Tutor tales

Kids say the darndest things

Reading is hard for dyslexic students. This is a mantra all parents, teachers and tutors should hold paramount in their minds. One popular mantra is a dyslexic's brain works five times as hard as a non-dyslexic to process the same information.

Ellen, a lovely 8-year-old, poignantly drove this point home for me during one tutoring session.

She had progressed a long way in the year I’d worked with her, and was now reading three- and four-syllable words and increasingly complex sentences. But this day she seemed discouraged, upset.

During a power struggle over getting her to read a word, I attempted to soothe her feelings. “You know, Ellen, I’m just trying to make this easier for you.”

“It’ll never be easy!” she retorted.

“I know, honey. I’m just trying to make it easier.”

“It’ll never be easy,” she wailed, banging her fist on the table. “Never. Never. Never!”

It’s a lesson I will always remember.