Tonight on Close Up ` fighting dyslexia. Words would fall of the page and turn around. One teacher helping kids others have written off. Why The Hobbit blockbuster is just a family affair for this couple. It doesn't seem weird. Probably to others it does. And the men proving age is just a number when it comes to tackling the Coast to Coast. I do about 300 K a week on the bike. Due to the live nature of Close Up, captions for some items may be incomplete. ONE News captions by Faith Hamblyn and Lauren Strain. Close Up captions by Desney Shaw and John Ling. Often these are the kids that get written off. They cause trouble. They don't try. They don't achieve. But they're not dumb; they're dyslexic. It's estimated one in 10 NZers are and many of them go through school without being diagnosed. At Kapiti College, one teacher is making a difference for her kids and maybe for yours. Matt McLean has the story. Hi, my name is Morgan. I'm Antoinette. Gabriella. Adrian. I have... I have... I have... ...dyslexia. Words will fall off the page, and turn around, and I couldn't read and spell. Words will change colour. I'd normally forget some words when I'm trying to spell, and it's really horrible. You go through school thinking you're a stuff-up. You go through school thinking you're dumb. How are you going to act? You're gonna act like a stuff-up. You're going to act like you're dumb. For these kids, school is a daily struggle. So that word is? Tennis? Yep, tennis. Quite often they just think they're dumb, or they think there's something wrong with them. Sometimes they don't even realise they're different, because they don't realise other people's brains are different from theirs. In broad terms, dyslexia is a learning disability that mainly affects people's ability to read and write. You get the kids who go really quiet and go under the radar. They're the ones who come to me and say, 'I spent the whole of primary school pretending I could read. 'And I used my friend's notes.' It's incredible what they can do. And then you get the others who just can't handle it, and so they become behavioural problems. You've got a paragraph of words, and you know how you have the white space between letters and stuff like that? I'll see a river between the words, instead of, you know... And so I get distracted a lot. Sometimes I can't focus. It hurts for me to read for long periods of time. Liam Jennings is 16, attends Kapiti College and suffers from dyslexia. But before he was diagnosed, school was a nightmare. I was quick with my words. I was quick with practical things, but when it came to the written side of things, I was always lacking. And I always got told, 'Boys will be boys. We're always a bit slower than girls.' I got to college. I was then still failing real bad. I was still not able to do work. I never really read a book till the end of year eight, year nine. I started to learn to spell some words, but I always never achieved. Looking at Liam's school work, you can see how hard it has been for him. That would be an hour ` an hour's class. I would do a sheet or two of writing, and it that would be just slowly doing the letters. And even on the letters, an N looks like a U. An I is hardly an I. This is from about two months ago, and I can't... I can hardly read it. I can probably read the first line and that's about it. Enter Sarah Sharpe. It doesn't have to be perfect. It's just an image of what you think a tree looks like. How their brains work is fascinating. And how huge a change you can make to lives. Even just for them knowing they're dyslexic can be life-changing. Her knowledge of dyslexia has seen dozens of Kapiti College students diagnosed, and finally, kids that had been written off are succeeding. If you just teach in what is good teaching practice, which is a muti-sensory teaching approach, and you put in accommodations for the dyslexic students, they can achieve ` without a doubt. Some of my top academic students are dyslexic students. And given the right help, they are the Albert Einsteins and the Leonardo da Vincis and the Winston Churchills. Sitting in one of Miss Sharpe's classes is fascinating. It's all about finding alternative ways for the kids who struggle to read to process words. They can't learn to spell words that they can't attach pictures to. So a word like 'horse', you can visualise a horse quite easily. But with 'the', it's very hard to attach a picture to 'the', so they create their own picture to go with the word. Then when they come to read that word or spell that word, it pops up in their memory. And now students like Liam are flourishing. I now have my NCEA Level 1. I now have goals in life. I have areas I want to go. I have plans and things I wanna do, and I can actually see myself achieving