A Typical Day OF Debbie The Dyslexic
By Cecilia Laverty A 16 year old high school junior

It's about 6:59 on Monday morning. Dawn has begun and the stars are still visible. Debbie is startled out of her familiar "late for school" nightmare. She peers through her sleepy eyes to read the time. "Phew, it's only 5:59. I have another hour!" She rolls over and quickly becomes warm and cozy once again. An hour later she wakes up and the clock reads 7:59, not 6:59 like she expected. Debbie shoots out of bed and races off to school.

She sneaks into her first period class, Intermediate Algebra. The class has just received their tests back. When Debbie reads her test score, she is shocked. "70%, how is that possible? That test was so easy!" She takes a closer look and discovers why. On problem number three she had copied down the question wrong, on number six she had mistaken the multiplication sign for an addition sign, and on number ten she had skipped a crucial word in a problem-solving question. She is comforted by the fact that she had done the procedures correctly and, if it weren't for those darn mistakes, she would have received a higher mark.

Debbie walks slowly to second period. She begins to think that her poor grade in mathematics is a premonition of the events to come in later periods. Debbie slumps down into her chair while her American Literature teacher passes back the class's essays. Debbie's has a big, red C+ on it, but that isn't all. The whole essay had been destroyed by evil red marks. Debbie feels a large knot growing in her stomach--today was not her day. In the essay she finds that she had confused the three different forms of "there", wrote the word "the" twice in a row, and spelled countless numbers of words incorrectly, including Aphrodite, which she spelled three different ways. Unfortunately, only one was correct. Debbie tries to think positively. "What could possibly go wrong next period?"

The bell to signify the beginning of third period rings. "Today, in US History, we are going to learn about the colonists and their desire to conquer from east to west. Debbie would you please read the caption under the map on page 3 for us?" asks Mrs. Adams. "Okayy---" says Debbie. "The minifest destiny mentality healed by the colonists prevented peaceful compromises between themselves and the Nieve American Indians." The whole class started to giggle.

"Are you retarded or something?" says one of her classmates. Debbie's face turns bright red, and her eyes began to well up with tears. She wasn't going to cry though. No! She didn't want anyone to know how much it hurt her, and besides, maybe if she shut up, they would just forget about it. The bell rang; Debbie lets out a big sigh.

On to fourth period: Spanish. A similar scene repeats itself. She hates reading out loud. What is the point? She couldn't sound out any of the words quickly enough to make them sound like complete, comprehensive words, and when she reads aloud she spends so much of her brain power trying to read, that she can't retain anything that she has read. She would have to go back and reread to herself in order to understand what the text meant. While Debbie was lamenting this, Mr. Elm was trying to find a paper he had lost. In his frustration he said, "Hay, tengo Dislexia porque no puedo a encontrar el papel."

"Dislexia", Debbie thinks. "What in heaven's name does Dyslexia have to do with not being able to find a missing paper? Sometimes I get the impression that my teachers don't fully understand what Dyslexia is." The bell rings--free at last!! Debbie is so excited to talk to her friends. She just met a really nice guy over the weekend and he asked her to Homecoming. Her friends soon join her at their usual lunch table. Debbie is so excited, she can't wait any longer, "I-I-I-got..." Her friends start to laugh at her stutter. Some friends they are, Debbie thinks. Billy comes strolling up to their lunch table. He stops within a foot of Debbie and yells, "Retard" and runs back to his group. They all laugh uncontrollably. Sarah helps by trying to change the subject, "Oh, I just heard the funniest joke." At the punch line everyone bursts out laughting--even Debbie. Truthfully, Debbie has no idea why she is laughing because she doesn't understand the joke. The rest of Debbie's lunch period is spent trying to figure out the joke.

The school day continues and Debbie continues to struggle in her next two periods, physics and volleyball. Volleyball is especially embarrassing because whenever the coach says to go right, she goes left and when ever the coach says to go left, she goes right.

At 3:30 Debbie drives to educational coaching. In her session, her coach introduces her to a Franklin Electonic Speller which she can use in class to help her spell words correctly. He reminds her to circle key words in directions, as well as to double check that she copied the numbers down correctly in mathematics.

That night she spends over six hours doing homework--a pretty regular routine--and barely finishes her homework before the clock strikes 12.

The following week Debbie takes advantage of the advice from her educational coach. Her scores improve as the weeks progress. Debbie's confidence is on an incline.

The main character of this story, I modeled after the author. Some days are just like Debbie's day, and some are virtually error free. Everyday is a new day with new challenges for her to confront. Some days are harder than others, but none the less she does survive. She has worked her entire life to learn ways to deal with Dyslexia and now, more than ever before, she has become its master. Currently she has a 4.0 GPA, has played on the varsity team in volleyball, is a prominent leader in her church youth group, and as commissioner of outreach in Faith club, a Christian club at her high school.

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