Introduction to the Project

For my final project, I created a mini children's booklet containing information about dyslexia, a learning disorder that affects 20% of the population.  My origin piece is the UM Dyslexia Help website, an informational website containing resources to help support those with dyslexia.  I have a job that is dedicated to running the site.  I research information on dyslexia as well as write up and post the information to make it available to the public.  While the information on the website is mainly for children, it is framed in a way that is more accessible to parents and people without dyslexia rather than the children who are directly struggling with it.  While this is appropriate for the website as it ensures that families are able to get the information they need to be able to support their children, I wanted to come up with a way to make some of the information available to those that dyslexia directly impacts.  

My idea to create an informational children's booklet was sparked by my time taking Psych 211, a course that granted me the privilege of volunteering at a preschool every week this semester.  This was my favorite part of each week as it provided light and happiness into an otherwise busy and difficult courseload.  One aspect of my volunteering experience that really stuck with me was the children's excitement to read.   Every time that I walked through the doors, I was greeted with a sea of excited smiles; students would run into the hallway, their arms full of carefully selected books that they were so eager for me to read.  It was so heartwarming to see the joy on their faces that each book brought to them, and the connections they made with the stories I read.  These moments were a revelation to me.  I wanted to use this project to create something engaging and enjoyable for children to read, similar to the books I read to the students.

While my time reading to the children provided me with this idea, there was a long process to get to this point.  For my first experiment, I had the idea of creating a children's booklet containing real-life stories of different people who did not let their dyslexia limit their success.  This was a fun process, but I quickly realized that this project still didn't cater to my audience in the way I hoped.  It was difficult to find success stories of people who children would know and connect with.  

Overall, the culmination of these experiences provided me with the knowledge and skills that will help me to pursue my dream of supporting children in whatever way I can.