The Dyslexia Educational Network (DEN) is the world's first broadcasting company for dyslexia. DEN broadcasts worldwide at DyslexiaEd.com. Founder Robert Langston has dyslexia, is a parent of a dyslexic child and has authored of two books about his experiences with dyslexia in school and life.
And actually my foreign language requirement set up my next accommodation which is a reader. Because when… what they do when they test you for foreign language… I mean, your learning disability, what they’re looking for, right, is the variance. You know, is he really high on some levels and then really low or blocked on other levels. Cause that tells you it’s not an IQ problem, right. It’s actually an intelligence… it’s a blocked way that the brain is wired. So that’s what causes that variance. Well in testing that, I tested out at functionally illiterate. Lower than a 5th grade reading level, right. So now they’re saying, so Rob, we need to give him a reader, you know, in the classrooms. Now I’m five years into college. How did I get five years into college without the reader before this? Well I’ll also tell you what my mom and I figured out is. There’s a blue-collar method – that’s just what I call it, a blue-collar method – to get anything you want in school, it feels like. So what was my blue-collar method? My blue-collar method… by the time I left college I had this down to such an art… I actually listened to my friends’ voices and if I heard a voice that I liked and thought I could to for a long period of time, I would ask them ‘do you read well?’ and if they said ‘yes I do’, I would say ‘I would like to pay you to read my syllabuses on to tape for me.’ Now understand this, people who can read have no clue what a great gift that really is. None whatsoever. So I’m talking about pennies on the dollar. I’m talking about five dollars, ten dollars, to have an entire syllabus read onto tape for me by someone who reads really well. And if they were in the class, they weren’t going to read it anyway. They were going to go get the cliff notes; they were going to knock it out, right. But now if they’re in my class it’s a dual benefit because they’re actually going to hear the information, right. So now okay I’m going to have it read onto tape for me and you know because when the teacher says we’re reading Machiavelli next week. Pages, you know, 300 to 500… what do I do? Back then I grabbed my cassette which I had it recorded on; I popped in my cassette and I listened to it while I drove around town… while I drove back and forth from the college to home. And guess what? Teachers picked the information because it’s good information. It’s worth learning. So what am I doing? I’m listening to it and I do a process what I call internalizing it. Meaning if it’s good, I don’t listen to it just once. I listen to it two, three, four, five times, right, until I can internalize the information and then use it in life. That’s a powerful difference. Because what do we want to do with education? What was education build to do? Education is built to give you something – a tool – that you can use in life to get the results you want, right. Well I’ve figured out now how to internalize it. I just take it… and I’ll tell you a sidebar story. My brother calls me up one time and says, ‘Rob have you got Bush, Sr.’s book on his presidency? Right. And I was like ‘no I haven’t.’ and he goes, ‘well it’s a great book you ought to get it.’ So what do I do? I swing by the Barnes and Noble, you know. I run in there; I get the book on tape, right… on cds. I go out, I stick it in my cd player, about a week, I knock it right out. Right. I call my brother back, ‘oh my gosh, how about the story when he was shot down in the ocean and he’s floating out there and he doesn’t want to float ashore because they’re eating the hearts of the enemy on the shores and he’s trying to stay out to sea til he gets rescued.’ My brother goes, ‘I didn’t read that one.’ I said, ‘why not? best story in the whole book!’ Now think about this, when I did my first book. My publisher told me ‘doesn’t matter what’s in it, Rob, because 85% of all books that are bought are not read. They’re read maybe a little bit but they’re not finished.’ Right. So now I got to thinking, who’s learning at full capacity here: the person who can’t read and is getting the information – and all of it – or the person who can read and isn’t reading – isn’t getting the information? So what am I telling you? I’m telling you, I’m not talking about L-D kids. I’m talking about learning at full capacity. I’m talking about taking education and applying it back to life. How novel’s that approach? Let’s take what we learn in school and apply it to our lives to make our lives better. That’s powerful stuff, right? L-D kid’s figuring it out. You know, I’m figuring it out but I’m looking around going ‘this is amazing.’ See my mom gave me an incredible gift – she taught me my learning style and said, ‘Rob go out and learn.’ That’s powerful, powerful stuff. Every student needs that. Right. So getting back to the story though… we got the reader, right. So when I took my test they said ‘Rob needs a reader.’ Well I already had my blue-collar method and actually back then I had to get qualified by the library of the blind – which is who was providing that stuff. And I had already done that back in like 8th grade. My parents flew us to New York because you had to have a medical doctor sign off on this, right. And so I was getting my textbooks… the only problem was the library of the blind sent you the entire textbook and it was on tape. Big orange recorder… don’t know if any of y’all have seen these, you know -- the big orange recorder, you stick it in there so only you can play it, right. But you can’t find the page number. I mean you can’t find what the professor has picked out for you to learn on that syllabus, right. Cause they go through a lot of trouble to find what’s good and what they want to teach in that class, right? So all of a sudden I’m getting these books on tape but I can’t use them because I can’t find where I am or what I’m doing. Right. So the reader, the blue-collar method, actually worked better for me.
