DD dyslexic - I think - what were/are the signs that made it clear to you?

[ewe+lamb]

OK I haven't spoken to dd about this but I'm fairly sure dd is dyslexic, she is 5.5 and is about to move up into her first year in primary school, she is to know her numbers up to 31 and ABCs, in upper, lower and cursive writing - here's the problem, well we have several actually so I'll just list for the moment and see what you guys think.

She cannot retain any of the letters, she remembers the ones in her name but that's about it - we try to work on it 1/2 hour a day or so and still she really struggles.

She manages numbers up to 4 maybe 5 but is ALWAYS questioning if she is correct or not - I think this is more a confidence thing than dyslexic - but anyway thought I'd list it.

She already goes to an orthophoniste for speach therapy - she finds words with three syllables or more difficult (we live in france = bilingual)

She has been recommended to see an ear specialist for her hearing - but I think it's more because she doesn't pronounce all the words correctly, hearing and then repeating is really hard e.g. gog instead of dog, constanents p/b, l/r, she can't roll her rrr's.

She falls and trips over ALOT - or more than I would expect for a 5.5 year old at least once a week in the playground.

She extremely artistic but finds clapping out rythmn difficult.

When she has to write a birthday card or whatever she finds the spacing of the letters and words hard, they are all run together rather than being spaced out as I write it for her.

So I'm going to speak to her orthophoniste but I just wanted to see what you guys think - I'm terrified she won't get into school next year and I know she'll never been kept down but it's still a thought that gets in once in a while!!!

I was wondering if getting her to mold the numbers and letters in clay would help with her retaining the shape seeing as it would be 3D for her, and she could 'feel' her way around the shapes of the letters and numbers - what do you think? Any other fun ways for learning that you've found to work/be helpful. Any ideas to help me with this would be SO appreciated, thanks to you all in advance.

[StillForest]

Your DD sounds a lot like mine. My DD had great difficulty recognizing or retaining any sort of visual symbols (letters, numbers etc...). She was getting increasingly demoralized watching her peers learning how to read and write in kindergarten (we're in the US). She was starting to avoid anything related to reading or writing. We tried all sorts of fun multi-sensory/phonics approaches...but just weren't really getting anywhere.

I got her a complete neuropsyche evaluation to better identify what was going on and how to best help her. She has a visual processing delay of some sort (aka dyslexia). The psychologist encouraged me to find a tutor trained in the Orton-Gillingham method, a multi-sensory, sequential, and highly structured phonics-based method of teaching reading. DD started seeing a tutor twice a week when she entered first grade in September.

The tutoring has made a world of difference. She is now proudly reading at grade level and, most importantly, loving reading and writing and feeling very empowered.

I am *so glad* that we intervened early. We got all sorts of mixed messages from the school system. Her teacher really saw that something was going on and that DD was suffering but the school reading specialists kept telling us to wait till 2nd or 3rd grade . There's a lot of wrong information about learning disabilities circulating still. Early intervention is critical.

HTH. Best of luck to you and your DD!

[robin4kids]

Well I come from a family of dyslexics and so far all my kids have varying degrees of it. Did you say that your dd is learning two languages? If this is true. you do realize that it is not unusual for it to take a little longer for a child to learn to speak, read or write in the two languages.

Dyslexia is just a word used to describe a very wide range of reading problems. Not everyone has the same problems. I do reverse words. I sometimes have problems with a delay in my hearing. Sensory type problems. I also still have problems with words I have never seen before.

I have to say that you might be jumping the gun. 5.5 is still very young. My kids did not become really good readers till 7-9 years old. If she is having problems then you need to teach her the phonics of reading. My one ds dd not know any of the letter names, but could tell you every one of their sounds and could read simple words. The letter C does not EVER say that sound. As for numbers. My children learned their names, by punching in the numbers for me on the microwave and when we had to weigh things at the store. It was a treat and i did not even realize i was teaching them. I would say out loud now push 2, then put their finger on the 2. Suddenly they were doing it on their own.

Not all kids learn to read at 5 or 6 or even 7. Don't compare your dd to another kid. It will just make you nuts.

[ikesmom]

My ds has these issues as well. He has visual tracking problems. You might have a developmental optometrist check her eyes as well.

[b&c'smama]

I strongly urge you to go see a developmental optometrist to get an eye exam and evaluation. (NOT a regular optometrist or an opthomologist: they won't look for the same things.) We have learned a lot about vision therapy because ds needed it. It has helped him quite a bit. Our developmental optometrist has mentioned to us many times that many kids (or adults) who are diagnosed with dyslexia actually have vision issues. BTW- these vision issues are not dealing with how well they actually "see" (ie, they could have "20/20"vision), but how their eyes work together, how they send info to the brain etc. If you google vision therapy you will get lots of info. Here is a good link to get you started!

http://www.visiontherapy.org/

[karne]

I don't want to hijack this thread, so I guess I'll start another. But I do want to say that I am interested in the vision therapy site referenced above.

[ewe+lamb]

Thank you all for your replies.

Just to give some more information, my sister is severely dyslexic, my brother is dyslexic but not to the extent of my sister and I have something called a 'cross lateral' which means I 'move' words, as such. I'm definitely going to see if I can get her eyes tested - extra big special thank you b&csmama for that piece of information.

I also spoke to the orthophoniste yesterday and although we all know its a bit early she did say that there were things that stood out that could be concerning, so we'll wait and see but at least we're aware of the possibility.

I know that bilingual children are sometimes slower than their monolingual counterparts but even in comparison to other bilingual children she isn't up at the same level.

StillForest - you're right, I'm fairly sure that there is something up and nipping it in the bud is really the way to go, I'll have a look into the orton-gillingham method - sounds right up my street. Her orthophoniste said that learning the alphabet means nothing, but teaching the phonetics is everything so I'm going to work on that and get her some good clay or make up some salt dough for moulding the shapes and hopefully that'll help her remember. She is very aware of peer pressure and some of the girls have been saying to her that she won't be going to school if she can't do the alphabet etc - so I also have to reassure her that that's not going to happen.

I have an appointment with her head teacher and then her teacher on Saturday.