Shelley Cotton
Licensed Davis Dyslexia Correction® Facilitator

As a young child, I remember sitting with my mother trying to read. It was so difficult! The words started off the right size, but seemed to grow and get blurry by the end of a line. I had to try really hard to see them correctly; somehow my brain figured it out and I was able to read.

I also remember being in kindergarten back when we all wore lace up shoes. I was one of the last ones to learn to tie up my laces. For the life of me, I could not figure out what they were doing with their hands and those laces. I was plagued by left/right issues, and as a lefty I recall being told that the right hand is the one you write with.

Even with these issues I managed to do well in school. I loved to learn and my family did a lot of traveling where I got hands on experience. I went on to University to take Bio-Chemistry and later Nutritional Science. However, I was plagued again with issues that I now realize were resulting from disorientation and I never completed my degree.

It wasn't until my son, who was in kindergarten, had some early intervention testing which forecasted some learning issues that things began to come into focus.

One of the things I noted in his report was issues with directionality. A light bulb went on and I went to the library and took out every book on dyslexia. I was reading through all of them and none of them applied, until I got to the "Gift of Dyslexia." He definitely showed signs of "the gift." Not only did my son, so did I, and as I looked at my daughter she did also!

The Davis program opened our eyes to a better way of learning for myself and my children. It has made a huge impact on schooling and learning for us. After seeing the changes it made in my own children I was convinced I needed to share this method with others out there who were struggling in similar ways.

My dad was a high school geography teacher who, I figure, got children in the front door of learning. My job is to take them in the back door. We all get to the same place, some of us just take a different route!