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150 (21) Signs of a dyslexic child's problems in processing language usually surface long before he goes to
school. He may speak a jargon that only the family understands, or, at 30 months, fail to speak even two
155 word sentences. (Early motor development may also be slow or uneven.) He may be incapable of
remembering the order of words in a nursery rhyme or become bewildered when given simple directions,
especially if they involve top and bottom, first and last, or other time and space concepts. He may confuse
160 or forget the names of things. As one five-year-old puts it, «Me brain good, but me brain forgets».
(22) As they get older, the same children whose charming mispronunciations — «psgetti», perhaps, or
«aminal» — dotted their early conversations, may continue to talk «baby talk» because they don't
165 understand which sound accompanies which letter or the order in which they hear certain sounds. They
may be unable to distinguish among p,b and d, learn words by sight-recognition, or write letters without
reversing them. Although many of these problems occur in all early readers, they usually disappear by the
end of the first grade.
170 (23) By fourth grade, children with LDs who have not been diagnosed may lag behind their peers by
several grade levels, especially in reading. The gaps are puzzling; the children may be able to do tough
175 math equations in their heads or reason through complex questions in science, but make «stupid» mistakes
on more elementary material; they may tinker with electrical circuitry, computers, and intricate modal kits
but never read directions.
(24) Poor memory and difficulties with language affect all aspects of these children's lives. By the time
180 they are in junior or senior high, many students are walking disasters, and they are at their worst in
departmentalized settings. They may not be able to understand a roster, find the right classroom, keep five
different notebooks, or bring in five different assignments. If they haven't gotten help from an educational
185 therapist trained in learning difficulties, they will find it virtually impossible to handle higher-level
reasoning, such as making inferences an associations, rapidly retrieving facts, using sophisticated language.
And when they learn facts in a particular order or context, they're lost if they have to use the information in
190 a different way.
(25) The traits common to most dyslexics — forgetfulness, disorganization, and inability to discern
verbal or visual cues — affect social behavior as well as academic performance. A child may not be able to
195 follow his mother's directions because his short-term memory is poor. He may be a sore loser simply
because he cannot grasp (or, perhaps, remember) the rules of baseball (any more than he can grasp or
remember the rules of language), he may talk too loudly or too long or make inappropriate remarks because
200 he does not comprehend the unwritten rules of conversation. And though disorganized rooms are certainly
not unique to children with LDs, very often such external chaos — as well as disheveled clothing, cluttered
bookbags, or messy notebooks — is a reflection of inner turmoil.
205 (26) Emotional problems — from tantrums in the early years to truancy and drug use later on — are a
direct result of the learning-disabled child's living life as a «failure». Rarely do children become depressed,
give up on schoolwork, or get into trouble because they want to.
210
(27) «We have to remember that children want to please their parents», says Naomi Stine, the special-
education coordinator at Junior High school 143 in the Bronx, who also has a private practice in
215 Chappaqua and Scarsdale. She acknowledges that parents will find it hard to accept the fact that their child
has a learning difficulty — but she urges parents to pay attention. «Especially in homes where education is
valued», she says, «if a child isn't doing well in school, parents need to find out why».
From the New York magazine, September, 1988.
* «psgetti», for «spaghetti»
* «aminal», for «animal»
MAN OF WISDOM
by Robert Jastrow
1.
Starting about one million years ago, the fossil record shows an accelerating growth of the
human brain. It expanded at first at the rate of one cubic inch
1)
of additional gray matter every hundred
5
thousand years; then the growth rate doubled; it doubled again, and finally it doubled once more. Five
hundred thousand years ago the rate of growth hit its peak. At that time the brain was expanding at a