Our Successes

Joseph’s Story

My name is Joseph Mittiga, I am 8 years old and I attended The Children’s Dyslexia Center for two years.   I would like to share my story with you.

Before I went to the Center reading was a chore because I didn’t know many words and that made me feel anxious to read.  My writing was unusual in many ways; such as my words were floating above the line, sometimes backwards, and sometime my letters were upside down and others backwards.  I hardly knew my sounds.  When I compared myself to my sister and brother I felt like I was the one behind in learning to read.

I learned many things during my time at the Center.  Some of these things are known as my tools that I keep in my toolbox. This is not a literal tool box, but the tools I learned to use and carry with me everywhere.

I learned how to finger spell, which I still use today when I want to spell words that I don’t know.  This is when I use my fingers to tell my brain what sounds I need to use to spell the word correctly.  Highlighting words that I didn’t know helped me to pay attention to them, to read them correctly.

Tracing, is when my finger tells my brain what is really on the page.  I put my finger on the desk and trace the word I see.  Doing this makes my brain pay attention to each letter sound and then I am able to pull the entire word together.

Another thing I learned, was when I read and don’t understand the sentence, I reread until I understand what was going on in the book. These are all the tools I keep in my toolbox.

I felt like The Children’s Dyslexia Center helped me in the greatest ways, because now I’m reading chapter books.  When I go to the library, I just pick books off the shelf and start reading them.  This makes me feel like I’m not behind anymore and when I want to read on my own, I do.  At night, I read with a book light in my bed.

Thank you for the gift of reading.