My son was born with an eye defect. Whenever he would become anxious or ill his eyes were divergent. The year before he went to school this problem was corrected during an operation. However, because we did not know that his eye muscles had to be exercised, the one eye’s muscles stiffened. He hardly ever used this eye. The other eye tired easily. Therefore he found it difficult to read and learn, with the result that he lost interest in his schoolwork and underachieved hopelessly.
In Grade 6 something drastically had to be done, because although I helped him with reading, his homework and to study for his tests, nothing helped. He was tested at the University of Pretoria and sent for remedial classes. After a year there was still no improvement. In the meantime he started with English and Maths classes. In Grade 7 he went to a centre, where his reading problems were addressed, without much success. At home we continued to work hard, and mercifully he passed his grade.
Now his self-esteem started to suffer because he thought that he was stupid. Luckily he did not lose heart.
In Grade 8 things went from bad to worse. Every afternoon I helped him with his schoolwork and taught him to summarise. I checked all his work and routinely contacted his teachers. The school principal was very sympathetic and it was due to him that my son was promoted to Grade 9, although he failed Grade 8. The reason was that we told him that we were planning on taking our son to the Centre for Dyslexia [Audiblox] for help. We were told about this centre at the Study Guidance Clinic at the University of Pretoria.
In January we went to see Dr Strydom. By the end of the first term [April] we noticed small improvements here and there. During the second term things started to improve dramatically. Here are a few of his scores:
| 1st term | 2nd term | 3rd term | |
| First language | 27% | 51% | 57% |
| Second language | 27% | 57% | 76% |
| Maths | 35% | 31% | 45% |
| Science | 65% | 61% | 68% |
| Biology | 52% | 54% | 57% |
| Geography | 40% | 44% | 60% |
| History | 46% | 56% | 70% |
| Art (theory) | 56% | 59% | 98% |
| Aggregate | 43.5% | 51.6% | 66.4% |
My child regained his self-respect. The result is a happy child at home as well as in school. He now enjoys school and works independently.
We are tremendously thankful for the improvement and complete change from a situation that sometimes got out of hand.
A Mother
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