Dyslexia

Caleb barely passed first grade. In second grade, he hoped that his problems would go away. Instead, they grew worse. The teacher gave harder spelling words and more writing assign ments. The books were harder to read, too.

Caleb ran into a new problem: following the teacher's instructions. Caleb did okay when the directions were short: “Open your spelling book to lesson six.”

But when the directions were longer, Caleb got confused: “Open your spelling book to les son six. Take out a pencil and paper. Write your name at the top. Number the paper from one to ten.” Suddenly Caleb was lost. He couldn't remember anything. He couldn't do what the teacher had asked.

Caleb tried to hide his problem. He looked around to see what other kids were doing and copied them. But that made the teacher angry. She said he was cheating.

Over time, Caleb found ways to cope with his problems. In reading groups, Caleb figured out ahead of time which passage would be his. While waiting for his turn, he looked over the passage. He went over the words he knew. When it was his turn to read aloud, he paused at strange words. Usually, his teacher filled them in for him.

Sometimes Caleb asked his older sister to do his homework for him. She did it because she loved him and felt sorry for him.

Every year Caleb hoped his reading problems would go away, but they never did. He still had a hard time following along in class. Yet he often fooled his teachers. He always looked straight ahead, as if he was paying attention. Really, Caleb's mind was a thousand miles away. He only got caught if the teacher asked him a question.