver information that would otherwise be foreign to me, but now that I think about it – the rigorous focus on structure helped me to discover a method for working on academics that best suited the diverse-goings-on within my dyslexic brain. Also, in public speaking competition it is required that speeches are fully memorized. The speeches are 10 minutes long, and if you want to go to nationals you need at least 4 different speeches. Prior to public speaking competition I had never memorized anything…not even a bible verse in Sunday School! Sad. Memorization was something that just did not seem to work for me. However, I wanted so badly to be a competitive public speaker I was determined to figure out how I could memorize multiple 1500 word speeches, and deliver them as perfectly as possible. I got some help from Socrates.

  I learned early on in a speech class that, Socrates used to make his students speak with stones in their mouths to help them with elocution, and memorization. While I was not about to stick stones in my mouth, I figured I could use something like chewing gum. I would spend hours chewing big wods of gum, while practicing my speeches. My method: I would go somewhere I knew I would not be bothered. I would take a 5 piece pack of gum with me. I would put in a piece, and recite my speech; put in another piece and recite my speech; again; again; and again until I had the entire pack of gum in my mouth. I found that this would not only force me to focus on the clarity of speech, but also on the just getting the words out of my brain and into, and out of, my mouth. The end result was, in four years, I had memorized and delivered 100s of times, 18 different 10-minute-long-speeches as an undergraduate public speaking competitor. Now I have my students do the same thing…dyslexic or not!

  When I read the story of Molly, I found myself totally agreeing with the idea that juggling, and reciting while standing on one leg helped her to be able to manage her dyslexia. I think what helps both Molly and I is the commitment to focusing, and repetition. Focused Commitment!

  We need to be celebrating children who overcome their challenges.

  WELL DONE MOLLIE!
  

  Duane Smith