A database of news and information about people with disabilities and disability issues...
Copyright statement: Unless otherwise stated, all posts on this blog continue to be the property of the original author/publication/Web site, which can be found via the link at the beginning of each post.
An eighth-grader's study of a learning disability that affects her and up to 20 percent of people in the world earned her a trip to the state social studies fair in Baton Rouge next week.
Mary Morgan Anglin (pictured), 14, decided more than a year ago to study dyslexia. She knew early on that she processed information differently from others, but she wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until nearly fifth grade.
Although her project is in social studies, she focused on scientific facts about dyslexia. She also balanced research with her experiences.
"I wanted to make it really personal, but I didn't want it to be 'Oh, pity the poor dyslexic girl who overcame it,'" she said.
Dyslexia causes problems with language skills, especially reading. People may have trouble with spelling, word recognition and providing information gained through reading, such as answering comprehension questions on a test.
"They call it the mother of all learning differences," Mary Morgan said.
Her mom, Leann Anglin, helped Mary Morgan remember spelling words in elementary school by making up cheerleader moves for each letter in a word. These days, Mary Morgan makes up songs and dances to learn new information.
"For my husband, Mike, and me it was always best for us to listen to Mary Morgan and allow her to tell us the best way for her to learn, even at a very early age," Anglin said.
They also encouraged her strengths, including a flair for drama and performance. Mary Morgan said she has no trouble reading and remembering scripts, possibly because of the format and movement involved in acting.
While in elementary school, she participated in a tutoring program that helps students who learn differently. First Baptist Church School in Shreveport offers a similar program called Discovery Lab.
Students skip enrichment classes and go through an intensive phonics program one to five times a week during the school day in the Discovery Lab program. It costs extra but provides certified language therapists, said Kari Turner, First Baptist development director.
"The program was founded more than 10 years ago to help remediate students with dyslexia or other language differences," Turner said.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From The Shreveport Times in Louisiana:
