Customer Reviews

The Gift of Dyslexia, Revised and Expanded: Why Some of the Smartest People Can't Read...and How They Can Learn

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

My son is dyslexic. For years, reading was a source of frustration and inevitable tears. He struggled, I struggled, his teachers struggled. Little improvement was made for years.

Then, for 4th grade, I homeschooled him. My father bought me this book. I devoured it. I learned from it and I put it to use. THe changes were dramatic and faster than I could have ever expected.

The book explains so much about the nature of dyslexia, and it gives realistic excercises to do. And they are fun to do, so even my reluctant 9 year old was enjoying himself!

Now he is in 5th grade back at his old school. And he loves to read! Loves it! He's read Tolkien. He's on book 14 of the Redwall series. He reads everyday, and every night, in the car, in bed, everywhere. I am so grateful, so very grateful for this book.

As well as helping us bring the love of reading into my son's life, it also explains some of the benefits of dyslexia. Yes, benefits! Now, my son doesn't feel stigmatized. He is learning to put the strengths he has to use, and this book will help you do the same!

A life-changing book, I recommend it for anyone with even a touch of dyslexia. You will find it empowering!

I have not only read the book, but was also fortunate enough to find a trained Davis facilitator to help my 9 year old son begin the process outlined in the book. My son , Edward is in the 3rd grade at a private school in Nashville, TN. Edward is very smart, but he couldn't learn to read. Yes, he could read with great frustration and "muddle" through, but only at about beginning first grade level.We had him "tested" on the advice of his kindergarten teacher(auditory processing was the diagnosis)and we began the painful tutoring journey with phonics-based programs(Linda-Mood Bell, Orton-Gillingham, Wilson,etc.) In spite of following the "experts'" advice Edward could not read. His teacher and tutor said "he wasn't trying hard enough." Not trying hard enough? Baloney! I saw daily the look of pain and frustration on my child's face as he struggled to read. He simply had not been given the right tools to decode the English language. Edward is dyslexic. This program has given Edward the tools he needs to be a fluid reader with full comprehension. His self confidence is high and he's having fun. I am greatful to Ron Davis for sharing this information with my child and me. It has changed my child's and my life forever. Thank you.

A friend loaned me this book when I told her I thought my 9 year old could hardly read. She is extremely bright (GATE child), yet could barely read a beginner's chapter book. It was a fight just to get her to read 10 minutes a day. Her teacher told me she had identified her for remedial reading.

I read The Gift of Dyslexia cover to cover in one afternoon. The next day I did the "perceptual ability assessment" with my daughter, literally reading the script as we went along. She understood right away. The next day we did the "orientation counseling." At the end of the session, she was so excited to discover which words were "making her brain jump." After that we did the clay letters and clay representations of her "jump" words. She was retested at school and she now reads above grade level. She also loves to read and is enjoying the Animorphs series.

I also use the "orientation point" when she works on math, specifically math facts. She can now whiz through her multiplication table, and when she gets frustrated, knows that it is the "brain jump" that occured.

I would highly recommend this book, even if your child has not been diagnosed as "dyslexic." It has changed the lives of everyone in our household.

This is the most positive and helpful material I have found for working with dyslexic children. I tried the techniques Ron Davis outlines this year with an 8 year-old girl diagnosed with dyslexia. She progressed from a Reading Recovery testing level of 6 (PP2) in October to a level of 24 (3.2) in May. We will continue the words/definitions in clay this summer. I was amazed that she understood what I was asking her to do. I'm not sure I understand it because my mind doesn't work that way. I tried just using Reading Recovery techniques but it wasn't enough. She seemed to need to discovery and control her mind's eye. Her body is so much more relaxed and she doesn't rub her feet on the carpet when she can contol her mind's eye. This book offers a way to help children rather than label them.

