Parents urged to watch for dyslexic 'car wreck' | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

When Aaron Claydon started school he was a bright kid with a good understanding of the world around him.

But by age 6, his mother  Lorna Claydon says it was obvious his reading and writing was not so good.

When Aaron came home at night he was tired, upset, angry and had low self-esteem.

"We knew there was a problem," she said.

With a family history of dyslexia on both her, and husband Adrian's side, they decided to get Aaron independently tested.

The result? He was moderately dyslexic.

Dyslexia is known as an alternative way of thinking which commonly causes unexpected difficulties with reading or writing.

With help from a private tutor and assessment focusing on Aaron's particular needs, he is today, four years down the track, reading at his appropriate age level and is a happy, well-adjusted child.

Experts claim 10 per cent of any population in the world would have dyslexia in some form, and 4 per cent would require specialist teaching for it.

With dyslexia so prominent, Bay principals say the Government needs to better resource schools, as traditional teacher training does not equip teachers to understand how straightforward it is to meet the needs of dyslexic learners in the classroom.

In June,  international expert in dyslexia Neil Mackay, will visit Tauranga, and hold his only regional conference on the topic.

He advocates that by fine tuning their lessons to help dyslexic learners, teachers can lift the achievement of all students; even under National Standards.

Learning Differences 4D is a series of workshops for parents and school educators from June 8-9, at Baypark.

Dr Claydon said dyslexia was not a disease and children should not be labelled.

"It's not something you can cure, it's just a different way of seeing things and processing written information," she said.

"[Aaron] is really creative and has spatial thinking ... He thinks in three dimension in a way that just blows my mind."

She said she encouraged other parents whose children were bright orally, but struggling and unhappy, to seek help.

"As a parent you often see much more signs of it.

"You see the crash and burn at the end of the day. They've worked twice as hard at school and what you see at home is the car wreck."

AT A GLANCE

What: The Tauranga Learning Differences 4D Workshop Series at Baypark.

When: June 8: 9-3pm, teachers. 7pm-8.30pm, parents.

Entry by gold coin donation. June 9: school teachers and specialist teachers.

www.4D.org.nz/workshops/tauranga