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Dyslexia Focused Advocacy
It's important that children with Dyslexia feel safe and supported. Given the wide scope and prevalence of childhood Dyslexia and its associated trauma, we must look through a "trauma-informed lens" to carve a path toward academic success and emotional healing for our children.
Academic Intervention For Students With Dyslexia
Most children with Dyslexia need specific and explicit reading, spelling and writing intervention to make successful academic gains similar to their peers. This is not the same curriculum taught to the typical student and requires much more time and effort. Once your child with Dyslexia starts elementary school they may seem to be learning here and there, but eventually the educational gap will grow, and before you know it they will be years behind the other students in their grade. Unfortunately, this situation is far too common among our clients. To remedy the situation we advocate for:
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Proper evaluation and diagnosis of Dyslexia and comorbid diagnoses
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creation of SMARTER Goals (learn more about SMARTER goals HERE)
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access to proven research and appropriate remediation/intervention programs (find programs HERE)
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monitoring functional and practical outcomes for the student and adjust as needed
Healing From the Trauma Associated With Dyslexia
Your child with Dyslexia will most likely need more than just reading intervention to truly heal from the experience of being Dyslexic. Once your child is in elementary school, Dyslexia symptoms can become more apparent, more difficult to hide, and can be quite embarrassing for most children. Most elementary students with untreated Dyslexia report:
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fear of looking “dumb” in front of their peers and teachers
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Anxiety of being called on in front of the class
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Fear they won't understand what he or she hears
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Difficulty finding the right word or forming answers to questions
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Problems remembering the sequence of things
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Difficulty seeing (and occasionally hearing) similarities and differences in letters and words
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Inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word
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Great difficulty spelling
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Spending an unusually long time completing tasks that involve reading or writing
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Avoiding activities that involve reading
At Advocate To Educate we look through a trauma informed lens to promote healing from the experience of being a child with Dyslexia. This means not just treating Dyslexia with reading intervention, but addressing the trauma and self-esteem issues resulting from the experience.
We do this by:
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Providing referrals to therapists to repair any feelings of physical, social, emotional, and academic inferiority.
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Compassionately educating the child about their disability so as to "demystify" their struggles.
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Teaching the child a variety of self-advocacy skills (usually starting in middle school)
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Educating school staff about the real impact Dyslexia has on their students and sharing a variety of helpful resources on the topic.
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Implementing positive and culturally responsible policies and practices.
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Normalizing Dyslexia by being open and honest about our own struggles without minimizing the students' experiences.
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Using positive and culturally-responsible policies and practices
There is a direct relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic performances for children with Dyslexia. The trauma experienced by children with Dyslexia has long lasting adverse effects -- and most teachers do not pick up on the symptoms. Even if these adverse events that occur for students with Dyslexia don't result in the clinical symptoms of trauma, they can still have a profoundly negative impact on all aspects of a child's development: physically, cognitively, academically, emotionally, behaviorally, and socially.
Parents need to remember there is no magic pill that can fix Dyslexia for their child. We advise parents to learn all they can about Dyslexia, to better understand the complexity of the disability and to be able to support and advocate for their child.

We help families in these districts!
👉 Torrance Unified School District
👉 Redondo Beach School District
👉 Hermosa Beach School District
👉 Long Beach Unified School District
👉 El Segundo Unified School District
👉 Los Angeles Unified School District
👉 Manhattan Beach Unified School District
👉 Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District
👉 Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District
Don't see your district listed? No problem.
We cover all of California.
* Information and referrals may be provided and nothing is offered as, nor should be considered as medically diagnostic or as legal or medical advice. Referrals may be made and are for information purposes only, and no responsibility is accepted associated with the consequences that arise from commerce or dealings with an individual, professional, organization or a corporation. A referral does not imply an endorsement, and an omission does not imply a non-endorsement.