The Dyslexia Educational Network (DEN) is the world's first broadcasting company for dyslexia. DEN broadcasts worldwide at DyslexiaEd.com. Founder Robert Langston has dyslexia, is a parent of a dyslexic child and has authored of two books about his experiences with dyslexia in school and life.
I hit middle school – and every teacher’s different, right – so I hit a teacher who said, “I’m not going to oral test Rob. I just don’t believe in it. Not gonna do it.” So before my mom moved me to my new teacher – whoever that was going to be – she would ask a question… you know what’s so funny, and again going from your gut… After serving on the state advisory panel for special education for the Georgia Department of Education for 7 years, taking the reauthorization and making it fit the rules and regs for Georgia, I realize that mom actually asked the question that is the letter of the law today. She would always say, ‘what do you believe a reasonable accommodation for my child is based on his learning disability?’ So when she asked that, this one teacher said, “well I’ll give him all the time he wants to take this test. I think that’s a reasonable accommodation.” Right. So then my mom turns to me and says, ‘can you do that.’ Now that’s a powerful part of this. My mom turns to me and says can you do that. What am I talking about? I’m talking about a triangle for success. I’m talking about the parent, the teacher and the child being active in that process. Right. And today I’m talking about it even more. These pictures up here are wonderful but why do I have grandparents in the pictures? Because they’re an important part today. You know we’ve got more people today under the same multi-generational families under the same roof today than we had in years and years and years. These grandparents are making a huge difference, you know. So I’m saying the significant other, whoever is going to make a difference in that child’s life, that triangle has to be there. They have to be communicating with the teacher, the child and the person – the guardian – whoever it is over that child, right. So mom says ‘Rob can you do this?’ And I said ‘yeah mom I think I can;’ because I’ve got these powerful memorization skills. Obviously from the story I shared starting this, I don’t have many more, you know. But the fact of the matter is back then in flight or fight mode, I had powerful memorization skills, ‘cause my mind didn’t know I couldn’t. And so I said ‘mom I think I can do it,’ Because what I did was I literally went home that night and I memorized the spelling. ‘Cause see, based on my brain, which I’m going to tell you a little bit later, I don’t have any words in my long term memory for fluency. Right? So I had to go home…I memorized the spelling of literally every single work I was going to use on that test the next day. And sure enough, I go to take the test the next day; I walk in, teacher says go; whole class starts. We’re writing, I’m writing everything and I’m spelling it all correctly and I’m writing and I’m writing… bell rings. What happened? Did it really take me an hour to get 5 questions done on this 25-question test? I guess so when you’re trying to remember the spelling of every single word that you’re trying to use on the test, right. So now I don’t know what to do, so I look to my teacher, you know, ‘what should I do?’ Teacher says, ‘Rob you got a 10 minute break. Just work through the break and let’s see how far along you are when the break’s over.’ I said okay. So sure enough, maybe I don’t write everything I know, right. So I cut it back a little bit. I’m writing, I’m writing, I’m writing… bell rings again. Now I’ve got five more questions done on this 25-question test. Ten questions on the 25-question test done, right. Next class comes in. Now Johnny who’s suppose to be sitting in my seat is sitting on the floor next to me. All my peers in there know I’m not suppose to be in there. ‘Rob, what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing?’ Right. How much more of that test did I finish? Zero. I stood up, I turned my test in, the next day I brought my F home to my momma. I walked up, I handed her the F, she looked at it and she said, “Rob what happened? You got them all right til you quit. Why’d you quit?” Did I quit because I’m dumb, lazy, slow? No, absolutely not. And because I knew it was a valid answer in my house, I said, “mom I was embarrassed.” I was embarrassed. Because remember my mom’s going to protect my self esteem no matter what. So all of a sudden, what happens now? This is middle school, right? What’s mom do? Here we come with me in tow into the school, right. Everybody says Rob, when’s your mom let go, you know. When does she quit helping you? My mom will call me after this program today, ‘how’d it go Rob? Did it do good?’ You know, last night mom was ready to drive – my mom had chemo tomorrow… I mean today, but she was saying ‘I can skip it and we’ll go help Rob in Mississippi.’ You know my dad’s like, ‘you can’t skip chemo. This is something you can’t skip.’ Right. You know, so when did you let go? She didn’t. And I think that’s important for parents to know. You know and I think that’s important for teachers to know. You know, when do you let go of a child, at what age? Well, I’m 44 years old and my whole family was coming to my rescue last night.
