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WHEN May and Katy de Clercq were little girls, experts predicted that they would never finish school due to severe dyslexia. But, thanks to the support of their family and sheer perseverance, the 18-year-old twins from Somerset West proved everybody wrong and passed matric with merit at the Natural Learning Academy in Strand last year.

Both girls achieved two A's, two B's and two C's. They are gifted artists and while May has a natural flair for textiles (she got A?s for Art History and Textiles), Katy? forté is painting and design (A's for Printing and Design). May has been accepted at the Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Design and Fashion, where she will complete a three-year course. Katy will stay on at the Natural Learning Academy to do a part-time post-matric and work as a studio assistant. The road to completing matric has been long and hard, and had it not been for Katy and May's mom, Lysette, they might never have come this far. From the minute she found out they were different, she started researching their disability and devised ways to make the learning process easier for her daughters.

She noticed that something was wrong when they were very young. "They started talking very late - unlike their older sister - and did not know colours or shapes.

I tried to work on it and even had them assessed for colour blindness, but that was not it," she says. They also tried speech and occupational therapy, and eventually sent the girls to primary school at La Rochelle, where they stayed for four years. They were formally assessed in grade 2 and dyslexia was diagnosed - according to school psychiatrist, Dr Magda van Biljon, Katy had the worst case of dyslexia she had ever seen.

When the girls were in grade 4, the De Clercq's starting looking for another school where they would receive more personal attention. "We found Somerset College, which started their primary school that year and enrolled Katy and May in the grade 5 class, which only had 11 learners," says Lysette.

"We were told that they would never get through grade 7, but a couple of people, especially Andrew Brown from Somerset College, told me that there are other ways to get to matric."

Through her research, Lysette discovered clever ways to help the girls in class.

"We tried to concentrate on their auditory memory, because there is no visual memory and they would learn with visual clues."

May and Katy used dictaphones to record what was said in class, and would go over the work with Lysette in the afternoons.

"During exams they would draw mindmaps to help them remember the work.

She says the buddy system also worked very well. The twins would get a friend who was a good reader to sit next to them and help them reading questions and make sure that homework was written down.

The buddy would also write down class notes on carbon paper, so that there was always a copy of the day?s work to take home.

Something else she discovered that helped her daughters, was listening therapy. At the end of 2006 and 2007, she took them to the University of Potchefstroom, where they received the treatment. "They would sit in a booth and listen to music in different frequencies, which stimulates the brain. Katy and May are both left-ear dependant, and the therapy also stimulated the right ear, which helped their learning tremendously. They conversed far more, and got more confident."

They also discovered fantastic literacy software, the WYNN Wizard reading programme, which helped with reading.

You can use the programme to scan in a piece of typed text, or even download entire books, and it will read each word out loud, highlighting the words as it goes along. Katy and May were the first learners in South Africa to use the programme, and it is now also being used at the Natural Learning Academy.

Lysette says it was very important for them that May and Katy attend school.

"We did not want them to be home-schooled because we wanted them to compete in sport and other activities, which was necessary to build their self-image. We also spoke openly about the dyslexia all along."

When the twins were in grade 10, Lysette appointed a full-time tutor to help them in class, but then they found out about Natural Learning Academy and Katy decided to go there immediately. May opted to finish her grade 10 year at Somerset College, and joined Katy at the Academy the following year.

According to Annaliese Brink, principal of Natural Learning Academy, she realised that the girls are extremely gifted - not only artistically, but also academically. "They have the ability to see connections between things that normal school children cannot and are quick to see and understand metaphors in poetry, for instance. Their ability to remember things is also highly developed," she says.

"The art school did wonders for the girls," says Lysette. They had discovered long ago that they enjoyed art and were very good at it, and now they could concentrate on developing their talent.

Lysette's advice for parents with dyslexic children who struggle at school, is to always remember that there is development every year - and that eventually you will get there.

"Denial will not help your child and one has to take ownership of the problem. My prayer always was: That my child develops to her full potential and that her soul remains intact."

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