October National Dyslexia Month Passes U.S. Senate – Strengths

 From our friends at  dyslexicadvantage.org  

 

Huge thanks to Senators Bill Cassidy and Barbara Mikulski for creating Senate Resolution 275 establishing October as National Dyslexia Awareness Month. The resolution passed unanimously by voice in the Senate on Friday. Dyslexic Advantage is proud to be included among the supporters of this resolution (Decoding Dyslexia, International Dyslexia Association, Learning Ally, Louisiana Key Academy, National Center for Learning Disabilities, the Odyssey School, and Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity).

Exciting for us is that this Senate resolution included strengths in its definition of dyslexia. It is important that strengths be included in formal definitions of dyslexia because it is the only way that students’  strengths will be routinely recognized among dyslexic students, and therefore appropriate education provided. The most common situation is that the intelligence and abilities of dyslexic students are grossly underestimated.
From the Senate Resolution:

We hope the growing consensus about dyslexia will mean from this point going forward, that no child or parent will have to hear from their teacher or school that dyslexia is not recognized.