Throughout Charlie’s schooling years he floated through each year, ‘flying under the raider’. He successfully avoided the tasks he thought were difficult, usually reading and writing, by using his personality, pleasing the teacher, and copying from his peers. He was very clever at implementing strategies to hide the fact that he struggled with literacy activities, both from a confidence perspective and ability.
DSM5 uses the terms Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in reading (315.00) and Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in written expression (315.2) to describe these problems. This did not come as a surprise to his parents as they had been exploring all angles to help support his learning.
Charlie displayed significant resistance to learning activities that involved decoding, reading, and writing. He would very quickly emotionally dysregulate which could be viewed as a combination of anxiety and as an avoidance strategy. Charlie lacked the confidence to complete tasks by himself and often asked for assistance (especially in the classroom setting). He has received a range of dyslexia intervention programs in and outside the school setting over the course of his 4 years of schooling, with limited successes. Previous interventions include:
It wasn’t until Charlie’s learning and reading difficulties were fully understood, through the testing process, that he was able to receive the targeted intervention he really needed. His mum knew about Forbrain and began a home-based intervention, under the guidance of an Educational Counsellor and Level 2 Tomatis Practitioner, Emma White. The method of intervention was:
After the period of intervention, the most exciting change reported by mum was that Charlie had developed the confidence to read independently and now chooses to read in his spare time!
He still has a distance to travel to ‘catch up’ with his peers although with his new enthusiasm and improved self-efficacy it will surely be at a faster speed. Mum reported a range of improvements, also observed by the Tomatis practitioner:
The Forbrain headset was integral in helping Charlie achieve his recent successes. The number of previous interventions seemed fruitless as his learning outcomes remained static or with little movement. The benefits of Forbrain reach far with its’ ability to support concentration, and focus as well as build confidence, along with forging stronger neural pathways needed for reading and writing. For more insights on how to help a child with dyslexia at home, be sure to read our detailed article on the topic.
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