A mother’s love benefits whole nation

BIRGITT Sauber, a mother of three and a qualified goldsmith, turned her whole life around to help her dyslexic son.

In doing so, she is now offering hope to parents with similarly afflicted children where there was none before. Her son was struggling at school and no one knew why, until he was finally diagnosed with dyslexia in Grade 5.There was no professional help available in Namibia for this condition, so Sauber went onto the Internet to learn more about it and how she could help her son.She learned about a course for dyslexia facilitators in Germany, phoned on a Monday to enquire about it, and three days later was in Germany taking the course.”I have in the meantime taken every available course and I keep on taking them to learn as much as I can so I can properly help the children,” she says.”I keep on taking courses to further my training and to keep up with the latest techniques and developments.”Her determination and hard work paid off, and today her son is studying at university.Dyslexia causes difficulty with reading and writing and literally means “difficulty with the lexicon” in Greek.It is estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of the world’s population is dyslexic.With proper training, a dyslexic child can become an average scholar.It is not an illness, rather a special way of thinking.Dyslexic people mainly think in the form of pictures – therefore dominantly using the right brain hemisphere which is responsible for creativity and non-analytical tasks, while the left brain hemisphere deals with the analytical duties like reading, writing and math.Therefore, dyslexic people are visual, multi-dimensional thinkers who are intuitive and highly creative, and excel at hands-on learning.Because they think in pictures, it is sometimes hard for them to understand letters, numbers, symbols, and written words.Throughout history a number of famous people were dyslexic, like Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Whoopi Goldberg, Winston Churchill and Tom Cruise.The IQ of a dyslexic child is average to above average.Couples who intend having children and have a family history of left-handedness, migraines, allergies and middle-ear, nose and throat infections should be on the lookout for dyslexic symptoms in their children.Early warning signs of dyslexia can already be discovered in infancy.Indications are, for example: a weak sucking reflex, a short or no crawl phase at all, an early or late onset of speech and difficulty remembering rhymes or sequences like for example weekdays.If a baby does not crawl, for instance, the Corpus Callosum does not develop to its full potential.The Corpus Callosum is the bridge of nerves in the human brain which connects the left and right brain lobes and passes messages between the two hemispheres.In dyslexic children, messages or nerve impulses are not sent from one side to the other easily.A strong interaction with both hemispheres reflects an easy learning process at school.A child who is in Grade 2 or Grade 3 can be diagnosed and treated by someone like Birgitt Sauber.Before that the children usually see an occupational therapist.Dyslexic students need training methods like Auditory Integration (AIT) – specialised physical, mental and analytical exercises to enhance the use and the development of the left hemisphere to master analytical tasks like reading, writing and mathematics.It is of utmost importance that every child who is diagnosed as dyslexic receives special education.Each child needs individual attention according to their needs, as each child has difficulty in diverse fields.Through the special learning techniques and individual daily exercises, dyslexic children can become average functioning students within two years, provided that the student is motivated and has a strong support system of parents, teacher and trainer.Daily exercises lead dyslexic people to fluency in reading and spelling and efficiency in their studies.People who suspect that their child might be dyslexic can contact Birgitt Sauber at (061) 23 2482 for advice.Her son was struggling at school and no one knew why, until he was finally diagnosed with dyslexia in Grade 5.There was no professional help available in Namibia for this condition, so Sauber went onto the Internet to learn more about it and how she could help her son.She learned about a course for dyslexia facilitators in Germany, phoned on a Monday to enquire about it, and three days later was in Germany taking the course.”I have in the meantime taken every available course and I keep on taking them to learn as much as I can so I can properly help the children,” she says.”I keep on taking courses to further my training and to keep up with the latest techniques and developments.”Her determination and hard work paid off, and today her son is studying at university.Dyslexia causes difficulty with reading and writing and literally means “difficulty with the lexicon” in Greek.It is estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of the world’s population is dyslexic.With proper training, a dyslexic child can become an average scholar.It is not an illness, rather a special way of thinking.Dyslexic people mainly think in the form of pictures – therefore dominantly using the right brain hemisphere which is responsible for creativity and non-analytical tasks, while the left brain hemisphere deals with the analytical duties like reading, writing and math.Therefore, dyslexic people are visual, multi-dimensional thinkers who are intuitive and highly creative, and excel at hands-on learning.Because they think in pictures, it is sometimes hard for them to understand letters, numbers, symbols, and written words.Throughout history a number of famous people were dyslexic, like Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Whoopi Goldberg, Winston Churchill and Tom Cruise.The IQ of a dyslexic child is average to above average.Couples who intend having children and have a family history of left-handedness, migraines, allergies and middle-ear, nose and throat infections should be on the lookout for dyslexic symptoms in their children.Early warning signs of dyslexia can already be discovered in infancy.Indications are, for example: a weak sucking reflex, a short or no crawl phase at all, an early or late onset of speech and difficulty remembering rhymes or sequences like for example weekdays.If a baby does not crawl, for instance, the Corpus Callosum does not develop to its full potential.The Corpus Callosum is the bridge of nerves in the human brain which connects the left and right brain lobes and passes messages between the two hemispheres.In dyslexic children, messages or nerve impulses are not sent from one side to the other easily.A strong interaction with both hemispheres reflects an easy learning process at school.A child who is in Grade 2 or Grade 3 can be diagnosed and treated by someone like Birgitt Sauber.Before that the children usually see an occupational therapist.Dyslexic students need training methods like Auditory Integration (AIT) – specialised physical, mental and analytical exercises to enhance the use and the development of the left hemisphere to master analytical tasks like reading, writing and mathematics.It is of utmost importance that every child who is diagnosed as dyslexic receives special education.Each child needs individual attention according to their needs, as each child has difficulty in diverse fields.Through the special learning techniques and individual daily exercises, dyslexic children can become average functioning students within two years, provided that the student is motivated and has a strong support system of parents, teacher and trainer.Daily exercises lead dyslexic people to fluency in reading and spelling and efficiency in their studies.People who suspect that their child might be dyslexic can contact Birgitt Sauber at (061) 23 2482 for advice.