In this monologue, author and literacy specialist Lois Letchford recounts her son Nicholas’s dramatic failure in first grade, tracing the root cause to chronic ear infections that disrupted early language development. She describes how traditional classroom expectations left him withdrawn and labeled as low‑ability, and how targeted, differentiated instruction—using simple rhyming spelling words and multisensory clay activities—enabled him to acquire foundational literacy skills. Letchford frames this experience as a case of learning‑related trauma, emphasizing the emotional toll of repeated failure and the importance of recognizing and preventing such trauma in children. She introduces the concept of the "Lincoln Project" (slow to learn, slow to forget) and calls on parents and educators to adopt trauma‑informed, individualized teaching approaches. The video ends with a call to like, subscribe, and follow her ongoing series on "When Learning Is Trauma."
Chapters
Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, author of the book Reversed: A Memoir and Literacy Problem Solver, talking about the teaching of reading. And this week we're looking at failure. Children fail in classes still today. Parents then become overwhelmed, schools become overwhelmed, and we throw up our hands and say, what do we have to do? We get children tested, We get intervention and we hope it works. My journey started with my son who failed first grade and he just didn't fail, he failed dramatically. He actually went to class every day and just withdrew. He just zoned out. That was his coping mechanism. The teacher shouted at him for zoning out. He couldn't follow directions and he learned Nothing, and the testing showed— the testing at the end of that year showed he learned nothing. He could read 10 words including on and no reversals. He showed no strengths and the testing implied he had a low IQ. When you start at such a low base, coming out of that hole is extremely difficult and you cannot just get 1 or 2 things right. You have to get everything right. And it's worth looking at why Nicholas failed so dramatically. And the first thing that I've learnt over time that caused his failure was constant ear infections from age 8 to 18 months. How does this impact learning? It actually impacts the brain. That during that time, a critical time of brain growth and brain development, he has had no language that has been clear to him coming in at that time. And it impacts the way the brain grows. That was the first problem. And that wasn't acknowledged when he was a baby having these ear infections. And 6 years later when he goes to school, you go, this child's got a significant problem. That was the first thing that had to happen. So his language development has not been within the normal range and that puts him as an outsider to the general classroom. Talking about slow to learn, slow to forget, commonly titled the Lincoln Project. As I said yesterday, my son failed first grade. And he was given spelling words that differentiated the instruction so that he was allowed to learn. The spelling words were the simplest ones for a second-grade child, the rhyming words. The rhyming words met his needs, which was significant. When I saw my son sitting at the table unable to write the simplest of letters and sort out the word cat or hat, I had to stop and think. There was no use saying anything to him because he was working at maximum capacity. And something in my mind clicked and said, Lois, get clay. Take him outside and work with clay. That was incredibly significant because there's my 6-year-old son who Who then worked with me for an hour to an hour and a half, not only that afternoon but every afternoon for the next 4 nights to help him learn those first 10 spelling words. It was differentiation of instruction and it allowed him to shine on the level where he could show growth. That was step 1. In this incredibly long, incredibly hard journey to help us go from the bottom of the class to the top of the academic tree. He was slow to learn and he was also incredibly slow to forget. Once it stuck, it was there. And here I have, believe it or not, my son's test from grade 1. His spelling words. He— you can see the at that he had still had that /t/, at, and the cat and the hat he got right. But the next week, the following week, we're doing the same activities and he is learning. That's the first step, that they can do something. Thank you. Hit like, hit subscribe, and follow my learning journey as a parent of a child who struggled and then succeeded. Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, author of the book Reversed: A Memoir and literacy problem solver, talking to you this week about when learning is trauma and how I came up with this particular topic. I said yesterday about my son, asking him after he'd received his PhD, thinking everything's fine, He and I talked on a podcast with Shay Wessel from Dear Dyslexia Australia, and I told my story of Nicholas going into grade 1 and failing, you know, his wetting of his pants, his biting his fingernails, my dressing him for school every day, and every day he sat there and just withdrew. And Shay said to Nicholas, Nicholas, how does this make you feel? And Nicholas responded with quite simply, oh, that didn't happen to me, that could have happened to someone else, that wasn't my history. When a child says that, that's when you know that it's a trauma experience and he's disconnected from his own life. This is something that we will have to deal with one day, that Nicholas will have to deal with, because it's like that memory has been locked in a box And he's thrown away the key and it's never something that he wants to return to. And even as I talk— ask him to talk with other people and share his experience, he's really reluctant to share his early learning. And I say, focus on what you loved, that was quite different. And he can do that. But I think still going back for him is still a time of just— Pain. I don't want to go there. I don't want to face it. I don't want to see what happened in the past. It's all too hard. And that's why we're doing this series, When Learning Is Trauma. I want parents to be aware when we traumatise children or put children in situations where they cannot do what is being asked and there's no give and there's no take. It's just the child is being naughty or disobedient. The child is withdrawing. The child cannot do anything. We, the teachers and the adults in the room, have to say, this cannot go on. We cannot have a child traumatised by this experience. So that's the reason for me doing it, and I want to explore other reasons tomorrow. So hit like, hit subscribe, and join me tomorrow as I talk about when learning is trauma. Bye. Thank you. Hello, I'm Lois Letchford, author of the book Reversed: A Memoir, talking about slow to learn, slow to forget, commonly titled the Lincoln Project. As I said yesterday, my son failed first grade and he was given spelling words that differentiated the instructions so that he was allowed to learn. The spelling words were the simplest ones for a second grade child. The rhyming words. The rhyming words met his needs, which was significant. When I saw my son sitting at the table unable to write the simplest of letters and sort out the word cat or hat, I had to stop and think. There was no use saying anything to him because he was working at maximum capacity. And something in my mind clicked and said, Lois, get clay, take him outside and work with clay. That was incredibly significant because there's my 6-year-old son who then worked with me for an hour to an hour and a half, not only that afternoon but every afternoon for the next 4 nights to help him learn those first 10 spelling words. It was differentiation of instruction and it allowed him to shine on the level where he could show growth. That was step 1 in this incredibly long, incredibly hard journey to help us go from the bottom of the class to the top of the academic tree. He was slow to learn. And he was also incredibly slow to forget. Once it stuck, it was there. And here I have, believe it or not, my son's test from grade 1. His spelling words. He— you can see the at that he had still had that /t/. At and the cat and the hat he got right. But the next week, the following week, We're doing the same activities and he is learning. That's the first step, that they can do something. Thank you. Hit like, hit subscribe, and follow my learning journey as a parent of a child who struggled and then succeeded.
