A Dyslexic MD Tells His Story

Most moms ask how did I get through medical school being dyslexic? I have an incredible visual memory so I memorized every word I could get the teacher to tell me.  This worked for years until I lost my cuteness. (I know it is hard to believe that I was once cute, but that is what my mom says and I believe her.)

Without cuteness I was sent to the dictionary to look new words up. The dictionary not only tells you the meaning, but it has a phonics system to tell you how to pronounce the word. (Online you can click a button and hear the word pronounced, but I’m old so no Internet.) But I noticed that as long as I didn’t read out loud no one would know that I didn’t know how to pronounce the word. I avoided public speaking for my first 33 years and I listened to how others pronounced the words.

Then my daughter came along and she read words like hop and pat easily, but struggled when the words weren’t phonetic. At age 5 she just gave up. In order to teach her to read and love it I created separate symbols for long vowels, short vowels and the weird vowels like /oy/. This worked like a charm by third grade she was reading at 12th grade level.

My daughter is 30 now and loves to read. If you have a struggling reader don’t wait until he gives up. Contact me and lets see if we can solve the problem.

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