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Dyslexia Can Be A Crippling Condition and It Is Encountered Head

The document discusses a film called Like Stars on Earth that depicts the struggles of a child with dyslexia and the passion of his teacher to help him. It describes how dyslexia causes difficulties in reading and academics but can be remedied. The film shows solutions based on Montessori principles and how one teacher helps the child find his creativity and overcome his challenges.

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Jen Espina
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32 views1 page

Dyslexia Can Be A Crippling Condition and It Is Encountered Head

The document discusses a film called Like Stars on Earth that depicts the struggles of a child with dyslexia and the passion of his teacher to help him. It describes how dyslexia causes difficulties in reading and academics but can be remedied. The film shows solutions based on Montessori principles and how one teacher helps the child find his creativity and overcome his challenges.

Uploaded by

Jen Espina
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dyslexia can be a crippling condition and it is encountered head-on in this captivating film.

 Like
Stars on Earth happens to be my all-time favorite of a film about a teacher. The film captures all
the pain of children who struggle as well as the passion of a teacher who truly cares. The role of
the teacher encapsulates more fully what a real teacher needs to be and do than any other movie I
have seen. You will see him systematically challenge not only the child, but his parents, the other
teachers and the principal. Standing up for a child and who he can become is a complex process
and this teacher shows us how it’s done.

This film was made in India and distributed in the US by Disney. It is available on Netflix and
other venues. Public libraries often have a good selection of films, or you can rent them or even
buy your favorites through Amazon.com.  A short preview is included at the end of this post.
Like Stars on Earth tells the story of a child in modern day India, eight-year-old Ishaan. Ishaan is
literally losing his soul in a harsh, uncaring school system with parents and teachers who do not
understand his dilemma. He cannot read. He is dyslexic, but no one recognizes the problem.
They see the symptoms, but entirely miss identifying the cause. He becomes withdrawn and
deeply depressed after repeated failures in academic settings that neither meet his individual
needs nor acknowledge what they are. Although this film depicts a fictional character, Ishaan’s
story is all too real.

The film depicts dyslexia and its horrific pain, as well as solutions based on Montessori
educational principles. One teacher who truly understands and cares finally arrives on the scene.
The love of a substitute art teacher becomes the bridge for Ishaan to find the hidden and
repressed creativity that lives so richly within him. His teacher, portrayed by actor, director and
producer Aamir Khan, sees the child who is not yet there.

If untreated, dyslexia can cause a child to fail academically because reading is such a core skill in
learning everything else. What parents are relieved to understand is that it is a problem with
neurological wiring and is no reflection on their child’s intelligence. In fact, most dyslexics are
above average in intelligence.

The even better news is that dyslexia can be remedied and even overcome.
In 2003, Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity,
published Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading
Problems at Any Level. She describes dyslexia this way:
Dyslexia does not represent an overall deficit in language, but rather, a localized weakness
within a specific component of the language system: the phonologic module. The word
phonologic is derived from the Greek word phone, meaning sound (as in phonograph or
telephone).  The phonologic module is the language factory, the functional part of the brain
where words are broken down into their elemental sounds….
It has now been shown that the brain can be rewired and that struggling readers can become
skilled readers.

Shaywitz goes on, in her ground-breaking book, to explain precisely what children need to
overcome dyslexia. It all starts with learning t

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