In January of '99 my first grader was completely unable to read. After formal testing at a university, special education intervention, and endless hours of struggle, I sat down and studied this book. By April of '99 (3 short months) my daughter was reading at a second grade level! I have since then gone on to complete the program described in the book for other students with good success. One 9 year old girl went from a pre-primer reading level to a 2nd grade reading level in just 5 days! Furthermore, the book offers hope. While dyslexia clearly causes problems it also offers special talents. Knowing what those are enables me to encourage interests where she is naturally gifted. Albert Einstein, Alexander Grahm Bell, Thomas Edison... my daughter is in good company. Read this book!

After years of being told that I was strangley talented in visual and mechanical fields (I'm not autistic by the way), but really not smart enough to go to college, finding this book was like finally finding myself. I joined the military because I was "not smart enough" to go to college. About a month after its initial publication, this book crossed my path quite by chance. My life has changed drastically since finding this book and putting the theories into practice. The first college class I took after working with this book was completed with the first 'A' of my life. I recently received my first college degree and am continuing on for another. While this book gave me the tools to work through college, it also gave me the appreciation of my gift- my strange lifelong ability to use tools and create things with my hands and mind. It finally explained it all. Thank you Mr. Davis, you have altered my life in immeasurable ways. This is a must read for anybody who is dyslexic.

This book has been very useful in helping my 8 year old son who struggles with reading. I homeschool my son and have been working with him on reading using phonics based methods since he was about 6 years old. Phonics is necessary part of any reading program, but we just were not making progress. He could sound out any CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant, like cat) word you gave him, but he had to sound them out EVERY SINGLE TIME even after having read them dozens of times. In spite trying to keep reading low stress and homeschooling to give him more time to develop, he still disliked reading and it was a struggle anytime we worked on this subject. I have checked into many programs for dyslexia, but most of them address phonics based challenges where my son has no problem.

This book is the first resource that I have found that seemed like it might address my son's type of difficulties without spending hundreds of dollars a session on a therapy that might or might not be effective. After reading the book I set aside some time to be alone with my son and we did the assessment and orientation activities. We couldn't do it perfectly and had to take lots of breaks because my son is very squirmy, but in spite of our imperfect implementation it gave my son as sense of control over his mind that I had not seen before. We have now done the clay alphabets and are working on spell-read and he is already showing improvement in word recognition. Now, I will give the critics of this book one point, it is not "scientifically proven" to be effective and I am not sure whether the cause of dyslexia discussed by the author will ever be proven or not. I don't know if it will work for every type of dyslexia, but what it has done for my son is to give him a sense of control when he is trying to read. He is now able to get back on track and doesn't just "meltdown" when he starts to get confused. I would say for the price of a book and a couple of hours of one on one time that that is a tremendous result! So just ignore the "education experts", get the book anyway and use what works for you. Also, don't worry about about the mind's eye thing being wierd, it sounds kind of psychic or something, but you could just as easily think of it as a camera lens. It is just point from which you mind sees things. The best example that I can think of to how this works is when you look at a word and the spelling looks wrong even though you know that it is correct, but when you look at the word again later it looks fine. Your mind just automatically corrects what ever it was that made it look funny in the first place. Well basically what these activities seem to do it help the dyslexic use their mind to make the corrections that your mind makes automatically. Not really so strange when you think about it.

I'm a volunteer in a local school and have been working for 20 minutes a day with two girls, 10 and 12 for almost a year. When I started, they were reading at mid second grade level and having trouble. I began researching to see if I could find other methods to help the girls. As I read about dyslexia I became certain this was the issue for one of them. The school purchased the book and the materials for me to utililze with her. We taped her reading before and after my week with her. It is totally unbelievable that this is the same child doing the reading. She is now saying she likes to read, she feels better about herself, and is doing better in other areas. Her current book is about a 6th grade girl with dyslexia, someone she can relate to. We decided to try the program with the ten year old "just in case it might work" and I just completed my five days with her. The results are phenominal. She is reading a fifth grade book and loves it. She has three more books checked out to read when she finishes this one. Before this week, one page tired her. The girls went into the visualization so easily that I doubted my abilities. But they see their dots and know exactly where they are and how to use the technique. We've got a long way to go on the word definitions and time will tell how well it continues to work for each of them. I wonder if this technique would work with other learning gifts! I will be trying it with others, it certainly can't hurt them, providing we make it clear that it might not work. The school, the parents, and I are overwhelmed.