them. Whereas a year ago, six months ago, even, at the start of this year, I had high doubts about passing. But teachers like Sarah Sharpe are rare in NZ. Kapiti College has to fund her itself, despite the government back in 2007 formally recognising dyslexia as a special-needs situation in schools. So Sarah and Liam are lobbying the government for change. What do you think is a priority? What are we trying to achieve as a priority? First step ` raise awareness. Then we want to get on to people, like the leaders of the political parties and basically try and make a change. That kind of thing needs to happen at primary school. They need to be picked up before they start to fail and before they start to feel bad and develop negative self esteem. You look at prison populations at the other end of the thing, and you see how many illiterate people are in prison, and you just think, 'Well, how many of those are likely to be dyslexic?' If you deal with the problem at the source and actually deal with it before it becomes a problem, then the knock-on effect for society.... And it will make a difference ` absolutely. It's frustrating, because we can all see it, and we can't understand why they can't. Yeah. Is raising awareness the answer? Educator and former psychologist Laughton King's spent years travelling the country giving workshops about the condition. He's written three books on the topic, and tonight he's in our Whangarei studio. What those kids said in our track about words running off the page sounds surreal. it is. When they are first given reading, they do not know that other people aren't experiencing the same. it seen as a reading disorder, but there is a lot more to it. it's a very complex situation, and it has many facets. One of the difficulties is the academic research around the cannot get their head around how many facets there are. It is associated most commonly with some left sidedness in the family. This means the brain works quite differently. A right-hander uses the left brain, which is language based. Left-hander uses the right brain, which is pictorial. It is very hard for us to get our heads around language. School was a language institution, and it is a bit like a petrol station. The poor dyslexic kids comes along like a diesel and gets its tank filled with petrol when it doesn't work. you are dyslexic as well. It causes physical pain? it actually hurts my head. At school I was not dyslexic because the word had not been invented. I knew that I was dumb and stupid and my parents were told I did not apply myself. But my parents knew that I was bright, and my brightness was against me. they just saw me as lazy and unmotivated. I developed strategies to get by. it's extremely important to diagnose early. There are probably five dyslexic kids in every classroom in this country. Those kids don't get addressed unless they create problems. The problems might be they are not achieving as well as the intelligence would suggest. Or they may be behavioural. Many of the kids who were written off as being naughty I actually kids who are experiencing huge difficulty. Failure, low self-concept and a massive fear of not being good enough. we have known about it for some years. The teachers still struggle with the concept and diagnosis? yes. That is not their fault. The dyslexic person generally wants nothing to do with studying all research all schools. So most of the research is written by people who were not dyslexic. Are parents supportive of a diagnosis? they are. But when the child hears dyslexic as a label, he knows disgusting and other words like that. It is an incredibly loaded word. in the seminars I run, I asked parents and teachers to regard the kids as diesels. It's a positive thing. It's good engineering. The kids love it. Do you have a kid who you think might be dyslexic? Are you a teacher who's been struggling with this issue perhaps? We'd like to hear your views. Go to our website or email us at closeup@ tvnz.co.nz And we're on Facebook too. Coming up ` They met on a film set; I'm going on an adventure! now they're set for Hobbit success. We meet the married make-up and fall-down artists. And what's motivated this trio to give the Coast to Coast one more crack? In Wellington right now it's all about The Hobbit, and come Wednesday, all eyes will be on that red carpet and on the big stars. But there's a small army of hobbits behind the scenes who've put this movie together. Among them, Hil and Rodney Cook. She's a make-up artist, he's a stuntman, and their 8-year-old son's never far from the action either. Jehan Casinader paid them a visit. DRAMATIC MUSIC You really need to have a passion to work in film. Uh, it's long, long hours. You don't see your friends or family. I mean, I've lost friends