One in Five: The Face of Dyslexia

A special photo installation launches at tonight’s First Thursday event in downtown Santa Barbara.

‘One in Five; The Face of Dyslexia,’ is a series of photo testimonials lining the walls of the Book Den on Anapamu Street.

The pictures depict local entrepreneurs, architects, authors and other highly successful adults, accomplished teens and children over-coming an education system that slow to change.

“It’s also showing some of the struggles some of the children go through, in their own words,” said Cheri Rae, founder of The Dyslexia Project in Santa Barbara. “One little school girl says ‘Every school year feels like three.'”

“A lot of kids, they go through this feeling, ‘I don’t want to do my homework,’ because they honestly have a struggle doing it,” said Christine Feldman. “You have to go deeper in as a parent, not just think the child’s being lazy. There might be an underlying issue and that might be dyslexia or another learning difference.”

Feldman, a Santa Barbara resident and outspoken advocate for those with learning differences, is one of the subjects in the photo installation. She and her adult son both have dyslexia.

Rae said the title, “One in Five,” comes from a teaching statistics that reveals one in five people has a learning difference. She said locally, that translates to roughly 3,000 students in the local district.

Rae recently published a book titled, “DyslexiaLand – A Field Guide for Parents of Children with Dyslexia.” She will hold a book signing Thursday night at the Book Den.

For more information, click here: https://www.dyslexialand.com/