Children with dyslexia can achieve intellectual and personal growth as long as teachers accept that the responsibility for creating "an emotionally supportive climate'' in the classroom is solely their own.

This was part of the message a visiting American educator and author shared with more than 100 teachers during a lunch at Stonington Beach Hotel on Saturday.

Mrs. Priscilla Vail, who drew on several anecdotes during her 40-minute presentation, said educators had to re-examine their teaching methods.

"The emotional quality of a classroom is entirely in the hands of the teacher,'' she said.

Moreover, this obligation is independent of budgets or the quality of the materials a teacher has to work with. Instead, teachers should understand that a child's emotions are the switch that can either open or close the pathway to learning or thinking.

Consequently, a teacher's job is to assist the student to channel their own physical, psychological and intellectual energy effectively.

Mrs. Vail said dyslexic students who are asked to do things in class that they do not think they can accomplish, become terrified and this closes down their capacity to think.

"As we look at the education of dyslexic children we have to be sure that the work we do helps (the student) feel that the locus of control is inside of them and that they have the power to help themselves.

"And we do this best by teaching strategies rather than giving answers and by reaching the child exactly where he or she is.

"Confidence grows from competence,'' Mrs. Vail continued. "Motivation grows from knowing the feeling of doing something well.'' Mrs. Vail said dyslexic children that had tasted humiliation, shame or failure were unable to learn because these experiences scattered their energy and they became pessimistic and angry.

Conversely, children who had tasted some success learned to trust their teachers and parents and were better able to accept a new challenge with assurance.

Educators, she said, needed to break lessons down into manageable bits so that their students could taste success and then nurture it with positive feedback.

Curiosity could be aroused, she added, if teachers grafted unfamiliar ideas onto concepts their students already understood.

"So many times when our teaching doesn't work it's because we're trying to connect an unknown with another unknown.'' But this can be overcome if teachers assess what their students already know and incorporate humour, information, suspense and story into the lesson.

"Above all,'' she said. "We need to revere the messiness of questions as well as the tidiness of answers.'' EDUCATOR -- Mrs. Priscilla Vail, an American expert on teaching children with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.