Dyslexia

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

On your own, unfortunately, without consistent professional guidance making very positive changes will be difficult at best.  There are a host of approaches that can help your daughter - but each one needs to be professionally guided over time (and time generally in years, not months or weeks).  There are a host of learning approaches - so behavioral/learning specialists (at times available through schools) would tailor a host of exercises to her directly over time - such of these may be drawn from the orton-gillingham approach.

From a TCM perspective, acupuncture may be used with targeted treatments often related to some of the similar patterns involved in adhd (but not exclusively by any stretch).  This to, would be tailored directly to your daughter over time, potentially using herbal medicine.  But, again, treatment time would thought of in terms of years not months/week.  Any licensed acupuncturist who has been in practice for more than 5 years should be able to help - ideally this person will also practice Chinese herbal medicine.

If you have no access to any specialists or acupuncture practitioners.  Then you may have to try to learn some of the reading methods for dyslexia by yourself and try to work with your daughter.  Additionally, regular mediation practice could be very helpful for her but you will generally have to start with very short meditation times until she acclimates.  Also working with her to have a distraction free environment when studying - no other electronic devices, no unnecessary anything - only what she is working on at that moment.

You should generally never use Chinese herbal medicine without direct professional guidance, but we know this isn't always available.  On children and young adults with this range of issues we often use a single ingredient formula called "pearl powder".  This is only mildly helpful from some of the behavioral aspects, but it is generally very safe and particularly in younger children who for a variety of reasons cannot use other more targeted formulas, this often has a place in combination with all of the other avenues of help.

Comment by Archived User

I also was lucky enough to be diagnosed with Dyslexia at a young age.  I say lucky because back then it wasn't often diagnosed and also, lucky because often there are many positives that come with dyslexia - I would not be so good at my work without certain aspects of my dyslexia. 

I found the book - The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald Davis, incredibly useful to teach techniques that you could do with your daughter that may help. They help with combating the disorientation often felt when looking at words on a page and also with formulating pictures for words that don't have a picture.  If your daughter learnt to read and write in Chinese, she would not get disorientated, as their words are pictures.  

Hope it helps you and your daughter.

Michelle