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…was a note taker. Where’d that come from? Well when I tested out I think I was like 22… I can look it up in the book but I think I was 22 years old at the time and when I took the test for Richard I was actually listening and comprehensive skills on a 33-year-old level. Right. So in the classroom what am I doing? I’ve got tremendous auditory skills. I’m listening, taking in information on a 33-year-old level, right? That same test proved that I’m writing on as low as a 3rd grade level. So what am I doing when I’m taking notes? What am I not doing when I’m taking notes? Listening. I get 85% of what I know from listening. What should I be doing the entire time I’m in a classroom? Listening! Is it really that simple? Absolutely. So what do I need? I need a note taker. Why do you need a note taker? ‘Cause again people who take notes well don’t know what a great gift that is. ‘Cause what are they actually listening for? They’re listening for what’s going to be on the test. They’re listening for what the emphasis are in the class. And they’re taking all this information down and I want that. Now I’m only reading on a 5th grade level but that’s going to give me my outline for studying. Right? So what do I do? As a blue-collar method before they require that I have a note taker for the class… what do I do? I walk up… at the first week of class I’m sitting here and I’m watching pencils. Right? That’s what I do in class. I’m listening to the teacher but I’m watching pencils, right. And then if I see someone taking notes really well then I kind of look real close and see if they write neatly, you know. And then if they write neatly, I walk up to them after class and I say, “Hey my name’s Ron Langston; I have this thing called dyslexia. I was wondering if I could pay you to copy your notes.” Now again, how many people turn me down to pay them for something they were going to do anyway and did well? Didn’t have any clue what a gift it was. Right? Pennies on the dollar, five dollars… ten dollars… in order for me to get my entire notes for the entire semester taken for me by the best note taker in the class. Who’s learning at full capacity here? Who’s learning they’re learning style despite being able to read, write and do math, right? So all of a sudden, you know, the note taker and the reader come out. So that’s great. And the school actually find…now I’m in my 5th year but they give me a note taker and it boiled down to the professor at the beginning of the quarter would raise their… or semester and would say, “who in here takes notes well?” And inevitably somebody’s hands would go up, right. And he’d say, “I would like for you to speak with Rob Langston after class, you know, and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do for your effort. Right? And so then they… sure enough, that’s how I got my note takers from my classes from then on forward. But prior to that I used my blue-collar method.
The Dyslexia Educational Network (DEN) is the world's first broadcasting company for dyslexia. DEN broadcasts worldwide at DyslexiaEd.com. Founder Robert Langston has dyslexia, is a parent of a dyslexic child and has authored of two books about his experiences with dyslexia in school and life.
So you know, when do you let go? You don’t have to let go. And so all of a sudden, here we come into the school with me in tow. This time mom doesn’t go to the teacher though. She goes to the administrator, right. She goes to the vice principal. And she said, I’ve got a problem. Rob… the changing of bells and the changing of classes is messing up Rob when it comes to his testing. What I need is the third accommodation – I need for you to give him a separate classroom for him to take his test in. Right so what’s the school say? Oh we have tons of class, we’ve got tons of room, tons of teachers. Yeah, we’ll do that for Rob. No problem. Well no it wasn’t that easy, right? But my mom will tell you, she cried, she got angry. She did whatever she had to do to get me what I needed. So what they literally did… and I tell this story to kids all over the country. I have half a million kids that I’ve spoken to at elementary school age around the country… and I tell them that was my first special ed classroom. Because literally we went down the hall; we went into this classroom, they took the sink off the wall. They took all the mops and the brooms out and they stuck me in the janitor’s closet. And I tell kids, now I know what you’re thinking, ‘Rob they haven’t done you any favors here.’ You know right. But the fact of the matter is, what that first classroom was, worked for me. What was it? My first special education teacher’s job was to test me, right. So what happened? My job wasn’t… also my mom realized this early on too… her job was not to make the regular general ed teacher’s job harder. Her job was to make it easier for someone to help her child. So what does that teacher do? Now they don’t have resources galore, right? What do they do? They give me a teacher to go in that classroom and on class day… now I’m in regular ed classes the rest of the time. Bright intelligent child, I can take in the information no problem. But on test day, what happens? I go to my special ed room – a desk literally in the janitor’s closet, right. And the regular ed teacher puts the test in the box in the teacher’s office right. And on the day of the test, she grabs the test, comes down to the room. I come down to the room, walk in there. We sit down, then she reads me the questions, I tell her the answers. Verbatim – she writes them verbatim, still testing me for what I know, not just what I can write, right. And then she forwards that back to the regular ed teacher through her box for the… to be graded. Right. So what are we doing now? We’re making it easier on the regular ed teacher. We’re still testing me for what I know and that’s my separate classroom. Now I also got to say, if you meet my learning style. If you meet my learning needs, do I need to untimed tests anymore? No, actually I don’t. I held on to it because I was smart enough to know that the path I was blazing would help other students eventually, right. So I kept it in the repertoire but I don’t need untimed test anymore. If you read me the answers and I tell you the answers I’m done in five minutes because I know and I can tell you more than you can write. You know we could go on for days on what I know about this subject ‘cause I’m an auditory learner. I take it in auditorially and I can spit it back out auditorially. That’s powerful stuff. So now if you meet my learning style, you meet my learning needs, what happens? I’m back in the class before the regular class starts taking the regular test that day. So what happens? Now I’m sitting in there doing just busy work and my friends are looking around going ‘Rob, why aren’t you taking the test?’ ‘Oh, I’m finished.’ Self esteem goes up, right. ‘Cause now we’re talking about my intelligence level. Intelligent child… that’s powerful stuff.