My sis-in-law just arrived from Melbourne a couple of days ago had earlier emailed me about a book by Ron Davis on Dyslexia and how to handle it. We kind of continued our email conversation last Monday evening when we (my family and I) dropped in at my parents-in-law's where sis-in-law would be putting up for the time being. It was noisy as usual since most of the rest of the family haven't seen them in quite awhile.
It was, in a sense, multi-tasking in action for my sis-in-law as she tried to handle multiple conversations simultaneously. We spoke briefly about Ron's book that she'd bought for me, not realising that I'd already obtained a copy for myself several years ago. I mentioned that the exercises listed by Ron at the end of the book are based on his own experience growing up with Dyslexia. Some of the exercises involved a sensory approach which she could identify with as she had some training in the Montessory teaching method.
We also touched briefly on phonics and I briefly explained how phonics alone couldn't do much for Jon as he struggled to read during his primary school years. He's now trying to read articles about teenagers in the papers. He can do it as long as we parents stay off his back. She mentioned that there are many methods of teaching phonics and each is different from the other. Well, that's where our conversation ended for the time being.
I then spent the remainder of the evening talking to her only son on his pursuit of a Bachelor Degree in Music. I queried him on the course content as well as what he would acheive when he graduates. He said that he would be taught music composition i.e. how to compose music, and conducting which lead me off on a bit of a tangent describing the movie August Rush and how it "show-cased" a non-strumming method of guitar playing. I made sure my missus and Jon was sitting and listening in on the conversation as we spoke. I hope that it wouldn't result in her pushing Jon to practise music harder. I was trying to pique Jon's interest in music and to let him know that there is more to music than just practising a few pieces over and over.
By coincidence, just now as we arrived for dinner at my in-laws', my nephew was sitting at the piano randomly play a few notes that he'd been playing before. Jon and Jay was nearby when he played a piano version of a techno piece the boys liked very much especially Jay. I believe the original was titled "Raver's fantasy". I was impressed by his playing. I took the opportunity to remind Jon that he too could play just as well if he kept practising as instructed by Wai Leng.
Looking at how my nephew played the many pieces from memory, I realised that this boy really loves music and I told him to go all out for the music degree. he'll have my support on condition he composes a special piece for me when he graduates. Mind you, this boy has a learning disability too but it's not Dyslexia. Before they migrated to melbourne and he was only in kiindy, he was getting quite withdrawn as the schools started to apply pressure on him.
His mum had explained to him how the move to Melbourne helped him. Apparently, the schooling system in Oz is very different from Malaysia in the sense that the school allows the child to progress at his own speed. They encourage the child to open up and grow instead of "conform or ship out". She was very thankful for being accepted as PR as otherwise they wouldn't be able to stay long enough for him to adapt and open up and she's been encouraging me to do the same.
I've been thinking about it but financial support has always been my greatest concern. They had a church to sponsor them when they went over and I don't plan to be supported by a church unless its a Buddhist church. Well, I'll just have to keep on planning.
