The Big Picture

There are two main characteristics of the Dyslexic Student: Thinking Style and Disorientation.

The Davis® Dyslexia Correction Program is unique because it works in harmony with the student's thinking style, corrects perceptual disorientations, and provides tools for lifelong learning!

Thinking Style

There are two basic ways people think: Word Thinkers (Verbal learners) and Picture Thinkers (Non-Verbal or Visual-Spatial). Intelligence does not play a role in this distinction - it is simply a difference in learning and thinking styles.

Word Thinkers (Verbal Learners) mainly think with the sounds of words by using an internal dialogue. Verbal thought is linear and follows the structure of language. Thinking verbally consists of composing mental sentences, one word at a time, at about the same speed as speech. This group of learners consists of about 70% of mainstream students, and they do well with phonics.

Picture Thinkers (Non-Verbal or Visual-Spatial) on the other hand, needs to have a picture for every word that they read. For example, when reading a sentence with the word "horse" the student simply pictures a horse, when reading a sentence with the word "book", the student simply pictures some type of book. The student's ability to picture what they're reading is their ability to comprehend.

This type of thinking works great for nouns, however when exposed to non-verbal words such as "the" or "and" there simply is no visual recognition for the words, therefore the words have no meaning, and the comprehension is lost. Phonics does not help these students because phonics is a verbal thought process tool.

Disorientation

Disorientation has occurred to all of us at one time or another. We can readily associate it with how we feel after spinning in a chair, but this also refers to situations wherein the mind wanders while reading. This predominantly happens to the picture-thinker when doing simple tasks such as reading or focusing. When disoriented, dyslexics experience perceptual distortion on the page - making reading an exhausting task.

Ronald D. Davis made a discovery in 1981 that allowed him to control the perceptual distortion that occurs with disorientation. Hear more about his life and the discovery that enabled him to correct his perception:

Why certain words are problematic

When the student encounters "sight words" (the, was, if, and were, in, on, or that) the student has no picture meaning for these words. Try as they may, the student may never get a visual cue from the 2-dimentional word. The mind simply goes blank and/or tries to formulate some picture of what they're intending to read. When this happens it creates a perceptual disorientation for the student.

The perceptual disorientation can manifest itself in a number of ways; it can result in words being perceived as being overlapped, transpositions of letters, reversals, or words becoming so small that they become illegible. Sometimes the letters even jump off the page! Disorientation can be different for each student, sometimes the student is not aware of the disorientation until the disorientation is corrected.

How the Davis Program helps

The core of the program, and the defining characteristic that makes this program unique, is the ability to teach the student to orientate or focus. Once they can master this, the symptoms of dyslexia will become a thing of the past.

When equipped with the right tools, people with dyslexia can intentionally control and correct their perceptions and avoid the mistakes, allowing their gifts and talents to shine.

[The Gift of Dyslexia book cover]

How does disorientation affect reading, spelling, comprehension?

Bottom-line: Disorientation prevents the information from being perceived accurately.