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Originally Posted by kittie313  Please don't feel bad. My 7yo dd is dyslexic and we caught it because the ps she was in last year wouldn't test her and I did all that reading on sites like you did. We got her privately tested, and now we're working with her and have found how to best help. For her, she needs a multi-sensory approach so we will do verbal explaining, show her how its done, help her do it herself, and repeat. With phonics this year (this is a perfect example) we would play with the letter tiles to spell out words using the sounds we're working on, she'd say the letters and sounds while we did it, she'd read the word out loud to us after spelling it with tiles, she'd write the word on paper or the dry-erase board, we'd "rainbow write" the word (take a piece of paper and print the word on it in marker then have her trace over it with at least 5 different colored crayons then write it around the tracing word with each crayon, so she'd trace it in red then write it, then trace and write in blue, and so on), and just keep going through that until she got it. Then we'd do a round the next day to reinforce it before introducing the new sound if she's ready to move to the next one (if not we'd keep at the first sound)
I felt like a failure because she wasn't getting it in K, which was a small part in why we enrolled her in ps. I felt like a bigger failure when the teacher told us that she may need held back even though I was working with her every day after school on the stuff she ddi in school. And I felt like a LIVID failure when they decided to fudge her scores on the K assessment in the spring to pass her to the next grade even though she failed the assessment and should have repeated K. I felt like a failure when we sat down and started working at home on lessons daily, when she would get that glazed-over look in her eyes and get frustrated because it wasn't sinking in. Then we got the diagnosis for her and some tips from the doctor that did the testing (there are a lot of other things at play with her though) and we started making slow progress. I still have days where I feel like its just too much and we'll never get there with her, but then we have those breakthrough moments and it all feels worthwhile to see her get all excited (we just had this happen with her reading, because of the early intervention she is almost at grade level already (we're ending 1st grade now and she's starting to attempt Magic Treehouse books, which is slightly above grade-level but right on compared to our local PS standards) I couldn't imagine her getting the help she did from us if she were in ps this year, and I'm glad I admitted to needing the help and getting her tested and finding out what is going on with her learning. I didn't let how I felt about not being able to teach her get in the way of getting her the help she needed. It was a really difficult thing for me (I have a streak of pride a mile wide and a mile deep) and diagnosis was difficult with her other challenges, but it is totally worth it.
Sorry if I rambled a bit, but I just wanted to let you know that you shouldn't feel bad about it. You didn't know before that this may be his struggle, it wasn't something that you could have really known if you weren't aware of the less known symptoms (most people think dyslexia just means reading troubles when in fact it is so much more, its really common to find that the parents had no clue with it until their child is diagnosed)
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Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I feel like a bit less of a failure now, actually thinking perhaps it wasn't just my incompetence. Yep, 2 days ago I had NO clue what dyslexia was- I still don't totally understand it exactly- I had no idea those things were related. As is the stereotype- I thought it was reading backwards- an ld.
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Originally Posted by AAK Please don't feel bad. Seriously, any mom who has been there understands how frustrating it can be. It really blows my mind sometimes. And, to be honest, my dd doesn't sound nearly as severe as your son.
We started down the testing path and then skipped it. My dd gets soooo stressed out about testing, etc--she just shuts down. So, I am only 99% sure that she is dyslexic. Really, nothing else fits. We have been to all sorts of eye doctors (which is really valid) and while she has eye issues (blind in the right) this can not be blamed on her eyes. Since I pulled her out to homeschool I don't see having an official diagnosis as helpful. I may do it in the future--depending on her needs. But for now, I have a plan of attack based on my own research (reviewing everything that has been written about this!). We will follow this path and see how it goes. I must say that we have made a TON of improvement since I pulled her out at Christmas break. I am really proud of her. And, I am really proud of me! I have a tendency to push--but I have really learned when not to. I have gotten more flexible in my methods, and in taking a day off when needed. I have gotten creative. She learns soooo much better if I incorporate movement. We celebrate her progress rather than worry about how much more she needs to improve.
I think that she realizes that it will be hard, but I really think she appreciates that I am fighting for her.
Amy
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Thank you for your experience as well I am so interested in hearing everyone's journey so whatever you want to share I am interested.
Luke shuts down w/ testing as well. I have learnd that one the hard way- I don't know how he would react to someone else though-- if the testing was done w/out there being an expectation that he knows it- if that makes sense. My friend was asking him letters yesterday. He recongnized 1 he knew- the A was a 4- he always says that. He said the U was the first letter in his name but called it something weird that wasn't even a letter. He seems to think there is a letter called Key as well. He can list some letters but not not in any order and as I said he cannot put the letter to sound or recognize it.
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Originally Posted by sbgrace My son is six and I recently made similar discoveries about him. I contacted Susan Barton about my son (sho doesn't have as many indicators as your son). I was really detailed. She felt he was almost certainly dyslexic. I could do an evaluation at this age at our Children's Hospital. I decided instead to act as if because, in our case and I imagine yours too, if he's not dyslexic he's still got major issues in areas that are going to cause similar problems. So I'm approaching reading (and other subjects too) as if he's dyslexic. I guess I figure if he's not none of my choices are going to hurt as they are very solid choices. If he is dyslexic I'll feel badly if I wait or select programs that actually do more harm than good for him (he'd been memorizing/sight reading even though I'm using a well regarded phonics program).
My son did complete vision therapy (he very much needed it--he had major issues in those areas). That's a different thing than dyslexia that can impact reading (but wouldn't cause the other signs your and my son have). They did also address left/right confusion. My son is still confused on that (to the frustration of the therapist!) but he can track, converge, etc. very well now.
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What kind of eye dr did your son see for the therapy or was that a kind of therapist? I guess I could call the hospital here to see if they do testing, that is an option. I am really tired of not having clear answers. We have already been down that path w/ Celiacs- as he most certainly has -- anyway- that is another subject.
I have to say that I am still in the shock stage. Big, big shock stage. I am waiting for someone to tell me I am crazy that it doesn't sound like that, everything is ok- and then I have all of this - his sounds more severe instead.
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Originally Posted by littlemizflava oh ya i was famous for that. i had everyone thinking i could read. any book that was read to me once i could "read" it back and turning the page at the right time.
im really no help all i know is i thank my mom every day for training me to read  because she did it all on her own and this was in the early 80's  |
Well, any tips from your mom, then??? any thoughts on the experience? Insights?
! Be sure to also check out the ones on vision skills, because there are often similarities in the list of characteristics.
You'll have peace of mind about that one important element. Lillian
