Happy #WorldBookDay!
That has gotten a bit of a mixed review in our @HomeCrazzyHome.
I am a writer and ferocious reader, somewhere between two and ten books per week these days. But I am also dyslexic. I did not learn to read until I was ten. I still cannot spell or learn a foreign language because I don’t hear or recognize different sounds the same way that others do. In fact, I could not learn phonetically, only by sight words. Still, I have written over three-thousand words today on my blogs and fiction. I will probably finish another book tonight. Basically, I love all things books and reading.
But when I told @PanKwake about this holiday her response was…
Oh, you mean those things I’ll never be able to read.
What ensued was another round of our ongoing debate about…
What is reading?
Despite her seeming inability to unscramble letters into words, over the past year, @PanKwake has followed, enjoyed, comprehended, and engaged with dozens of stories and writers on WattPad. By utilizing the screen reader function on her iPad and voice-to-text programs, she has become a favored fan for a couple of them, including winning a book cover design contest. She has even begun to use Audible and tackle Harry Potter.
Still, she refuses to recognize those as books or what she does as reading. Even though it serves the same function.
What is reading? Or even a book? Is the value in holding something paper in your hand? If I need to process and ‘learn’ something then for me paper books or printout, and highlighters are the only thing that works. But what about tablets like Kindle? If I am reading for enjoyment, I much prefer to save paper by purchasing an ebook. And while Audible and screen readers may have opened the same magical doors for @PanKwake as reading and books did for me, those same services are used by many people who can read.
I am not saying that I have the answer. As I said this is an ongoing debate in our @HomeCrazzyHome. But I think that is what is most important – that we continue to explore these issues and be open to redefining what things like books, reading, and education are as technology and the world around change.
Self-Directed Learning & Neurodiversity 