Is Dyslexia a Dominant or Recessive Gene? God was in Church with us all.

Yesterday I went to church at Calvary Chino Hills in CA.

We had a wonderful service and my husband, and I stayed afterward to meet Pattie and Steve.  We love making new friends. We talked for a while.

Most of the people had left the church and being the last service for the morning, we weren’t rushed out. Then a little (drummer) boy came over to me. We were close to the front, so approaching me was very intentional.

(I had to say drummer boy because it’s the Christmas season).

He came over to me and said, “Hello.”

“Hi,” I replied. “Do you know me?” I asked.

“No,” he responded. And he waited……

“Do I look like a teacher?” I asked. He replied, “I don’t know.”

 

Okay, so why was this little boy being so friendly?

“Where’s your mom,” I asked. I thought maybe he was lost. He pointed to her about 20 feet away.

“Over there.” She looked at me and smiled.

I wasn’t sure why he singled me out to talk to be my friend. God had given me favor with him.

“Are you in second grade?” I asked. To which he replied, “No, I’m in first grade.”

Then the exchange of questions ensued.

“What’s your favorite color?” he asked me

I replied, “Green. What’s yours?”

He said, “Blue, silver, and gold.”

Then I got in my teacher mode and asked him to name a few blue things. He pointed to a blue picture on my water bottle, and then a man’s blue shirt. I asked, “What about things in nature that are blue?” He didn’t understand my question, so I said, “Like the sky and water are blue.”  I was focused on Jesus and wanted him to connect the beauty of the color of blue with God’s creation.

“Oh yea,” he said.

Since we were in church, I thought of another spiritual question to ask him.

“Do you know where Jesus lives?” to which he replied, “Yes, in heaven.” (He probably made the connection to the blue sky, right?)

“Yes,” I said, “but He also lives in your heart if you ask Him to live in you.”

He said, “Yea, I know.”

 

“I want to draw a picture of you,” he said. So, he began drawing a picture of me on the paper he found in the back of the chair. “These are the circles on your shirt.” He touched the circles on the top of my blouse. Are you laughing? This kid was adorable!

I commented on what a nice picture he drew and asked him what his name was.

“Denver,” he replied.  I told him that was a cool name.  “Did you know there is a city named Denver?”

Not expecting him to say yes, he said, “No. Really?”

“Yeah, can you imagine telling someone, ‘My name is Denver and I live in Denver,’ ” I asked.

He laughed. So, these are the kind of conversations teachers have with first graders. So cute, so innocent. So easy.

Then I asked if he knew how to write his name on the picture for me. He said he did and began writing D  e  n  v  e  r.

 

I told him, “That is really good! Some kids can’t write their names in first grade.”

I told him, “I teach children to read and write.”  He told me, “I can’t read.”

“But you write your name so well!”

“Doesn’t your teacher teach you to read?” I asked. He said, “Yes, but I can’t learn it.”

So, now I know why the Holy Spirit led this young child to me. To make a connection not only to encourage me but to bring his mother an answer to her prayers, to help her son read.

We spoke a little longer and I went to talk to his mom who was still watching us.

I told her what a sweet boy Denver was and that he was so open to coming to me to be my friend. She replied, “He does that a lot.” I told her God used him to encourage me because I help dyslexic children and sometimes, I wonder if I’m really making a difference.”   His mom said, “A lot of people say that (relating to my first comment about God sending him to me). “I think he has dyslexia,” she added.

We discussed her older daughter in the twelfth grade who struggles with reading. And that her husband really wants to read the Bible and struggles with reading.

There you have the genetic component of dyslexia. I see and hear this upon occasion, and I know I’m in the right place, helping people God wants to read. So as far as saying if dyslexic is a recessive gene or dominant gene, its genetic for 40% of people. The other dyslexic people have developed it due to environment (maybe parents did not read to them), socio-economic status (SES – limited opportunities), or untrained reading teachers.

This parent is a homeschooling mom who is under the umbrella of a charter school. So, my next step was to contact the charter school as a vendor and see about helping her son. I only wish I could help the whole family. She has an 8th-grade daughter who can read fine, but the young boy, his older sister, and dad would all use help.

God has a plan for people to read. We were not born with a reading brain, but we were made the brain with parts to work together to learn to read. Dyslexia affects reading, writing, and spelling, and the brain can be retrained. And the Lord showed me how to use music to teach structured literacy to dyslexic people. May I help you? Please reach out to me for a free consultation if you have any questions.