Dyslexia often presents itself in the form of difficulty processing sounds, mixing up letters and experiencing frustration with writing. Students with dyslexia face a learning disability that makes reading tasks more challenging due to the way the brain processes written and spoken language. Around 80 million to 1.6 billion people struggle with dyslexia in different capacities. The effects of dyslexia can range from mild to severe, leaving many undiagnosed due to the lack of severity.
Due to the fact that dyslexia begins to show in early years of education, many students across the world get tested for it early. TISD supports around 500 students in their journey with dyslexia, and provides an annual Dyslexia Awareness Night, this year being the eighth, where students obtain an opportunity to celebrate their individual progress, growth and understanding. At this year’s event, the dyslexia team presented how the kids learned in their specialized classes and explained the new grant money for technology use.
Initially, managing these students’ needs proved to be a challenging task; however, dyslexia therapist Tara Baker works diligently for the program alongside her ambassadors.
“Texas as a state was really underidentified in dyslexia, [so] around the time [the district] chose to train some teachers to become dyslexia therapists, they were looking to [also] identify those kids that had fallen through the cracks,” Baker said. “ So over the last five years, we’ve really identified all of those kids that had missed that good core phonics instruction.”
As October comes to a close, schools around the country come together to raise awareness and understanding of dyslexia.
“The dyslexia team puts this event together every year in October, because it’s Dyslexia Awareness Month, and we’re typically required to do a family community night,” Baker said. “We love reaching out to the families and connecting kids across all the different schools.”
Dyslexia comes in many forms and affects all kinds of people and ages, including senior football player Duncan McGhee.
“My freshman year, I [got] diagnosed with dyslexia, and [around] then, the dyslexia teacher was trying to get more awareness,” McGhee said. “So [Mrs Baker] asked more of the people who are involved in sports to be more involved [as] dyslexia ambassadors.”
Baker teams up with students as dyslexia ambassadors to reach out to the elementary school students.
“[Mrs Baker] has talked to me about it in ninth grade before, [but] I just didn’t really know what it was until I talked to Duncan McGee,” sophomore Jaylah Shepard said. “[As an ambassador] you just go to different schools and help younger kids that have dyslexia and [show] them [how to] be confident having it.”
The program teaches students, step by step, how to process the words, understand the sounds of letters and recognize the mouth shapes that make each sound, all to help them read better.
“I’ve learned some really great techniques to just learn how to read a lot better, to comprehend words,” senior Abi Vance said. “[The program] also taught me to stand up for myself and speak up.”
Deep conversations about dyslexia’s impact on children highlight the need for all students to understand each other’s needs, creating a culture of building each other up.
“One of my goals is to make sure kids know that dyslexia is a hard thing and not to bully other kids [that] have it, but also for kids that have dyslexia to understand that it’s not a crutch,” sophomore Londyn Walker said. “[Dyslexia is] something that you can help build on [yourself], and it helps you give a different perspective of what other people see.”
People often misunderstand dyslexia and associate it with low intelligence, but this stigma proves untrue due to the constant improvement of reading skills that occurs within the dyslexia program.
“[Being an ambassador] just kind of stands as a way to help kids understand that dyslexia doesn’t hold you back, and you can do really anything with it, as long as you try,” sophomore Hollyn Gerrald said. “My goals are to help kids understand that you can get really far in life, even if you think you might not be the smartest, because you really only struggle with [dyslexia] early on.”
Although Baker initially taught first grade for over a decade, her passion quickly evolved after a close family member received a dyslexia diagnosis.
“[My nephew] was diagnosed in third grade, and a few months after he was diagnosed, the district sent out an email saying that they had gotten a grant and were looking to train some teachers to become dyslexia therapists,” Baker said. “I was looking to kind of move more in that direction, working with small groups of kids, and so it was something I was really interested in.”
The Texas High School ambassadors serve as a bridge between the students and the dyslexia team by presenting themselves as good examples for the kids. Students look up to them not only as role models but also as inspiration for the future.
“[The younger kids] seeing somebody [who] is in 12th grade with dyslexia, plays football, and has achieved a lot, [gives them someone to] look up to,” McGhee said.
