LIKE any other mum-to-be, Ezreena Abu Bakar was hoping for a
healthy and normal baby when she discovered that she was pregnant. She did – or
at least thought that she did 11 years ago when her first child was born.
After Azahan Azani was born, her family who resides in Taman Melawati in
Selangor, was blessed with another boy Areean Aqeel five years later before
their daughter Arissa Zerina entered their lives four years ago.
For Ezreena who is homemaker and an online business entrepreneur, her
kids are the best things that have ever happened in her life. Although she is
more than prepared to do anything for them, the challenges that she faces in
particular with two of her boys are something that she did not quite expect
after she found out that they were dyslexic.
Dyslexia is a learning disability.
“The first day of kindergarten especially for my boys was just as exciting
for them as it was for us, parents,” recalls Ezreena with a smile.
“There wasn’t much that we knew about Dyslexia then and we also didn’t
get any negative feedback from the teachers about their learning abilities,”
Ezreena went on to explain.
“My hubby and I thought everything was normal. Perhaps it was too early
to detect the symptoms or it might have been because of the lack of awareness
of the condition not only from our side but from the teachers as well.
“But problems immediately cropped up for Azahan when he started primary
school. Suddenly everything became too difficult for him. He had trouble
reading, writing and in spelling.”
Although Azahan is intelligent and a complex thinker but he simply
couldn’t decode the simplest of words.
“The class teacher just brushed it aside thinking that Azahan was
probably just a slow learner,” Ezreena recalls.
“So my hubby and I were misled into thinking that our boy was just a
late bloomer, so we decided to be patient with his progress.”
Azahan continued to get the help that any parent would give their
children. He was enrolled for extra tuition classes.
However, Azahan strangely kept bringing home lots of homework that he
hadn’t completed in school.
“I had to sit with him for hours, sometimes past his bed time, to
complete his homework which was all the copying work from the whiteboard into
his books.
“But he only kept bringing home more homework. This led me to talk to
some of Azahan’s teachers about his problem but some of them unfairly labelled my
son as being ‘lazy with some attitude problem.’”
I later discovered that children with dyslexia also face confusion and
fear over their conditions and even humiliation in the classroom when they are
laughed at. This leads to rejection, demotivation and finally low self-esteem.
It wasn’t until Azahan’s performance dropped tremendously in standard
four – and when their other boy Areean was also starting to show the same
symptoms of his elder brother – when their family realised that they could not
solve the problem on their own.
“After doing some research on the Internet we took our boys to the
Dyslexic Association of Malaysia in Ampang Hilir in Kuala Lumpur to have them
professionally assessed.
“They were immediately diagnosed with dyslexia and advised to enrol our
boys in their special programmes for people with dyslexia,” Ezreena said with
great relief.
With support from their relative and friends, Ezreena and her family had
to come up with new ideas of communicating lessons to their children.
These include making and playing with traditional toys and handicraft
projects from time to time which the boys loved because the interaction was
more creative and fun.
They also made it a point to involve them with outdoor activities from
the start like sports, swimming, cycling and running in the marathon, triathlon
and biathlon.
“These activities not only immensely helped to add balance into their
lives but also made them stay focus. We were amazed to see how much their
confidence and self-esteem levels were boosted.
“It also helped build their social skills with their peers and others. I
am so happy to report that they have less difficulty now in mixing with people
and that life goes on regardless of their disabilities in learning.
“They are treated more and more as normal children as they should be
treated as they continue to get the right support from their special education
teachers in Ampang Hilir.
“There is no greater love for a mother with special kids than to be able
to get this kind of support from our society,” concludes Ezreena, adding a
quote from Albert Einstein, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by
its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is
stupid”.
Ezreena is married to businessman Aref Zaharin.
The End.
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