The Problem of Dyslexia among East African Children: Calvin’s Creatio Imago Dei Imago Christ for Invitational-Inclusive Education, Faith and Life

The spirituality of children can be explained by their being and existential limits. Childhooditself is an open divine mystery. At the center of their spirituality, is their Creatio Imago DeiImago Christ. This study focuses on dyslexia among children in East Africa. It offers doctrinalposition for authentic care. Dyslexia is a pediatric problem, perhaps unrecognized in EastAfrica, a silent tragedy of gigantic proportion. Dyslexia in children is a learning disorderand/or disability involving difficulty reading and writing due to problems identifying speechsounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Dyslexia specificallyaffects areas of the child’s brain that process language. Dyslexia awareness is limited, whichis the other added problem. If as Church, we want to be true to ourselves, we better admit notonly insufficient parenting-child-educational psychology, but also insufficient educationalethics in East Africa. The Church is chief facilitator to proper knowledge-informationeducation to parents, doctors, and nurses on handling dyslexia. The dyslexic child is anImago Dei. If the doctrine of creation is taught properly, we will gain consciousness andincrease care for all children. The objectives of the study include to: i) mention the seventypes of dyslexia in children: phonological, surface, rapid-automatic-naming, double-deficit,dyscalculia, dysgraphia and, left-right confusion. ii) Avoid generalization: the child is not ageneral child, cared for from a generalization; a tendency common in East Africa; butinstead, the child is a unique being who comes not only with own gifts, talents, possibilities;but also, with difficulties, problems and challenges as well. It is important to addressindividual child challenges. iii) Renaming: Dyslexia is not a mental illness as many havewrongly held. It is a neurological disorder or problem instead, but people with dyslexia arerather typical when it comes to emotions, learning and social interaction. Stigma attachedindeed may lead to a mental illness in the adult life in the future of the child. The method usedis Calvin’s qualitative Creatio Imago Dei Imago Christ.Keywords: Child- theology, Creatio Imago Dei-Imago Christ, Dyslexia, Ethics, Disability,Medicine, Psychology.