ferrouss@tekgen.TEK.COM (Ferrous Steinka) (08/20/87)
Does anyone out there know of public domain or inexpensive programs which are intended to teach? I would like to help a family with a dyslexic teenage boy. This boy has channeled most of his efforts to hiding his affliction, and he has been VERY successful at doing so. He is a 16 year old grade 10 student labeled lazy, an absolute wiz at video games, and is moderately good at most things which don't require him to read or write. It was thought that he might have an eye-sight problem so was tested. He came through with flying colours; he KNOWS the alphabet. Since he could READ the chart, the thought of him not being able to read never crossed their minds. A close friend who works with handicapped children noticed that his behaviour seemed similar to that of dyslexic children. Subsequent testing has revealed a grade 5 reading ability and a grade 3 writing ability with no cursive cabability at all. His family is devastated, not being able to believe that they could not have recognized this. Tim (not his real name) has become quite defencive since being 'found out'. He has withdrawn from any type of social contact and doesn't want to go to school anymore for fear of being branded 'dummy'. Special classes are likely and teenagers can be cruel. He would rather continue with his charade than to be so branded. Since he seems so good at video games, I thought that there might be game-like tutorials aimed at reading and math skills. The environment is IBM-XT running DOS 3.1 w/hard disk. Please excuse me for being so verbose but I really thought that in order to respond appropriately, you would need all of the above information. A response by e-mail to ferrouss@tekgen.TEK.COM or by std-mail to Ferrous Steinka 18570 S.W. Alderwood DR. Aloha OR. 97006 will be greatly appreciated... Thanking you in advance... Ferrous