Dyslexia 101: Truths, Myths and What Really Works

by Marianne Sunderland

Do you have a child who is bright yet still struggles with reading?

He or she may have dyslexia. It is estimated that 20% of the populationhas dyslexia. Dyslexia is characterized by:

slow, inaccurate reading
terrible spelling
difficulty with penmanship
difficulty expressing self
inattentiveness, distractibility
dreads going to school

Interestingly, dyslexics make up about 35% of the world's entrepreneurs. Some are well-known such as Richard Branson of the Virgin Empire, Charles Schwab, the founder of the discount brokerage that bears his name, John Chambers, chief executive of Cisco, Craig McGraw, the cellular phone pioneer, and Paul Orfalea, founder of the Kinko’s copy chain to name just a few.

On the other hand, researchers have discovered that dyslexics make up 48% of prison inmates!

How dyslexia is handled in the early years has the potential of having a huge impact on the future of the dyslexic individual.

Dyslexia is not outgrown - a dyslexic child will grow into a dyslexic adult.

Most importantly, dyslexia is treatable.

The Message is Clear

With the correct information and the right methods, dyslexic children can not only learn to read and spell and write, but to understand the inherent strengths of the dyslexic mind, embrace them and find success.

From from research to real life, prevention to remediation, from preschool to college and from the practical to the spiritual, Dyslexia 101 will walk you through figuring out your child’s reading struggles and give you the tools to help them to succeed.

Dyslexia 101:

Defines dyslexia: myths and facts, including the latest research

How to know if you or your child has dyslexia

How to navigate the public school system of special education

Everything you need to know to successfully homeschool your dyslexic child

When, where and how to get testing and tutoring

Dyslexia in high school & college

Exhaustive list of resources including:

books
web sites
blogs
apps
technology
national and international organizations

Marianne Sunderland writes from the unique perspective of a homeschooling mother of 8 children, 7 of whom are dyslexic.

She says, "Writing about dyslexia is a passion of mine because of our own experience raising and teaching our kids with dyslexia. I know how it feels to be utterly confused by an otherwise bright child who just doesn’t ‘get’ reading. I know how overwhelming it was to search through web site after web site, book after book, searching for the answers. I know how many false starts and disappointments we went through before we found what really works. I saw how being unable to read and write well affected my kids as they grew up. How I wish I could go back, knowing what I know now and do things differently. Marianne Sunderland

Marianne writes in terms parents can really understand. Dyslexia 101 will guide parents as they seek to provide the very best education alternatives for their children; finding effective help and cultivating the many little-known strengths of the dyslexic learner.

Marianne Sunderland is a frequent speaker at homeschool conventions, women's groups and schools. For more information, please visit www.HomeschoolingWithDyslexia.com

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting

221 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 17, 2015

Reviews

[Hdollenger · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the whole, this book was very disappointing. While it did have some helpful pieces of information, accessing it was not straightforward or easy. The book is very poorly organized and clearly had zero editing done before publication (I have a 2nd edition!). It appears to be a collection of blog posts slapped together from the author's website - she makes references to things she discussed "yesterday", and there are place holder references for "see Chapter #" (literally the number hashtag - no actual chapter number) or "see Appendix #" (again no actual number), some of which I was able to find but some of which do not appear to exist in the book. It is rife with grammatical and punctuation errors. I really wish I had not started to mark things with a pencil as I was reading because I would have returned it had I not done so. The font was also enormous and the spacing was almost double spaced, in a seeming effort to get it to a book length of almost 200 pages. Printed with normal font and spacing, I'd guess it wouldn't have hit 100 pages. Definitely not worth the purchase price. Check out the author's blog for free and save yourself the frustration.

[Erin Ching · Rating 3 out of 5]

The big positive of this book is that there are lots of resources listed for all kinds of things, and im glad to be able to refer back.

There wasn't much on how to actually teach the dyslexic reader, other than that you need to use a systemic, multi sensory approach and it will take time.

It did cover a broad range of things at an intro level - testing, IEPs, homeschooling, college (lots on this).

Finally, as most other reviewers noted, this book badly needs a good round of copy editing.