First, should Mr. Davis ever read this, let me first extend my most sincere, heartfelt thanks for using your painful life experiences to help others. Thank God you were able to find a way to not only help yourself but were willing to pass that knowledge along!!

Second, if you are a teacher who thinks this book and/or program couldn't "possibly" apply to your students because, "They're not mirroring their writing" or "They're not showing reversals like a dyslexic would" you REALLY need to open your mind and read this book to realize that the least common (yet, unfortunately, most known) symptom of dyslexia comes in the form of reversals. If your phoenetic teaching doesn't seem to be working for extremely bright kids (or is working slowly but surely), PLEASE, for their sake, consider implementing this program!!

Finally, I swear that Mr. Davis wrote this book specifically for my 6 1/2 year old son. My son's IQ was tested in the superior range. He showed extremely early verbal capabilities and has frightened me with his intelligence many, many times. He is one of the smartest people I have ever known, but he can barely read to save his life! My step son, on the other hand, has Asperger's Syndrome - he has zero common sense, can barely carry a conversation, lacks independent thought, etc. - yet, he can pick up anything and sound it out to read it with about 85% accuracy (he just turned 6). Having both boys in my home has underlined my son's reading problems. He has an IEP and is is learning support for his reading and writing. Yet his LS teacher *still* claims my son can't be dyslexic b/c he barely reverses his letters. Ugh! Show my son the word "Man" and he'll say "Guy" - show him the word "boy" and he'll say "Kid". If that isn't a person thinking in pictures, I don't know what is!!

Anyway, we are going to participate with a Davis instructor this summer and I can hardly wait! The assessment showed my son is clearly an excellent candidate and she actually had him spelling his middle name (Alexander) backwards and forwards within five minutes (he couldn't even spell it nor would he try before she had him do it in clay). That showed me beyond any doubt that this program is the best thing to come along for our family and is definitely the answer to our problems when it comes to my extraordinarily bright child's inability to read.

Thanks again, Ronald Davis!! God bless you!!

If you are a parent, grandparent, caregiver, child care worker - anyone who has the opportunity to help a bright child who is struggling with reading - please consider purchasing this book to see if the reason YOUR bright child can't read is because of dyslexia (regardless of what the school says!). It certainly cannot hurt and might just be the key to open the door for them!

Dear Ron -- I wish I could express how much your book The Gift of Dyslexia has meant to me. It is like you showed me the missing parts of my life and now they fit in the right places. I'm so grateful for your research. Most books about dyslexia are not written to dyslexics - but yours resonated with me. Your simple explanation of the nature of `intuitive thought' and how a dyslexic knows the answers without knowing why connected my life the same way in the movie The Empire Strikes Back when Luke Skywalker musters the courage to fight but Darth Vader steps back and says: "You can't kill me, Luke ...I'm your father!" suddenly you understand back over three episodes why Vader never killed his son, you understand why Obi-Wan Kenobi was worried about Luke and the force - It's that kind of powerful understanding. Sorry I have to write using an analogy but it the way my brain works.

Other book insight - Your book explained why as an army Ranger pointman (LCo 75th Rangers 101st ABN) I knew where the enemy would be without being able to explain why. Dsylexia saved my life and the lives of my men. This book should be mandatory reading for every teacher, parent, writer, solider and anyone who thinks they may me dyslexic or ADD. I've ordered books for all my friends, clients and anyone interested in the subject.
Thank you again for your gift.
Regards,
Larry Chambers

PS: I almost forgot, today I'm a writer. Why tell you this becuase I couldn't read with comprhension until college. This year I'll top 1000 magazine articles and 50 published books. I created a ghostwriting business for those University of Chicago types that can't write below a PhD level and wonder why no one understands them. I'm currently finishing a book written in the style of a memoir and without saying or explain dyslexia showing it's effect and the resulting `shame' from growing up thinking your less than everyone one else.