over working in the film industry just because they don't understand. Even if you're sick... I've worked on a film shoot where I've literally been vomiting in between doing a prosthetic, but I can't go home until it's done. You just can't have an off day or not be there. You've got to be there, always. Hil Cook has a pretty horrific job. This one is from a scratch or maybe a bite mark or something from, um, a zombie, I think. Mm. (CHUCKLES) She's paid to unleash her creativity on film sets around the world. If you are making something from scratch, I would design something up; make a mould. I just challenge myself all the time to make it better and better. Hil's job involves some DIY. Today she's making prosthetic ears in her Lower Hutt kitchen. But in the backyard, another scene is taking shape. SLOW JAZZY MUSIC I'm a stunt performer and a stunt coordinator. I'm employed to make the actors look good or make the... the action sequence look spectacular. What's this thing you got up there, Rodney? Um, I'm just setting up the air ramp at the moment. This is a ramp that's actually, like, for war explosions or mortar explosions. If you get it wrong, you'll break your leg. Um, so it's a serious piece of equipment. While Hil is paid to make people up, her partner Rodney is paid to fall down. And he doesn't always get up in one piece. My worst one would be my punctured lungs. I-I've punctured them or split them open three times. I think the fourth time, actually, I had to have some surgery. My old saying is, 'Anyone can jump off a cliff, 'but, um, it takes a skilled person to jump off a cliff and get back up and do it again.' This is not your typical household. Some days, I can be doing stuff in the kitchen, and I'll look out the window and, suddenly, I'll see Rodney flying across the air or perhaps putting his hand on fire. It doesn't seem weird. Probably to others it does. But, yeah, no, it doesn't really seem weird. It's only dangerous if you, um, if you're doing a sequence that's unprepared. Rodney and Hil have been in the industry for more than 15 years, and just like a good Hollywood movie, they have a love story of their own. They met on a film set in Twizel. I saw him walk into a pub and had a glass of wine and was 10ft tall and bulletproof then. And I went over and said, 'Hey, what are you doing? What are you up to now? And he said, 'Oh, I'm just going to have some dinner. Would you like to join me?' And I said, 'Absolutely.' And that was it. That was it. I think, about six months later, we were engaged. They have an extra member in their cast ` 8-year-old Jaxson, who's following in the family tradition. He's acted in commercials and an upcoming movie. He` He definitely gravitates towards singing and dancing, and he's just a good little` good little performer. But it makes me a bit nervous when I'm doing it. < Why? Because I feel like I'm being looked at by, like, 1000 people. Jaxson's keen to spend more time on the stage or screen. Because then I'd be rich... (CHUCKLES) and then my mum would stop saying that I need to save much more money instead of buying everything. But as Mum and Dad know, it takes hard slog to get to the top. Hil's creations take meticulous research. Say, if it was a gunshot wound, I'd need to know exactly what kind of gun had shot the bullet. I'd need to know exactly what that bullet would have done. I'd google every single thing I can possibly find. Whenever I go in the garage, there's a hand right in front of me, and I scream. It makes me want to vomit. Dad's job involves planning too. Don't try this at home. I'd go for your neck, so, yeah. Bring` Bring your arm down cos otherwise it's dragging me up. I would be the worst person to take to a movie because I'd sit there and go, 'Oh, the blood tone's wrong. This is wrong.' And then Rodney sits next to me and goes, 'Oh God. That stunt wasn't very well.' Yeah, come through. Shoo. Yeah, you have it quite nice. When you see your work up on the big screen, it's just mind-blowing to be able to go, 'I did that. That's my work. It's going down in history.' That's pretty cool. BOTH GRUNT Argh! Sh-wargh! And Mark will be on the red carpet for The Hobbit premiere on Wednesday as part of TV ONE's Hobbit extravaganza. Don't miss it. Just ahead ` out of the rest home and on to the bike. The veteran Coasters determined to give it another crack. What a sight we must be. (CHUCKLES) The Speight's Coast to Coast is not for the faint-hearted. It's a gruelling event ` running, cycling and kayaking across the South Island. But you can't accuse the veteran trio in this story of lacking heart. They're starting in a new category this year ` the three-person team ` 29 years after they first competed in the event. Abby Scott asked them what made them take the challenge one last time. UPBEAT TECHNO MUSIC Three men,... 