Until the typewriter was widely used,
good handwriting was considered
essential. Clerks and scribes wrote
every legal and business document in
impeccable script. People spent a lot
of time and effort composing personal
letters to friends and relatives. Now
there is considerable debate as to
whether or not good handwriting is
relevant in today’s world of computers,
e-mail and such. If a student can learn
to use a keyboard and a spell checker,
maybe that’s enough to get by.

in today’s education process, but the
education system still considers legible
handwriting an essential element of the
grade school curriculum. Achild with

agraphia (inability to write) is likely to be labeled “learning disabled” and sent to special education. I think most of us would agree that it is handy and valuable to be able to fill out paper forms, or to

Mr. Lucas, my sixth grade teacher at
Public School #131 AND Three-
Quarters in New York City had a plan
(I’ve changed the number to protect,
well, I’m not exactly sure what I’m
trying to protect, but it
seemed like a good idea).
We were all going to
leave his 6th grade class
with absolutely perfect
handwriting, and he was
going to make sure that it
happened his way. You
see, he understood that
our current state of
imperfection wasn’t our
fault. It was a result of
poor teaching and a lack
of attention to detail in the earlier
grades, and he, being in charge of us
before we made the great leap forward

military man who fought in North Africa in WW II. One of his preferred activities

was to regale us with stories of imbibing diverse varieties of African bug juice, thus

uncomfortable. (Would “bug
juice talk” now be considered a form
of sexual harassment?) So his plan was
simple: handwriting was to take place

Humor Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Famous Dyslexics Remember. . . . . . . .5 Dynamic Duo “Entrepreneurs. . . . . . .9 Bee Wear the Spill Chequer. . . . . . . . .9

Ecos Colombianos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 A Davis Graduate Speaks. . . . . . . . .18 Facilitation and Freedom. . . . . . . . . .23

In the Mail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Book Reviews. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10-11 Q&A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16-17 New Davis Licensees. . . . . . . . . .20-25 Davis Workshops. . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-28

Laura Zink de Diaz, Alice Davis, Abigail Marshall & Maria Fagioli.DESIGN: Gideon Kramer.SUBSCRIPTIONS: one year $25 in US, add $5 in Canada; add $10 elsewhere.BACK ISSUES: send $8.00 to DDAI.SUBMISSIONS & LETTERS: We welcome letters, comments and articles. Mail to DDAI at the above address.VIA FAX: +1 (650) 692-7075

Dear DDAI:
Our daughter attended the Davis
Method training in Renton,
Washington with Marilyn Anderson
in 3rd grade. The difference that one

Even five years later, she is reaping
the benefit of that week. She is active
in sports, has A’s in reading, science,
math and history, and a B+ in writing.
She is an eager learner, becoming an
avid reader, and has an attitude and
confidence that is awesome. She is the
one that the other students call for

help. She is even talking about taking college classes when she reaches high school.

I feel that the Davis Method is
a gold mine that we were fortunate
enough to find. My greatest wish is
that all kids had this opportunity.

Dear DDAI:
I feel compelled to share with you an
exciting experience I had recently
with an adult client using the ReadOn
software.

completing Alphabet Mastery and
Punctuation Mastery and progressing
to Spell-Reading, he complained of
a glare from the white background
against the black text of the book we
were reading. It didn’t appear to be
linked to any specific triggers at word
or letter level.

with ReadOn, because of its versatile
facility to select a wide variety of
different colours for both text and
background.

We discovered that with black
text on a lightish grey background my
client didn't experience any “glare.”
So I asked him to read from the screen
with plenty of Release and Alignment.

Every few sentences, I lightened
the background very slightly, asking
my client to continue monitoring his
Release and Alignment and taking a
break whenever “glare” symptoms
occurred.

By the end of the programme, we had progressed to a background just off of white.

Last week, he came back for a
Review session. When I asked him
about his progress in reading, he
casually commented, “Oh, by the way,
that glare thing doesn’t happen any
more. So I’ve been reading loads from
books and newspapers.”

Richard Whitehead
Director DDA-UK
Staplehurst, Kent

From the time my 11-year-old Nathan
was in preschool, I knew that the
traditional building blocks of academic
learning were not getting through to
him. When he was four and attending
morning preschool, he still could not
consistently identify colors or shapes.
Upon entering kindergarten, he had
mastered only half of the alphabet
letters at best, and even fewer of the
alphabet sounds. Although French
fries were one of his favorite treats,
he often could not find the words in
his head and would simply describe
the food as “those straight things.”
From his toddler stage on, he always
preferred to point and grunt rather than
using language to express himself, but
he was a joyful and imaginative child
who enjoyed playing alone with his
toys or building elaborate structures.

all assured me that he would “grow
out of it.” He was a happy, playful
child who laughed often and loved his
friends and the activities in school.

By the time Nathan was in first
grade, it became clear that he was not
progressing, and he started to show
signs of frustration and fatigue where
school was concerned. Individual
tutoring that consisted of more of the
same phonics and memory-based
learning by his well-meaning teacher
proved fruitless. By the end of first
grade, Nathan had been tutored in the
Lindamood-Bell program without

During Nathan’s schooling, there
were periods when we just let him
work through school on his own while
providing any needed support. But as
more time passed it was evident that
he was not going to “grow out of it.”

Amazingly, Nathan always earned
good grades, mostly a B average. But
these were hard won. The amount of
time and effort to stay afloat grew
incrementally with each passing year.

It was inconceivable that he could work any harder. The playful kindergartener had turned into a solitary, quiet fifth

and now shuns new activities, rarely
willing to step out of his small area of
comfort. How I miss that silly, playful
little boy, and I do realize that I have
played a part in his withdrawal. In my

and find the right program, I was hard
on him. I pushed, begged and bribed
him, hoping that if he just experienced
some success, doors would open for
him. I only succeeded in helping to
cement his obstinacy and create a
thick barrier of resistance between us.

So, when we started the Davis
Program, it was clear that Nathan
would be resistant. He had tried so
many programs and worked with
many wonderful people, only to find
the road frustrating and unsuccessful.
One month after completing the one-

Nathan’s interest had waned. He did
not want to work on the trigger words
or do his daily fine-tuning; as far as
he was concerned, it wasn’t helping.
Although I realized that Nathan and I
had fallen into our old dysfunctional
roles, I had no idea how to extricate
us from this situation.

encouraged me to talk openly to Nathan about his resistance and feelings about the program, and to allow him to make some suggestions on how to proceed. He needed to be in control and set the pace. I needed to be the supporter, not the pusher.

information, he seemed, at least more open to setting a schedule and following through. His difficulty with the Koosh balls, I think, stemmed from his roving mind’s ear, so we have been doing the ping exercise daily along with the Koosh balls. Although he lacks enthusiasm at times, he has been consistent.

Yesterday we counted up all the
words he has completed; he had 16
words finished. Realizing that he was
close to his first benchmark, 25, he
agreed to work with the clay on a

improvement, and then we tried an eye therapy program that was said to cure eye-tracking and

therapy, much to Nathan’s relief. Based on his poor performance, we had Nathan repeat first grade when we moved to a new area.

grade, he had been tested by
the public school with the full
battery of tests, a speech and
hearing specialist, specialized

combined costs of these tests,
programs and tutoring hours
added up to more than a college