By Pat Lawrence
Gale Long of NewHorizons Dyslexia Correction Center. |
Gale Long believes that dyslexia is a gift, the result of perceptual
talent. She says, “The achievements of Albert Einstein and Leonardo
DaVinci were possible because of their dyslexia, not in spite of it.”
She is a facilitator of the Ron Davis Dyslexia Correction method,
one of 25 facilitators practicing east of the Mississippi and 298
worldwide. She has worked with over 100 dyslexic children, teens and
adults, teaching them how to keep the good parts of their talent but
turn off the parts that cause confusion when they need to.
At first a secretary, Gale home-schooled her two daughters, and later
became a substitute teacher. “When my daughter started dating
a boy who was dyslexic, I got interested in the subject. I found Ron
Davis’s book and recognized it was something that could change
people’s lives. I thought back and realized many kids I’d
taught were dyslexic.”
Gale talked it over with her husband, who said “You would be
perfect for it.” Gales might not have gone on without his encouragement,
“but once I started, I knew this was what I was supposed to
be doing.”
The course is taught in California. With eight different weeks of
class, practice weeks, training sessions plus travel and hotel expenses
in California and New Jersey, it cost Gale about $13,000 to become
a licensed facilitator. Since 1999, she has traveled from her home
in Elkview to the mid-Atlantic and surrounding states helping struggling
dyslexics bridge the gap between their multidimensional, picture based
perspective and a linear, verbal world.
Dyslexia, a general term used to describe various learning problems,
was eventually subdivided and categorized to cover over 70 different
learning disabilities. Gale was taught that dyslexics are able to
experience mental images as actual perceptions and can experience
thought as reality. “The primary thought process of the dyslexic
is a non-verbal picture-thinking mode. Verbal thinkers conceptualize
2-5 thoughts of individual words in a second, but picture thinkers
can conceptualize 32 individual pictures in a second. When dyslexics
look at an alphabet letter, in a split second, they can see dozens
of different views, from the top, sides, and back, mentally circling
around the letter in three-dimensional space. “It’s why
many dyslexics say reading makes them physically ill.”
Famous Dyslexics
Alexander
Graham Bell
Jay Leno
Cher
Winson Churchill
Walt Disney
Danny Glover
Whoopi Goldberg
Charles Schwab
Albert Einstein
Nelson Rockefeller
General George Patton
Quentin Tarantino |
Gale says words that describe real things don’t cause dyslexics
much trouble, “but it’s impossible for a non-verbal thinker
to think with words whose meanings can’t be pictured.”
There are about 200 of these ‘ trigger words’. The key
triggers for disorientation include such basics as be, was, about,
have, a, the, because, which, what, when, through, such, now, it,
between, before, as, and I.
“The words are part of their speaking vocabulary but dyslexics
can’t give a definition if asked and don’t have a mental
picture of the words meaning. Reading sentences with these confusing,
meaningless components produces dyslexic symptoms because the picture
being formed by the sentence is stopped each time an unknown word
cannot be incorporated into the picture. The problem is compounded
every time there’s a word without a corresponding mental picture
and the picture becomes more incoherent. Concentrating intensely,
the reader just gets more and more confused, and eventually, disoriented.”
Gale says, “What every dyslexic needs is the ability to think
with the symbols and words that trigger disorientation. They must
learn to think with the words that cause them the most discomfort.”
Individualized training to turn off the confusion takes about 30
hours and costs $2500. Gale says, “We teach them a skill that
involves orientation and how to turn the disorientation switch ‘off’.
With dyslexics, their ‘mind’s eye’ wanders. We give
them a place to park it when they read, help them establish a fixed
orientation point. The rest of the time, it’s free to go where
it wants!”
Gale performs a free assessment before anyone enrolls in the course.
“Someone with seven or more of 37 characteristics is likely
to benefit from the program.”
One of the first students to benefit from Gale Long’s teaching
became her son in law, the boy her daughter was dating in college.
For more information, contact Gale Long, New Horizons Dyslexia
Correction Center, 304-965-7400 or l-188-517-7830.
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