School no longer nightmare

ROBYN EDIE/Southland Times

HAPPIER: Scott McDowall, 12, of Riverton, with his pet rabbit Zoe, is learning to overcome his dyslexia.

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Judy McDowall used to break down and cry when her son Scott came home from school and asked "Why am I so dumb?"

The Riverton woman had struggled to pinpoint the cause of her 12-year-old son's learning disability since it first appeared during his time at Riverton Kindergarten.

"School has always been a nightmare for Scott. We had so many phone calls about the latest trouble he had been in," she said.

"The attacks on staff members, both verbal and physical; diving out the window because the teacher had blocked the door; the stand-downs all because he couldn't read or write.

"He would become so anxious and overcome with panic that he just had to get away from everything. He would hide and if he felt anyone was threatening him or his possessions, he would scream at them," Mrs McDowall said.

She knew her son was not dumb, because he displayed intelligence in other ways, such as his ability to take apart and reassemble motorbike engines from age seven.

"Scott just couldn't understand the written word. He would see the first letter of a word and just guess. Getting it wrong most times meant he would stop guessing and say `I don't know'," she said.

"Scott would ask 'why am I so dumb?' and it would tear me apart."

In March, Mrs McDowall went to a talk in Queenstown by Ron Davis, of Davis Dyslexia International, about his private battle with the disability.

It was then she realised what her son was going through, Mrs McDowall said.

It made her think about how many parents could have dyslexic children without realising it, she said.

"I looked around the room at the hundreds of people who were all nodding their heads as if they had all come to the same realisation," she said.

"He (Mr Davis) was talking about his own life but he might as well have been describing Scott."

Scott spent 11 days on the Dyslexia Untangled programme in Gore, which Mrs McDowall said gave him the tools to survive at school.

Because he struggled to understand words with no associated image, Scott used clay to construct words he did not know, then discussed what they meant with his mum.

If he felt confused or stressed by learning, he would throw a softball back and forth with someone for a few minutes while standing on one leg, which helped focus his thoughts.

After only a few weeks, Scott was noticeably more confident and excited about attending Aparima College, where he is in year eight, Mrs McDowall said.

"My greatest fear was that he would grow up on the wrong side of the law, given his quite violent behavioural problems," she said.

"It was very hard on his teachers, and that's where I blame the Ministry of Education a bit. They're leaving it to the schools to find out about these problems but they don't have enough information.

"If the ministry wanted to help people, then they would be bringing (dyslexia) experts on board instead of dragging the chain."

- michael.forbes@stl.co.nz

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