possible 2E, dyslexia question

[Lecka]

Hi, I am not sure if I have posted here before. I am a fairly frequent poster on the special needs board.

 

Here is my situation:

 

I have a son who is 7 and attends public school. He has got many symptoms of dyslexia and I have been doing a large amount of after-schooling with him.

 

I have never seen a sign of him being gifted. He is a great kid, I just think he is at a good level for a kid his age, and very appropriately challenged at school. He is very sensitive and caring, and he does like me to read him DK-style Star Wars books that are meant for an older child. But that is all.

 

I saw here a while back, that part of a language battery he took last year is equivalent to a verbal IQ. He did get 135 and 127 on two sections and his overall language score was 132.

 

So, first, is it okay that he has this score, and yet I am not seeing any need for him to advance? I am truly not seeing it.

 

Second, his teacher at school notices a difference between his class participation and his work. She has expressed that she wonders if he could have ADD. Since this came up, I have been watching him for this, and I just don't see it. His attention is not awesome, but it seems similar to what I see with other kids his age. What I expressed to the teacher is that I think with his handwriting difficulty, he is doing the best work he can. She has also agreed to let him do his math facts orally instead of written. She does not understand that he can be one of the better students in the class for math concepts and in the lowest group for math facts. He is working diligently on his math facts, every night, and I think his progress is good. It is just not what his teacher expects from him.

 

His teacher is satisfied with his reading and his reading comprehension, with his reading comprehension being his strong area.

 

I am working with him at home on his actual reading (decoding) as this is a weak area for him, though he is grade level.

 

So, my question is, is it possible I am totally missing him having ADD? Is this likely? Should I be looking for something "more" than dyslexia to explain why he is better orally than with written work? He has an IEP for speech and handwriting, but for his handwriting, he is not having accomodations, just OT. I have gotten him the accomodation for his timed math facts for now, but we (the teacher and I) both want him to keep doing the handwriting -- he is not frustrated and it is good practice, he is just not performing at an average level.

 

He likes the unit themes they do at school and he likes school. I just wonder, if he is possibly 2E, if I should be looking for something wrong with this picture.

 

Also, he does Math in Focus in school, it is like Singapore Math. He does well with it. I think he might have trouble with another math program but I think what he has got is working for him.

[FLDebbie]

My gosh, you just described my son exactly. Last year, when he was 7, we suspected him of having dyslexia and had him tested (the wait through the PS was way too long and we wanted answers now). The psychologist verified the dyslexia but also said he tested gifted, and would have likely tested higher but showed ADD tendencies and couldn't concentrate after a period of time on each part of the assessment. We were shocked since he's not what I would have thought of as either gifted or ADD. As far as the ADD, the psychologist said kids don't have to be hyper to have ADD, it can happen if a kid can't concentrate on a task for the amount of time that would be expected for a kid that age.

 

He also has the issues with memorization of facts (whether math or spelling) but is great with conceps. I think this can be part of the strengths of how your son's brain works. With mine, he is great at concepts, doing puzzles, seeing the big picture, etc. but memorization isn't easy for him. I think he does better if he has something to "hook" the information to in his head. Concepts come with that hook, but memoization doesn't. We've used programs that tell stories to remember facts, like Times Tales for multiplication, and that has done wonders for him.

 

I was doing quite a bit of afterschooling with him to help him with his reading last year. During the same time we had him tested, we pulled him from PS due to a variety of factors. Now we can focus on each strength and weakness at his level without pressure from teachers or standardized tests that would label him as behind while he's really not. It's amazing how much better his self-esteem is now and he's progressing nicely.

[Lecka]

Thanks for your response.

 

It sounds like I need to take the ADD idea more seriously.

 

Some of his math facts and spelling are clicking for him this year, which is amazing. He has not gotten to multiplication yet, though. He is on the highest addition facts. Then he will do subtraction. I think it will be the end of the year for him to get to multiplication, and I am planning on working on it this summer. I am definitely going to get Times Tales for him. It is nice to hear it works for someone who sounds similar to my son :)

 

I am really confused about the whole issue of testing. My son was identified "at risk" in reading in Kindergarten, and I hunted around and finally got him some materials that would work for him by summer. He caught up half-way through 1st grade. Even now he just got 50th percentile in reading on the MAP testing. I thought that was good, but his teacher thinks he should be doing a lot better than that. But this is the first teacher who has never had him be labelled "at risk." His K teacher told his 1st grade teacher about him being behind, so she was always very encouraging and extremely good with him. So it is really new to me for him to be at grade level and the teacher thinking he is not where he should be. He has gone from being an "at risk" kid doing really well to catch up, to a smart kid not working at his potential. I do not like it. In a way it is worse than before (which I would not have expected).

 

I have not taken him for testing outside of stuff related to his speech therapy. When he exited private speech I had really hoped to be done with all of that. And, I really had hopes that with early intervention for his reading he would not need to go for testing. But I am starting to think it is a good idea.

 

I think I need to get more information from his teacher, also. When she brought up ADD I had a reaction of "no, I don't think so," that I am re-thinking now.