What does Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg, Lee Kuan Yew and many more bright and successful individuals have in common? They are affected by a neurological condition known as Dyslexia.
According to the International Dyslexia Association (2017), 5 to 10 percent of the global population have dyslexia. In a report published in Malaysia, this figure, 10% is also consistent in our school-age children. Dyslexia is not a disease or an intellectual defect; it is a language-based disability. Individuals with dyslexia process written words and speech differently, and this affects their ability to read, write, spell and say words.
However, researchers have observed that many dyslexics exhibit above average abilities in areas, such as music, art, mathematics, sports as well as speech and drama. Dyslexia is a lifelong condition; but a dyslexic child can acquire language and literacy skills through evidence-based approaches administered by trained therapists. MWAW spoke to Dr Choy Su-Ling, a mother of three children with learning difficulties and founder of Altuz Academy, to understand how dyslexia affects children.
Founding the Academy
For founder Dr Choy, Altuz Academy is more than just a learning centre. With altuz meaning ‘high’ or ‘elevated’ in Latin, the academy aims to assist individuals, particularly children achieve greater heights in literacy skills.
When Dr Choy’s eldest son was seven years old, he was diagnosed as being dyslexic. She signed him up for numerous therapies to improve his condition.
Dr Choy, who herself has a background in communications and language, decided to take up a course to help her son . There, she was introduced to the Orton-Gillingham approach.
The Orton-Gillingham approach has been around since the 1920s. There are over 70,000 peer-reviewed research papers on this approach and it has been proven effective across the board.
After slightly over a year of teaching her son with this approach, he was able read at the same level as his classmates and his self-confidence also had a boost. Seeing how successful this approach was, she decided to help other children and hence the idea of Altuz Academy took shape.
Altuz Academy
The academy offers one-to-one and small group intervention, standardized screening and literacy assessment. Children can be screened as early as four years old to identify risk of dyslexia (low, moderate or high). This information allows parents to make informed decision(s) on early intervention and other necessary support.
Children can begin reading intervention as early as four or five years old, depending on their developmental readiness. A child receiving early intervention would be more prepared academically for their primary years. A formal diagnosis, on the other hand, is administered by qualified medical doctors and psychologists on children seven years old and above.
The Orton-Gillingham literacy assessment allows therapists to benchmark a child’s starting point and to use the information therein to prepare a detailed individualized tutoring plan. The assessment will be repeated once a year to track and measure improvements. “Our detailed and regular reporting not only tracks progress, but also give parents the assurance of their child’s improvement over time,” said Dr Choy.
During sessions, the therapists will equip students with skills to decode and encode, which are essential foundational tools for reading and spelling. Children with learning difference (dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc), global development delay, ADHD or Asperger’s can be taught to read with the Orton-Gillingham approach.
Workshop for Parents
Altuz Academy also conducts workshops for expecting parents and parents with children 0 to 4 years old. The workshops help to educate young and first-time parents about the importance of building early literacy skills, instilling the love for reading in children, how-tos and what-tos of buying age and level-appropriate books and educational toys, looking out for signs of learning difficulties and other essential parenting knowledge.
“I wish I had someone share with me all these crucial information when I was a first-time parent. I would have saved so much time and money, and made a lot less mistakes!”
Working with a Trained Specialist
It really takes a village to raise a child – more so when it is a child with special needs. Many therapists may be working with a child at any one time, depending on the identified challenges. Just as medical doctors specialize, so do special needs therapists.
“We recognise that therapists providing occupational therapy, speech therapy, applied behavioural analysis (ABA) therapy, and so forth spend many years in formal education and practicum, and that their practice standards are governed by local and/ or international bodies. We work very closely with all these therapists to support our student(s),” said Dr Choy. “Parents are also now more aware that special needs intervention in Malaysia has evolved and there are a lot more trained and specialized therapists.”
A dyslexia therapist is known as an Academic Language Therapist. A trained and qualified dyslexia therapist is one who already possesses a Bachelor’s degree and subsequently, have undergone rigorous training and practicum of at least (another) three years before they are allowed to practice independently. The intervention sessions are not to be mistaken as English tuition.
An Academic Language Therapist has the ability to apply the Orton-Gillingham approach or any structured literacy approach, and to write an individualized plan that incorporates level-appropriate content with its structured, cumulative and multi-sensory elements.
As a Mother with a Dyslexic Child
When my child was first diagnosed, I was enveloped by grief. I grieved for the loss of his future, for the pain and challenges he has to go through compared to other children. Looking back, I think it was a necessary process; because one can only find acceptance after they’ve grieved. And after finding acceptance, it was all about taking action – and taking action is key,” said Dr Choy.
Taking action is not without its challenges. “First, there’s not many people I could talk to. My friends and family do not know what dyslexia is. Second, while there was a lot of information online, it was difficult to filter sites and information that were legitimate. When in doubt, speak to a qualified medical doctor as they are the ones who would be able to help point you to the right direction,” she added.
“Third, be prepared to spend a lot more money and time than budgeted (for typical education) because your child may need more than one therapy, additional and special-purpose learning and therapy materials and tools. In addition, helping him with his school work or therapy exercises at home will take up a significant amount of your time. Frustration and tears are common. But your hardwork, especially in the early years, will be rewarded when you see improvements. It is important to celebrate every small win.”
"But your hardwork, especially in the early years, will be rewarded when you see improvements. It is important to celebrate every small win.”
What Keeps Her Going
Dr Choy’s greatest motivation comes from seeing her children improve and making significant progress with the Orton-Gillingham approach. She said, “Seeing my eldest make gains from not being able to read to now reading chapter books has brought me so much joy. My seven-year-old twins are also reading two to three books a day.”
She said, “I can’t give up (learning or teaching) because if I do, I give up on my child too. My work is far from done.” With her students, there is nothing more rewarding that seeing a child mastering all the sounds and combining different sounds to blend their first word successfully. “It’s like hearing your child say his or her first word!” she said excitedly.
As a Female Educator
Dr Choy does not see being female as a disadvantage in the education industry. “In fact, I think it is an advantage as women are perceived as more nurturing. Most women also have strong intuition and we have the ability to sense and read a child’s need quite accurately,” she said.
Hope for the Academy in the Future
Dr. Choy hopes to be able to help as many children as possible and to raise the reading standards in the children. She’s not only looking only at children with learning difficulties, but normal children too. As the approach can help children with learning difficulties to learn successfully, it would be much easier and faster for normal children to learn their school material too.
Advice for Mothers with Special Needs Children
Parents with special needs children should first consult a doctor in a hospital to obtain a diagnosis. The child may have more than one condition and knowing what they are correctly informs the measures that parents need to take. Secondly, parents should be deeply involved in their child’s learning process.
While it is important to have the support of educators, tutors and therapists, parents must follow-up and teach them at home. “We can see greater improvement in our student when the parents are more involved compared to those who are not. However, we also understand that working parents have less opportunity to assist their child compared to stay-at-home parents.”
"Some parents attempt to "hide" or ignore the issue when the child is younger, but once they attend kindergarten or primary school, what then?"
Get to know Dr Choy
Dr. Choy Su-ling is a mother of three boys. Her eldest is nine years old, and her twins are seven years old. She has an educational background in communications and language and she is a trained Orton-Gillingham reading specialist. Her centre offers both online and on-site sessions. She loves baking, cooking, gardening, travelling and reading. She would love to do more of those, but much of her time is currently devoted to being a mother and an educator.
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