Not until Lucy* entered elementary school did her teachers realise she had dyslexia, a learning difficulty marked by complications such as the inability to read due to problems identifying speech sounds and how they relate to letters and words.
It was a concerned student counsellor that found the eight-year-old's inability to keep up with her fellow students was due to dyslexia and not a low IQ as earlier thought by her teachers.
Having the condition meant she found it an uphill task to not just read and spell but also memorise and solve maths problems, pronounce names and words, and more.
Today, preteen Lucy is on the Fast ForWord programme, developed by neuroscientists to improve language and literacy skills while concurrently developing memory attention, processing speed and sequencing.
Lucy is making significant progress.
To gauge the perplexities of the learning disability, Life spoke with neuroscientist/education technology innovator Dr Steve Miller and paediatric physiotherapist Cheryl Chia, both key speakers at the Bangkok 2017 Educating With Neuroscience conference which took place last month.
Both agreed research today showed that for the vast majority of dyslexics, before they start to struggle to learn to read in early school years they already have failed to establish a strong oral language system as toddlers and preschoolers.
Dr Steve Miller. Photos Courtesy of Naresh Indhewat
They also caution educators to not get complacent with using traditional tools in teaching reading, regardless of how professionally and often they are applied, as they will not necessarily work for students struggling with reading until perceptual, cognitive and linguistic skills are corrected.
Miller rates dyslexia in the top three learning disabilities prevalent today.
"Children who experience delays in learning to read with no good reason to explain it have a good chance of having dyslexia, which can also include specific difficulties with maths.
"A lot of people get freaked out with mathematics, and so we have a culture where being bad at maths is OK. A common thing a parent might say is, 'It's OK, I was not good at maths either'. However, most parents would not say, 'I wasn't good at reading either'."
Miller said Dr Paula Tallal's testimonial about dyslexia before the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology best summarises the condition.
He said science has progressed "to reliably explain the condition, to know how common it has become, its cognitive basis, its symptoms and remarkably, where it resides in the brain and evidence-based interventions which can turn a sad, struggling student into not only a good reader, but one who sees himself as a person with self-esteem and promising future".
Miller said years of scientific research has concluded that reading success hinges largely on a solid foundation of rapid and consistent listening and oral language, particularly phonological skills, and that weakness in these two areas predisposes a young mind to subsequent reading failure.
Key risk factors leading to deficits in phonological awareness include a family history of language impairment and low socio-economic status.
While the aforementioned are not shared exclusively, he said, research has found that a significant number of struggling readers tend to have more than one of these risk factors.
Chia, who is the founder of BrainFit, which specialises in scientific brain development training for children, with centres in a host of cities including Bangkok, said that it is her understanding that most students with dyslexia share similar learning issues.
"What we have observed across the board is that our children are not focusing.
"Attention deficit has become an issue. Language skill problems are a close second. The third part is linked to the whole sensory motor," remarked the Singaporean paediatric physiotherapist.
"There is much parents can do to keep such learning disorders at bay. My message to parents with children from infants to age six is that school does not begin when you go to school.
"Cognitive foundations are being laid down at an early age. Building the brain does not necessarily mean learning your alphabets and numbers, but rather exercise of the brain, especially when you are looking at very young children.
Paediatric physiotherapist Cheryl Chia. Courtesy of Naresh Indhewat
"So building blocks is one such activity which builds space concept. Also threading beads, when you thread beads your eyes need to focus and your fingers need to be still. You are building handwriting skills and visual fixation."
Old is indeed gold when it comes to the art of learning, continued Chia.
"Go back to traditional play. Modern technology is building a short attention span for our children. The brain becomes a lot of what you do.
"If a child plays on an iPad for a long period of time, switching from one activity to another, it ruins their ability to focus. Our attention span, even among adults, is getting shorter due to this activity.
"For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children aged 18-24 months who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing.
"For children aged two to five, limit screen use to one hour per day of high-quality programmes."
Chia, who has 20 years of experience in cognitive training, said if we do not tackle these issues at an early age, the risk of children getting attention deficit disorder goes up.
Parents should keep in mind the brain is an organ; if you have certain behaviours and habits that are perpetuated those pathways will build and grow.
"The behaviour will correspond towards what the brain is used to, so choose your activities wisely, because each activity is almost like exercise for the brain. So ask yourself what muscles you want to build.
"It is just an organ that becomes what you feed it. The brain has no intelligence in choosing. Likewise, a young child doesn't choose, so parents have to step in and do activities with them that will stimulate the brain," she said.
Chia said learning disorders are an interplay between environment and our genes.
"Parents have to know their children to address areas they might be weak in. A weakness might not be a weakness for life, so knowing your child will give you an advantage to choose activities for that child because every brain is different."
