Customer Reviews: Read 75 more reviews...
 This should be how all children are taught to read!!! May 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If we started at the kindergarten level with Dr. Davis' techniques - there would never be another dyslexic. These techniques are so easy to implement and so effective, it is astonishing.
I AM A DYSLEXIC and this book changed my life!!! Now I actually publish and EDIT books - and am quite good at it. And I'm especially good at it now because I AM DYSLEXIC!!! That is I am a visual thinking!!!
Teach kids to relax while they learn instead of stressing them out by yelling at the TO CONCENTRATE and everyone will learn better! That's just one of the SIMPLE, LOGICAL, USEFUL techniques detailed in this book!
Absolutely Brilliant! May 23, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Whether you are a professional educator, parent, or just interested in the world of dyslexia, this book is a wonderfully eye opening read. It shows how dyslexia is not a learning disorder, but a different way of processing information. An excellent book!
This Book Was God's Gift to Us...! April 21, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
My now 12 yo son was discovered to have dyslexia, just 2 years ago (after years of frustration in trying numerous "how to read" approaches, to no avail). He was homeschooled from the beginning, and though I'd successfully taught his older siblings to read, this kid stumped me... every attempt to teach him (no matter what methodology was used), resulted in both of us dissolving into tears of frustration and despair...
We tried some traditional/professional approaches -- no results. We eschewed the labels, having gone down that dismal route with our eldest son (language delays), who is now carrying a 4.0 in college.
Anyway, the breakthrough for us, was discovering this practical, hands-on book -- I came to see and understand (& believe) that it's not a disability at all -- it's an incredible gift based on innate, insatiable curiosity (even in infancy), and incredible multi-dimensional perception skills. It enables children to see the "other side" of objects, with their "mind's eye".
Most dyslexic children are inordinately bright. Some famous dyslexics in history have been Michaelangelo, Thomas Edison, and Einstein. Their ability to see "all sides of an object at once" enabled them to do extraordinary feats. Michaelangelo could "see" the image of David in that block of marble, and knew how to "get him out" of it.
The problem comes in when a dyslexic child tries to do a "mere human" feat, such as reading. Letters on a page are two-dimensional, and yet the child's insatiably curious mind wants to see what that "E" looks like on the "other side"... the mind's eye will go there, which causes an image of the letters to either "dance" on the page, or spin, or else swap places with each other.
My son learned, from some easy exercises in this book, to "re-orient" his mind's eye -- to "lock it into place" in the back of his head, thereby aligning his mind's eye, with his natural eyes... so that both of them were focused on the same thing (the "E") at the same time. He can "unlock" that orientation at will, enabling him to do whatever tasks God had in mind when He gave him this particular gift.
It's hugely liberated my son, given him a true sense of being unique (rather than defective), and given him the confidence he needed to tackle reading.
One day, within a month of so of having discovered how to "re-orient", he picked up a 300 page novel, and devoured it in 3 days...! This was the same kid who would dissolve into tears, when he couldn't get through a paragraph, only weeks previously.
I don't know how many more "disabilities" are really just misdiagnosed gifts, but I'll bet God does... I'll bet He knows how to enable us to meet our children where they are, and to discover just what He had in mind when He created each of our unique children.
My son has morphed into a reading-fanatic...! As I type, he's lying on his bed, devouring yet another thick book -- he cannot get enough; it's as if he's making up for lost time. As a homeschooling/unschooling mom of 8 kids, I've learned that a desire to read is the greatest educational resource at their disposal. I've gone from hopeless despair over this son, to incredible hope and joy...!
I really don't care how scientifically accurate this approach is -- I've found it to be incredibly fruitful. In my experience, the scientifically-backed methods were found wanting. This method opened up my son's world! I'm grateful, and I see this method as a Gift from God.
Shalom, Dena
"The unanswered questions aren't nearly as dangerous as the unquestioned answers."
DYSLEXIA IS TRULY A GIFT! April 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
After 18 months of my son's "hatred" of school, daily emotional melt downs, testing by psychologists with wrong diagnoses, a wonderful developmental optometrist, counseling, medication trials with bad side effects, hours of searching on the internet, reading book after book on ADHD, and school meetings at nauseam . . . I finally began to read about dyslexia. I felt I was on the right track, and after reading Ron Davis's THE GIFT OF DYSLEXIA, I knew this was IT! We have since been to see a facilitator of the Davis Dyslexia Correction Method and she, too, confirms, that our son has this "tendency" and she can help him. We are going this summer for the full week intervention - 4 hours from our home, because it will be worth it! As soon as we finish the course, I will write again and let you know how it helped my son, who also has ADHD. I plan to homeschool him in the fall for 5th grade to help him overcome this intense year and be able to finally use his GIFTS, feel better about himself, build up his confidence, and develop the areas we have been struggling with for the last two years! I am VERY GRATEFUL for having been led to read this book and finally find the better path to solutions and tools that enable children, like my son, who are GIFTED, but "tortured" by ineffective educational means that do not teach these children. The entire Davis Method makes so much sense for so many children, dyslexic or not.
 Very informative March 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this book very insightful to the multitude of ways that Dyslexia can affect a student's life. While I didn't find the process for re-teaching a Dyslexic how to focus and read helpful or applicable to my situation, It did help me to see inside of what causes my children difficulty in reading and writing.
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