Public invited to learn about dyslexia

A local family hopes to increase knowledge about dyslexia and how it can be diagnosed and worked through for children and adults.

Dyslexia affects up to 20 percent of the population of the United States, but as one local family found out the hard way, the public’s understanding of the learning difference can be spotty and challenging to deal with.

When Emily and Paul Holcombe of Rome noticed that their oldest daughter Ava Belle was having frustrations with school, they weren’t sure what was happening.

“She and our son Emmett are both very intelligent and social and articulate,” Emily Holcombe said. “But they were both having problems with reading. She could know the math and how to do it, but could not read the instructions on the math test the teacher passed out. Emmett could take a cardboard box and disassemble a couple of toys and build a working helicopter, but couldn’t easily read ‘Hop on Pop.’”

With their children getting frustrated, the Holcombes took them to Atlanta last year to get a diagnosis of dyslexia and ADHD.

“There are not many resources here for dyslexic children and their families,” Emily Holcombe said. “A few teachers have the training to teach, but our children needed an immersive program.”

The Holcombes found Gracepoint School in Marietta that uses the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching students with dyslexia. This is named after the developers, neurologist Dr. Samuel Orton and psychologist and educator Anna Gillingham.

The theory combines multisensory teaching techniques along with the structure of English. It uses auditory, kinesthetic and visual learning pathways. This approach is considered beneficial for dyslexic students and other learners as well.

The children are now doing well and should be able to attend a mainstream school in Rome once they’ve adjusted. The Holcombes’ youngest daughter Rosemary is currently in pre-K at Darlington and will be tested when she reaches age 6.

Dyslexia is genetic and generally can be found with ADHD, Emily Holcombe said.

“Whether that is from their coping mechanisms of sitting in class, being bored because they don’t understand the reading or not, can be dependent on the child, but many times, you do see ADHD with dyslexia,” she said.

Emily Holcombe said she remembers being frustrated herself as her two oldest would come home and spend long hours on homework. They would tell her things such as they didn’t think their “brain worked like other kids’” or that their day felt “50 hours long.”

“It is a very common learning challenge,” she said. “In fact, it is the most common, but teachers trained in the best practices for dealing with it can be hard to find.”

The Holcombes’ experience with not only their children’s frustrations but their own when trying

to get the diagnosis and the help they needed has encouraged them to find ways to help others who may be dealing with the same situations.

“I would love for people to be able to access early detection more easily than we did,” Emily Holcombe said. “We were lucky to have the resources and abilities to find the right doctors and the right school, but not everyone has that luxury. Watching your children get so frustrated is a horrible thing.”

She said she would like to see more parent, teacher and community awareness of the issue.

Fortunately, Brenda Fitzgerald, an educator at Gracepoint School and the executive director for the Georgia Educational Training Agency, will be in Rome on April 27 at 7 p.m. at Darlington School to give an overview of the characteristics of dyslexia, diagnosing dyslexia, and how to better understand the most effective methods of teaching students with dyslexia.

The event is free and open to the public, but participants are asked to register on the event website or on the Identifying Dyslexia Association website. Questions are encouraged.

“We want to create a conversation,” Emily Holcombe said. “We also want parents to know that they have a kid with a great brain that simply learns differently.”

She explained that one of the Gracepoint School’s favorite quotes to give families is an Albert Einstein quote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”