HELP!
by Ms. Patience
Growing up as a child in Lagos, I had a neighbor whom I believed was the most beautiful girl ever. She was dark and lovely. However, she had challenges academically. In fact, she was labeled dumb because she couldn’t read. She also believed God did not give her intelligence. Naysayers made it worse by insinuating that her family ‘used her head’ to make the family business prosper. Eventually, she dropped out of school and joined the family business. And she really prospered.
So, over the years, I’ve wondered: would life had been somewhat different for her if the teachers were equipped enough to discover she may have had Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a combination of strengths and difficulties that may affect learning, reading, writing, spelling, and word finding. It is a spectrum that includes children of all abilities. It's thought to affect about ten percent of the population.
Often one of the first signs that a child may have dyslexia is when you notice a big difference between that child's general intelligence and their poor performance in reading and writing tasks. This discrepancy can seem surprising or hard to explain.
In our next edition, we will find out the signs to look out for in a child who may be struggling with dyslexia.
