(Foreword: This is a Student Spotlight post, where we share success stories of our ex-students with dyslexia. To protect the identity of our students, we have replaced their names with fictitious ones.)
Introducing Ash
I took Ash under my wing in 2017 when I was still working at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore. Ash was one of my most impressive students, and his academic and emotional development had been remarkable.
Ash had been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia when he was in Lower Primary. Due to his difficulties, he had trouble learning English or even paying attention in class. Communication got better during Ash’s later years. However, he often got punished by authority figures due to misbehaviour. As a result of these issues, Ash’s grades continued to slip over time, causing him to run into even more trouble. By the age of 13, he had developed a bad reputation among teachers and therapists.
Initial lessons with Ash (Jan 2017)
When I took over Ash from his previous therapist, I was admittedly hesitant. I felt some uncertainty. For instance, how firm would I need to be with this student? What would be the best strategy to work with him over time? These questions bounced off my mental walls prior to our first lesson.
So came our first lesson.
*takes a deep breath*
Actually, it went well! Ash arrived on time and we talked a lot at intervals. There were some signs of Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), but more importantly, I was able to see and confirm the symptoms of ADHD and dyslexia, including the constant fidgeting, emotional reactivity and visual-perceptual issues.
Our second lesson also went well. This time, rapport had been built and I learned quite a fair bit about him. As mentioned earlier, Ash had gotten into a lot of trouble in school, but in many of those situations, he had simply reacted in the way he thought was correct. This did not justify his actions, but it at least helped me to understand his motivations.
Now we were getting somewhere.
For our third lesson, I introduced him to the post-apocalyptic fiction genre. This is a great source genre to introduce older students to, as it gets them to think critically about modern and post-modern society.
We played a game called Atomic Highway for our fourth lesson.
Up until the fifth lesson, I was giving him little academic work. Most of the lessons involved building rapport and some simple dyslexia remediation.
Some might question: why not do both academic work and dyslexia remediation from the beginning? After all, wouldn’t rapport be built over time?
The answer to that last question is both “yes” and “no”. I’d known that Ash was different (as are most of my students with SpLD). It wasn’t that he was a bad kid or anything. On the contrary, I needed to know what made him tick. Without our interactions, I would never have fully believed that he was smarter than what people gave him credit for, or that he was a good-natured young man with leadership qualities.
Ash had a lot of potential. It was just a matter of when that potential would be realised.
Ash’s development (Jan – Mar 2017)
Thanks to what I’d learned from the first few lessons, I could recognise his strengths. First, Ash was a great speaker and someone who could think broadly. He didn’t immediately demonstrate this, but I knew that he had the aptitude for it.
He was also quick to complete his work and correct his mistakes when intrinsically motivated to do so.
He also didn’t show much defiance in my class. However, his body language made it easy to tell when he was losing interest or when he was not taking things seriously.
Using these details as guidelines, I began to plan for subsequent lessons that would leverage on Ash’s strengths while rectifying his weaknesses. Within the next three lessons, he’d picked up on critical thinking and organisational skills that are necessary for good academic performance. He also knew how to better deal with moments of emotional instability, recognising learning as being something more than just repetitive work.
To sound a bit more dramatic, he was enlightened.
Temporarily stopping dyslexia remediation (Apr – Jul 2017)
In April, I left the Dyslexia Association of Singapore. Due to some scheduling issues on my end, I had to temporarily stop teaching Ash. Over the next few months, I learned that Ash’s results had slipped, and he was at risk of being retained for the year. He had also dropped out of his CCA (which I knew he had been deeply passionate about).
Picking up the slack (Aug 2017)
I resumed lessons with Ash in August. As I had not seen him in months, we spoke at length about what had been going on in his life.
That’s when I understood the details better.
Ash was still passionate about his CCA, but he’d dropped out due to a prejudice that his CCA mates had harboured against him. Additionally, his grades had slipped as a result of his gaming habits even though he was doing well in Term 1.
Thus, although it was a pity that his school performance had suffered, the situation was more understandable after the details were brought to light.
