DGD2, who is very clever and insightful, though VERY Dyslexic, comes away with extraordinary things. Aged 7 She explained to me why she is good at maths, art and her piano lessons but struggles with any writing or reading. Her explanation was that " Numbers always denote the same thing e,g, 4 always means 4 things; Music is written sensibly - high notes are at the top of the stave and lower notes further down. Longer notes have bigger dots and short ones have small dots. But letters and words do not sound the same all the time and she instanced Bough, Bow - Bow which can also sound as Bo to rhyme with So but Sew sounds the same although it has an E in the middle.
She is now at high school and has been told that her subject choices for next year must include a foreign language. While DGD2's spoken French is amazing thanks to her other GPs (both retired language teachers) and her Dad's habit of having only 'French (or Spanish or German) allowed' mealtimes, or half days. She has also easily learned the basics of BSL as although it has grammar, no spelling is required and there are different signs for words that sound the same e,g, Bear & Bare. Herself (and her parents) are currently presenting a case to the school for BSL as her 'other' language as she realises that written course work in another language is only going to add to her confusion re spelling.
Sometimes the young ones can clearly see and propose alternatives to things that adults take for granted.