[Ashley Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's obvious that Marianne is passionate and very knowledgeable about dyslexia, but I was hoping for more from this book. I gained a basic understanding of what dyslexia is and isn't and to set proper expectations on learning. But because testing and tutoring resources vary from place to place, I've found it's much more helpful talking to a local mom who has been down this same road. I skimmed the second half of the book which is all about dyslexia and college. My kid is 7, so we're not there yet. Also, like many other commenters said, this book is in desperate need of an editor.

[Wendy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I discovered this author as a guest speaker on a podcast I regularly listen to, so I figured I would find her book helpful for homeschooling my dyslexic daughter. I'm sad to report that I was very disappointed with this book.

1. It had almost no information about how a dyslexic brain actually works. I was looking for tips to understand and therefore better teach my child. Most of the information in the first few chapters centered on testing and getting accommodations, and the final chapters on college are also just about how to find accommodations or look for alternatives to college. I'm looking for tips on what skills I can be helping my daughter develop so she can succeed even if accommodations aren't available (especially since we have no plans for formal testing).

2. This book suffers from a serious lack of editing. I lost track of how many times there was a reference to "more on this in Chapter #", where the # sign had not been replaced with an actual number, leaving me guessing about where to go. Or, "more on this tomorrow". What? Also, there are references to clickable links, which obviously don't work in a physical book. Finally, the last couple chapters each have a section on "alternatives to a traditional college degree". The same section, copy and pasted!

It may be a decent reference for parents who have public-school-educated children who are thinking about what to do after high school, but you can probably get lists of the resources just with a Google search.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was recommended on a podcast about homeschooling. Thinking I may have a dyslexic child, I was hoping this would be a valuable resource. So wrong. This book should have been an article on a website. It feels like perhaps it was originally and was self-published through Amazon.
I am astounded that this *second* edition had SO MANY grammatical and formatting mistakes. One spot actually says "Click here" to read a list of... Multiple places reference "Chapter #" but no actual number. Just the # symbol.
Two stars instead of one only because the first two chapters and the appendix on other books was helpful.

[SJ West]

I should have looked further into this book before picking it up as it doesn’t suit my situation very well. This reads like a long, bullet pointed article and leans heavily on reading development with dyslexia. The second half is geared primarily toward high school and college resources. As it was published roughly ten years ago, the technology resources are now a bit out of date.
Would recommend for something quick and concise with references to further reading and lists of other resources and for parents of high school aged children.

[Jenna Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tie book was just okay—-I thought the book would be more about what dyslexia is and how to work with that in a homeschool setting. There were multiple chapters on college. It almost seemed like the book was not proof read….some info was helpful (and repeated multiple times) but the structure was sometimes hard to follow, had to reread multiple sentences and there are obvious spots where someone was supposed to fill in information or chapter numbers and did not.

[Kendra · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there were some helpful bits of information in this book, it was very introductory. My biggest issue, however, was the quality of the publication. This was clearly a series of blog posts later published in book form, but without any additional editing. For the price, I expected something much more polished. Save your money and read the author’s blog instead.

[Piper Blotter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seriously needed an editor. Chapters 1-3 were the most helpful at this point, and some of the resources are likely to change or be improved upon in the future. I'm glad I read it, but I think a more helpful format for this book is a website, in part because it's full of links, but mostly because someone should be aggregating this data and making it accessible to more people.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first few chapters are really helpful. I'm glad I found this book. Later chapters, however, may be outdated. Resources (especially online ones) change rapidly and this book was published in 2015. The author suggests reading articles that may have been linked in her blog but are not annotated in her book. Still, it's a great starting point if you think your child might be dyslexic.

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing. Seems like an early write without editing. Not organized well. Too many chapters on college focus. Seemed like a long winded blog post. I was looking for a book to support my elementary aged early readers. Unfortunately this book did not offer support for teaching dyslexic kids.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful read for those just getting acquainted with the world of having a child with dyslexia. It’s basically a compilation of many of her blogs/articles from the author’s website so you can find all of her same resources and info there.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book needs some editing, it reminded me that kids that are willing/needing to work a bit harder in school gain great skills for life. It had some practical helps too

[Deidre Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fine, it was an over view that was easy to get through but then almost too easy in some ways

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very helpful for me while I was trying to navigate my stepson's struggles. It helped me understand the difference between a child with autism and a child with dyslexia.

[Jenny Zacharias · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is helpful for homeschooling. I appreciated the encouraging tone that the author used. It does contain some typos, though, and the writing seems "clunky" at times.