Getting Ash to share his plans
The next step was to ask Ash about his plans for the future. He expressed disappointment at his grades. However, I was heartened when he insisted that he still wanted to do well. He even wanted to move to a higher academic stream, from Normal (Technical) to Normal (Academic). He had experienced academic success in Term 1 and wanted more of it.
Setting the stage for Ash’s development
I therefore got him to agree to a few things:
- I would help him ace his English, but he had to follow my techniques to a tee.
- He had to be as focused as possible. Time was not on our side. While I could still make lessons fun, there were many things that I had to cram before the end of the term.
He agreed to these terms. Now we had to work together to try and create a miracle for his year-end exams.
Creating a programme plan for Ash
Because rapport had already been built in Term 1, I knew all his strengths (processing speed) and weaknesses (exam skills).
With that in mind, I created a very specific programme plan. This involved the adapting and modifying of a tabletop game-design module that I had used with ex-students. I would also do a crash course on previously taught basic and intermediate literacy concepts so that we could work on more advanced ones afterwards.
Programme plan results
The crash course definitely helped Ash in his reading fluency. He also began to express himself more eloquently, showing that he had the capability to learn the harder, more technical stuff. However, it was his performance during the game-design module that truly surprised me.
To explain why, Ash was supposed to design a role-playing game (RPG) from scratch. Initially, he struggled with the designing of the game’s mechanics. However, with time, he showed that he could organise his thoughts in a clear, concise way.
This was an important milestone as it involved skills related to functional writing.
He also had to write and present a story to go along with the game. This was what impressed me most: he was flawless in his presentation.
That’s right! Ash, whom many people had thought to be reckless and impulsive, delivered a flawless presentation. Despite all the curve balls I threw to test him, he was able to think on his feet, two steps ahead. I couldn’t have been prouder of him that day.
Oh and in 6 weeks (that’s one lesson per week), we saw a jump in his English grades, from a ‘U’ to a ‘C’ grade!
Full speed ahead into Term 4 (Sep – Oct 2017)
Ash’s learning pace was gaining momentum. I was pleased to discover his talent for storytelling and the rate at which he was able to absorb new knowledge. Even though it was a very packed 6 weeks and we often overshot lessons by 30 minutes or more, it paid off. His jump in grades was also remarkable and gave him something tangible to celebrate.
A part of me was still worried, however. There were still many more things I could teach him, and I wanted him to do well enough to top the class. Again, time was not on our side. After the September holidays, I would have approximately 4 lessons before his year-end papers. The question was, could Ash accomplish what he had originally thought was impossible?
Moving forward, we did more scaffolding exercises, including grammar practices and the learning of new frameworks. These covered topics like the subject-verb agreement and use of infinitive clauses.
Ash put in a lot of hard work over the next four weeks, even texting me questions at night. He was a fast learner. In spite of his ADHD, he was able to focus on his work. It was a lot to cram, but it all paid off in October.
During the exam period
The week of his year-end exams, after his English papers, I asked Ash if he thought he’d do well. He was worried he wouldn’t. So, I told him:
You tried your best and I’m sure it will all turn out well.
A week later, I got a text from his mum. In the message, she thanked me for supporting Ash in his English—he had done so well that he was ranked 2nd in class! I was really caught off-guard, but that message really made my day.
According to Ash, it was the grammatical concepts covered in class, plus all the effort he’d put into doing revision exercises, that paid off. In fact, recognising now that he had the potential to reach greater heights, Ash requested to have classes twice a week to push him up to the Normal (Academic) stream. It’s a testament to how much he has grown in such a short time span.
What we can learn from Ash’s success story
Let’s go all the way back to the beginning: here is a young man with several learning difficulties, all of which had made it difficult for him to focus and learn in typical classroom settings. His success, however, is telling—no child is without strengths. Ash was able to overcome his language difficulties and do better than many of his peers who have no learning difficulties.
This does not come easily, however. Hard work, determination, motivation and guidance are all needed. It may seem like a constant uphill struggle but the important takeaway here is that there is a pathway to success. Success and progress are relative, not absolute. See your child with different lenses, and you may just find the right formula for them.