26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
no text-to-speech on the Kindle Edition?!, September 11, 2011
I am a speech-language pathologist specializing in reading and written language disorders. Our company, Lexercise.com, has been working hard to make affordable, professional evaluation and treatment available online to dyslexics no matter where they live. I have written a post for the Lexercise.com blog encouraging dyslexics, parents and practitioners to read My Dyslexia.
Schultz title, My Dyslexia, lets readers know that he is describing is HIS journey with this occult and often poorly understood condition. Schultz says that his self-awareness "was fashioned by years of psychotherapy and self-analysis and introspection necessary to the writing of poetry." He describes the confusion of trying to understand "where my dyslexia stopped and some bizarre emotional problem began."
This isn't a new story. There are many other accounts written by dyslexics. Contemporary research journals document the negative academic, social and emotional cascade associated with dyslexia. But Schultz uses his poetic, narrator's voice to tell a particularly compelling and moving personal story. His descriptions are concise and visceral, just what you'd expect of an award-winning poet. He describes his childhood with a mother, who believed in him and saw his talents, yet didn't know where to turn for help: "I can well imagine the disheveled logic and desperation that went into her not seeking help for me, except for the remedial help forced on her by my school."
One of my favorite descriptions is of the moment when Schultz first experienced reading: "The process of leaping over my own incapacities to the excitement in the narrator's voice...."; "I seemed to be 'listening' (not reading) to a voice in my own head, to a personage invented by my own fantasies."
Schultz occasionally departs from his personal narrative to draw conclusions: "There is one final clue to dyslexia in children and adults alike: the fact that they are in pain. Dyslexia inflicts pain. It represents a major assault on self-esteem." He quotes the International Dyslexia Association, concluding that many teaching and learning methods "only serve normal learners and are 'detrimental to the at-risk learner' who needs a more 'systematic, structured, multi-sensory approach.'"
Schultz says that he didn't understand that his own "breakdown" was "linguistic and phonetic" until recently, when his son, Eli, was diagnosed with dyslexia by a neuropsychologist, and he recognized the same symptoms in himself. Yet he says, "Even with modern science and technology, every dyslexic must forge his own 'strategy for survival.' " Really? While persistence and self-determination are certainly omnipotent for dealing with any personal challenge, it certainly doesn't sound like Eli has had to completely "forge his own strategy." In fact, Schwartz beautifully describes how Eli is thriving with "self-knowledge and support."
For the sake of the one child in five who suffers from dyslexia, I hope one message that readers take from My Dyslexia is that the path Schultz has made possible for his son, through professional evaluation and treatment, is faster, surer and less painful than was his own torturous path, through "years of psychotherapy and self-analysis and introspection."
Finally, in purchasing My Dyslexia for my Kindle I was startled to read this message: < The publisher has requested not to enable Text-to-Speech for this title.> Of all books, it seems like this one should have Text-to-Speech enabled! I wonder why the publisher would request not to enable Text-to-Speech for a book about dyslexia?
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A marvelous example of what a dyslexic brain is good for, September 5, 2011
This review is from: My Dyslexia (Hardcover)
In "My Dyslexia" Philip Schultz provides a detailed and highly moving account of what it's like to have a dyslexic kind of brain, and to grow up in a world where such brains are neither understood nor valued. Schultz beautifully illustrates many of the cognitive advantages often associated with dyslexia, and which "dyslexic wiring" is actually intended to produce. In our book
The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain we describe these advantages in detail as we have witnessed them in our work as physicians specializing in learning differences, and as described in the neurosciences literature. In reflecting on his own strengths, Schultz attributes the amazing creativity that fuels his award winning poetry largely to the habits his dyslexia has forced him to develop of searching for new solutions to challenges that non-dyslexics deal with unthinkingly. While this training by adversity is clearly important, a growing body of research also suggests that many dyslexic talents--like Philip's remarkable poetic strengths in areas like metaphor and analogy, his ability to assume the perspective of narrators with points of view very different from his own, and his remarkably vivid memory for personal experiences which he is able to reweave into new events and episodes--are also supported directly by the same sorts of brain wiring differences that result in dyslexia-related learning challenges. Schultz's story provides a marvelous portrayal of the kind of late-blooming and highly divergent pathway to maturity that dyslexic individuals typically follow, and of the uniquely creative talents that they can enjoy when given time, encouragement, and opportunity to blossom. One absolutely key message of this book is the contrast Schultz draws between his own early struggles, and the far more secure and positive experience his son has enjoyed due to his early recognition as dyslexic and the understanding and support he has received. While this book will be valuable for anyone who is dyslexic, has a dyslexic child or loved one, or works with dyslexic individuals, its message will be especially valuable for teachers who work in early childhood education, and who have not yet understood the tremendous potential that exists even in some of the children who look least promising in the early grades. We can't recommend this book highly enough!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you want to understand dyslexia, read this book., September 5, 2011
This review is from: My Dyslexia (Hardcover)
I discovered the author reading his opinion piece in the New York Times, "Words failed, then saved me". I downloaded the book thinking I could read it with my dyslexic daughter and ADHD son, but when I tried to read my favorite passages to my wife, I was unable, not because I'm dyslexic, but because the emotion overwhelmed me. This poet explains dyslexia like no medical doctor ever could.
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