Mid-Prairie holds dyslexia presentation

Mid-Prairie held a Zoom presentation on dyslexia Monday night, hosted by Mid-Prairie home-school teacher and Certified Dyslexia Specialist Mindy VanZuiden.

“As a parent of a student with dyslexia, I have made it my mission to spread the word so people don’t have to struggle through school,” VanZuiden said. “They can get the proper assistance by calling it what it is, and acknowledging it and then tackling it with known interventions.”

The presentation is one of a handful VanZuiden has given on behalf of the organization Decoding Dyslexia Iowa.

“I’m beginning to develop a series on these things,” she said. “I had given an overview of dyslexia back in October in Williamsburg, and it was well-attended and there were a lot of questions that were asked … so, I decided it needed to be given at more locations.”

VanZuiden said the presentations were designed to counter common misconceptions about dyslexia.

“It’s a language barrier for many students that can involve not only the reading and writing aspects of written work, but it can also affect their ability to speak verbally, to process their thoughts, to be clear in what they’re trying to communicate,” she said. “It comes on a sliding scale, you can have mild to moderate to severe to profound dyslexia … dyslexia is one of the most common, if not the most common, learning disability in the world.”

While it’s more common than many would think, VanZuiden said hard numbers were sparse due to underdiagnosis.

"A lot of times, mildly dyslexic people don’t get diagnosed. They create coping mechanisms and survive through school … and while they don’t get red flagged, they don’t get extra help,“ she said. ”By raising awareness and getting our teachers that are in the school system already supporting dyslexia and remediating it, we’re giving the masses a much better chance.“

VanZuiden said that awareness would be key to catching signs of dyslexia early for students.

"What we know is that the earlier we diagnose, the earlier we can begin intervention,“ she said. ”The brain is more plastic when they’re young, so intervention tends to have a smaller way to go the earlier we get them because they’re not as far behind … When we wait longer they’re going to have a larger gap, and they’re going to have to work twice as hard to close that gap.“

Ultimately, the hope is that improved awareness will give way to improved education.

"Schools don’t have a lot of awareness about dyslexia, teachers are not truly prepared to teach students with dyslexia,“ VanZuiden said. ”It’s just not been a part of our teacher preparation programs in the past. We have a gap right now in what teachers know and what curriculum they’re using and what research tells us about dyslexia and where we want to get.“

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com