Imagine going to a grocery store in a foreign country, looking for baby food for your little one, having only the pictures to go by to find anything your baby can eat. Delores Howell lived this, not in a foreign land, but in the U.S.A., and not for just a short visit, but for a lifetime - she was illiterate. Try as she might, she could not read, nor spell. Everything may just as well have been in a foreign language.Dory did go through school and tried very hard to learn, but due to a severe learning disability, dyslexia, she was unable to learn to read. Dyslexia was unknown when Dory was in school in the 1940's and 1950's. Teachers did not understand that she did not see or hear like other children. Ashamed of her illiteracy, Dory hid the fact from everyone - her parents, her sisters, her friends, even her husband. By the time she was a mother of four young children, she realized she had to get help to learn to read, not only for her own sake, but for her children as well. Desperately she sought help, but she had to convince people of her disability before she could find anyone who would, or could, help. Stand Straight and Grow Tall is Dory's true story of her lifetime struggle against illiteracy. Dory's story is the story, of so many in our society even today, and they are not just school children. Dorey tells of her struggle with words, and with educators, administrators, counselors, psychologists - even with God. How could God let her go through all of this? Yet it is her faith in God that kept her going. Dory's story is one of hope and is a valuable lesson for parents, educators and all who come in contact with people with learning disabilities. Understanding how dyslexia effects a person's perceptions and the problems this disability causes, is the first step to understanding how to educate dyslexic persons. Besides some updated content, this revised edition of "Stand Straight and Grow Tall" contains some of Dolores Howell's poetry and prose, not in the original edition.