243km... from coast to coast. But these men have as many years behind them as kilometres ahead of them.. I'll be 78 when I do the race. I'll be 80 next year, but I'll be 79 for the event. Yes, the spring chicken of the group is 65. Cool it, Daryl. (CHUCKLES) Daryl Symonds will paddle 67km. Mike White has a 33km mountain run ahead of him. And then there's Eric Hunter, who's facing 140km on his bike. Are you going to be competitive? > Yes, we will. Yes, we will. Because while these blokes might be, well, old, they're old hands at this race. I've got four kids, and three of them, year by year, each one wanted to do it with their dad. Uh, I've done it probably 12 times. FOLKSY MUSIC Daryl and Eric competed in the very first Coast to Coast back in '83. They won the Veteran Team category. Something they've done twice. It helps because we enjoy a beer, uh, and that's where it starts and finishes. And I know that he'll never let me down. He'll be always trying his hardest. It's what I can say for... It's the same for Daryl. Over the years, they've developed a close relationship. I won't hold hands, but how about that? (LAUGHS) Gee, you've got plenty there. This year, there's one other in the mix. Come on, Mike. You're with us, you know. Don't be trying to get out of it. It's not going to be that easy now. This time around, whose idea was it? > Oh, only one culprit. (CHUCKLES) UPBEAT TECHNO MUSIC That culprit the oldest of the group. I still ride the bike every day cos what else can I do when you're on day release from the rest home. But don't let this joker's wiry frame deceive you. I do about 300 K a week on the bike. Between 200 K and 300 K a week. What a sight we must be, Jesus. (CHUCKLES) While their physiques might not scream multi-sport athlete,... Where's the beer? ...these three are certainly tough. One broken neck later from the second year when I broke my neck training. I was doing it with Daryl. I had a bad crash, and I broke my collarbone, uh, about 20 K before Jackson's, and I rode the last 20... about 25 K with a broken collarbone and a broken rib and a broken finger, and I was pulled out from then on because, um, and they took me to hospital. This year's goal? Simple. To enjoy. Yeah. And to finish. Yes, and finish without any major accidents. Robin has been so fortunate over the years not to have, uh, any fatalities, and we've had some terrible conditions. So we could be one of the first fatalities, and it would go down in the history... we'd go down in the history books. Probably not what organiser Robin Judkins is after, but then their motivation is questionable as well. What do you like about the Coast to Coast? > Well, I don't. ALL LAUGH Just another excuse to drink, really. (CHUCKLES) My wife plays bowls, but they won't let me play overarm, so I'm out of that. (SNIGGERS) They say if they're out pedalling, paddling and pacing anyway, they may as well put it to good use, even if they need a bit of medical assistance. I'm having cortisone injections into both knees the week before so I can do those short runs to get on to the bike. But once I'm on the bike, I'm all right. That bike slightly more sophisticated than those from the original years. They didn't have the best bikes nor the best boats. They had old dunga cars, uh, whereas now, of course, you have to have the latest carbon-fibre bikes, the fastest boats you can get, and they drive over there in Lexus and, uh, Mercedes, and so it has changed in that sense, but it's still a great event, um, to bring people together. No matter how old you are. But surely enough is enough? I won't be doing any more of these anyway. You said that last time! (CHUCKLES) He did. Here's the proof from the 25th anniversary. Is this the last Coast to Coast for you guys? It is for me. Never say it's the last with him. I mean, unless, uh, Robin allows mobility scooters in it. We look like the Three Stooges. Time for some feedback now, and it's on the dyslexia teaching in schools. Katie writes... Michelle emails... It's quick, easy and greasy. But just how much of a difference is there between a week of takeaways and a week of home cooking? Thai. Sushi. Colonel. Curry. Bacon Backfire from Burger Fuel. It's always full on. There's something going on. The time, to be able to cook it properly, is not always there. It's a bit dire. Pretty dire. > There's more things that you can have control over when you're at home. Few veggies, but there's remnants of the takeout. I can only see fish and chips once. The reality is that there's lots of and lots of food outlets to choose from. What I have here is the difference between home-cooked meals and takeaways. That's NZ Close Up. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012