The magical feelings I got when my Mama read stories to me eventually turned into a new-found ability to understand and recall academic material at school. The power of imagination and the magic of story opened a new world for me. 

Ch 3, Scene 2: Karen longs to be smart and discovers ways to learn

Karen longed to be smart. She wanted to learn like other children, and she wanted to read as easily and as effortlessly as she breathed. She wanted this for herself more than anything else in the world. During her tenth year, the words from her school lessons began to live with her just as the bedtime vocabulary did. She not only recalled all the new words she had heard in school, but she lay in bed repeating those words, until she fell into a deep sleep. During this precious slumber, everything sank dreamily into her powerful subconscious.

The more she listened to her inner voice, the more she grasped her school subjects. In time, new words flowed into her speech without effort. Her academic vocabulary expanded, and she retained most of what her teachers taught in class.

She discovered her own special ways to help herself learn and recall. She repeated names in her mind, right after the teacher said them. She took notes and tried to visualize what the teacher had said; however, this did not work like magic for her because she could not see pictures and numbers clearly in her mind’s eye. Kitten did not have a photographic memory. She was not a quiz show contestant, although she and Mama loved watching The Price is Right, I’ve Got a Secret, and To Tell the Truth. Learning was hard work, but she did it gladly.

#cerebralpalsy #dyslexia #inspirationalwriting #reading

©2020, Karen Lynn-Chlup. All rights reserved.