The consequences of failing to read well are long lasting.
Kevin knew right from Grade 5 that he wasn’t keeping up with everyone else in his class.
Now a 56-year-old accountant, the Yarmouth native doesn’t want his real name used because he doesn’t want friends and co-workers to know about his struggles with literacy.
Throughout his education, which includes a master’s degree, Kevin always got good marks and even received scholarships and awards along the way, he says. But he had to work harder than others to get those grades. He’d take longer to read the materials, and he sometimes relied on a tape recorder and transcription to help get his ideas down on paper.
Computers that check spelling and grammar were a great help, but Kevin says his co-workers still noticed consistent errors in his reports.
“I used to get ‘were’ and ‘where’ confused. They said, ‘You’re making typos all the time.’ I’d say, ‘Oh, just made a mistake.’”
As he got older, the effort needed to do his job became too much to handle.
“It was draining a lot of energy out of me,” Kevin says.
“I didn’t like my job. I was going to quit.”
Instead, he went on stress leave.
Kevin was at a crossroads. He was 55 years old. He was close to retirement. Perhaps he could just ride it out for a few more years, he figured.
Instead, he decided to get help.
A psychological assessment told him he could read at a Grade 5 or 6 level and that he had phonological dyslexia, or trouble identifying the sounds that go with certain letters.
Unlike most people, who use about a quarter of their reading time processing language, Kevin was using about three-quarters of his time trying to understand the words on the page.
He was referred to the Halifax Learning Centre.
“I can’t tell you how it works,” he says of the SpellRead program there.
“All I know is that they went through these flash cards, they taught me these sounds, they got me to read in a certain way. I had to follow along with my finger. As we progressed, my reading got faster. I was able to take on more challenging work.
“So, how it works? I can’t tell you how it works. All I know is it works.”
Before getting literacy help, Kevin had never read a book for pleasure. He didn’t know that when other people read, they don’t have a little voice in their head reading every word on the page.
Now, that little voice is gone. The energy and time he used to spend processing language can be used to imagine a character’s voice or a scene, or anticipate what might come next in the plot.
He’s since tackled everything from John Grisham to Margaret Atwood.
“Just the fact that I can read for pleasure now, that’s a huge thing.”