Dyslexia Revealed: Yale Experts To Speak In Stonington

    Try and imagine what it must be like for the one in five children sitting at their desks trying desperately to read - to make the connections between letters, their sounds and their meanings. Learn to understand their world and the challenges they face when Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., and Bennett A. Shaywitz, M.D., Co-Directors of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity at the Yale University School of Medicine visit Stonington on Tuesday, April 9 at 5 p.m. to speak on Dyslexia Revealed.  The event is hosted by Stonington Public Schools and will take place at Stonington High School, 176 South Broad St.Pawcatuck.  Dr. Van Riley, Superintendent of Stonington Schools, will introduce this cutting-edge authoritative program on Dyslexia.   A special showing of “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia”, which premiered in 2012 at the Sundance Film Festival, is also planned. School educators, administrators, and parents will have a rare opportunity to learn what it really means to have dyslexia and understand the common misconceptions of this condition that affects one in five children nationwide.  Drs. Shaywitz will also share the latest information about reading and related problems and proven, practical insights that, along with hard work, can help empower children to build self-esteem and stronger literacy skills. In her best selling book Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level, Dr. Shaywitz highlights the latest research about recognizing this brain-based difficulty and offers effective training programs for parents and educators to help children with reading problems.  Her book provides “tools” on how to identify dyslexic children and offers resources that can make a difference at home and in school, including specific methods that can strengthen reading decoding and fluency. Shaywitz is proud of the many teachers and parents who have read her book or attended her presentations who write to her and refer to her book as their “bible.” She has been and continues to be involved in the classroom and working with regular and special education teachers in study groups. While learning to read and accessing and retrieving a spoken word are often problematic, the ability to think and reason are not affected, in fact, are marked strengths in those who are dyslexic. Role models include financial services innovator Charles Schwab, the writer John Irving, and a host of well-known innovators, scientists, physicians and even poets. She emphasizes that slow reading should not be confused with slow thinking, nor should word retrieval difficulties and lack of glibness be misunderstood as lack of knowledge. Dyslexia affects every segment of society, the most affluent as well the most disadvantaged; children who are highly gifted and can read accurately but not automatically as well as average children who continue to struggle to identify single words. Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., is the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale University School of Medicine.  Bennett A. Shaywitz, M.D. is the Charles and Helen Schwab Professor in Dyslexia and Learning Development, and the Chief of Pediatric Neurology at Yale School of Medicine.   Together, their research provides the basic framework for the scientific study of dyslexia and they are recognized internationally for their contributions. A book signing will follow the address. Dyslexia Revealed is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served, children welcome.