The English language is confusing enough, but can be even more so for someone with dyslexia.
For a some with dyslexia, they almost read words as if they are on license plates, without the vowels.
“To me, the words on the page stay, they don’t move around. It’s about comprehending them,” Anderson sophomore Carsyn Spolyar said. “English is really dumb. Trying to figure out how to spell words that have silent letters with a lot of vowels, sometimes I still struggle with those. I can’t hear them.”
“It’s really hard to spell sometimes.”
Carysn plays with confidence for the school’s girls’ soccer team and can now speak comfortably about her own journey through the word of dyslexia.
That has not always been the case. In fact, the Indians star striker and the youngest of three Spolyar children — older brothers Conner and Carter are also soccer and classroom standouts — becomes emotional when reflecting on the struggles she experienced before she was officially diagnosed and the relief she felt once she learned what her issues with learning had been.
“I finally felt like I got an answer,” she said. “I always looked up to my brothers and I saw how they were doing, I always wanted to be like them. When I was struggling with things, they weren’t, and I felt like I was a failure. I know I’m not, but it hurt. When I got that answer, it made me feel a lot better.
“It’s neurodivergency. It doesn’t show up in school, it shows up in every day life.”
Dyslexia can be passed genetically and, while he says he was never officially diagnosed, Carsyn’s father and AHS boys soccer coach Chris Spolyar says he grew up with symptoms that check all the boxes.
He is grateful that his daughter is growing up during a time when there is far less stigma around the condition than there was when he was younger. More people now understand that it is not a disease, an ailment or event a disability.
It’s simply a different way of learning.
“We talk about ‘back in the day,’ the biggest thing about dyslexia is that it’s a learning style,” he said. “Honestly, I struggled through school and high school.
According to the International Dyslexia Association, symptoms can include pourable with language skills, reading, spelling, and pronunciation and it is possible that up to 20% of the population have symptoms of dyslexia. The cause is unknown, but brain scans show that there are differences in the way the brain of a dyslexic person functions, but it is not a condition associated with a lack of intelligence.Carysn is a case in point, currently carrying a 3.8 grade point average at Anderson. For her, learning why she was different was a huge relief.
Her mother Stacey, who also works in education, said the testing that determined that Carsyn had dyslexia coincided with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, which presented its own challenges. But once the determination was made, a course of tutoring was established and the process of getting a handle on her own situation began.
“She would make good guesses because she could figure out the beginning of the word, she usually got the ending, bu the middle was a hot mess,” Stacey said. “They needed to get her reading to her grade level. “It was geared for younger kids, ti would have worked better for her in first grade.” We kept pushing through.”
On the field, Carsyn has not missed a beat.
Carysn enjoyed a strong first season for the Indians, scoring 13 goals with three assists. She helped Anderson to a 5-12 record, the highest win total for the program in well over a decade. Coming off a club season that has included tournament victories with her Delaware County FC team and a trip to Bowling Green in Ohio, she is looking forward to an even better sophomore campaign as well.
“There’s a really big difference between the level of play in club and in high school,” she said. “For me, club is more competitive than high school. High school is high school.”
She is still learning how to learn and how to process information and environmental stimulation.
There are programs and strategies that she employs during school, but the soccer pitch is her haven.
“I feel like soccer gives me an outlet,” it give me times I don’t have to worry about that test and I can be myself,” she said. “I feel like I found myself on the field. I’ve never gotten overstimulated or overwhelmed on the soccer field, but in a classroom, it happens.”
As far as what advice Carsyn would have for the many other athletes — and children in general — who learn differently, she prefers to draw on her own experience and keep it simple.
“It gets better,” she said with a smile. “Try and stay prepared, because you never know what will happen the next day. You can get the support and the answer to the test you took. Stay positive in whatever the day brings to you.”
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.