Manny is Dyslexic
He’s very smart and very clever. He has memorized some words, but he couldn't sound out new words and sometimes when he looked at the page, it seemed like the words and letters were moving around.
At nine-years-old, he had already figured out that getting in trouble for “entertaining” his neighbors was better than anyone knowing he couldn't read.
When he tried hard to read or keep up, it took all of his attention and he missed so much. He couldn't really think about what the teacher was saying or what he was supposed to be doing on his assignments.
Dyslexia is characterized by difficulty with learning to read fluently and with accurate comprehension despite normal intelligence. This includes difficulty with phoneme awareness (auditory), phonological decoding, (auditory/visual), processing speed, orthographic decoding, auditory short-term memory (auditory), language skills (can be due to internal language / auditory), verbal comprehension (auditory), rapid naming (linking visual and auditory).
Learning problems don't have to be permanent.
These learning challenges can be corrected. What is needed is to pinpoint weak underlying learning skills through functional evaluation and diagnosis and then develop the weak areas through specific brain training.
