where to start with dyslexia diagnosis?

[Sew happily ever after]

I very much suspect that DD10 has dyslexia. I have done some reading about it and asked a few questions, filled out checklists, etc. but what do I do now? Do I go to our pediatrician and ask for help? Do I find a dyslexia institute and request testing? What all is involved in actually finding a diagnosis? What is the procedure for helping her (and me!) to cope with her learning difference? I am convinced that in order for her to go any further in her education, this really needs to be addressed.

[Hikin' Mama]

to a Scottish Rite Learning Center. I had read Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz, and based on her list of symptoms, determined that my daughter was dyslexic. But I wanted an "official" diagnosis. That was the only place I knew of that could help me.

 

And yes, it does need to be addressed. The Learning Center gave me several recommendations (they were very helpful), and the special needs board has several people who are dealing with this.

 

My only regret is that I didn't address this sooner. However, my daughter didn't do much letter reversal, and that's what I thought dyslexia was, so I thought she was just a struggling reader.

 

Best wishes to you!

[Perry]

I very much suspect that DD10 has dyslexia. I have done some reading about it and asked a few questions, filled out checklists, etc. but what do I do now? Do I go to our pediatrician and ask for help? Do I find a dyslexia institute and request testing? What all is involved in actually finding a diagnosis? What is the procedure for helping her (and me!) to cope with her learning difference? I am convinced that in order for her to go any further in her education, this really needs to be addressed.

 

I think it differs by region. Around here, we have developmental pediatricians who do the testing. Your state might have a branch of the International Dyslexia Association. You could call them or look at their website and see if they list resources for testing.

 

 

You might want to post this on the Special Needs board also.

[elfgivas]

hi -

 

"the gift of dyslexia" has some good diagnostics in it + some good referrals. we have 2 in this house who are Very Dyslexic, and it helped with self-image a lot, too.

 

learning to finger spell in ASL helped dd a lot; her body ALWAYS knows which letter is which, and includes them all.

AVKO spelling helps with phoneme awareness and therefore reading....

learning cursive helped.

 

we did lots of kinesthetic stuff (making our bodies into letters), writing in whipping cream,jumping on foam alphabet letters to spell words, sand paper letters.... but i started with her when she was 3, as i'd been watching for dyslexia (dh is dyslexic). it took 4 years, but she can now center her point of reference intentionallly, and is reading years above grade level.... (but when she's tired, all bets are off.... and things i hadn't thought of appear; this week, she reversed the order in a roman numeral, and got a "6" instead of a "4".... which i understood as soon as it happened, but am now trying to come up with a strategy to help her with that one!!!)

 

good luck; she's lucky to have you notice and be willing to do the work with her!

ann

[Laurie4b]

I very much suspect that DD10 has dyslexia. I have done some reading about it and asked a few questions, filled out checklists, etc. but what do I do now? Do I go to our pediatrician and ask for help? Do I find a dyslexia institute and request testing? What all is involved in actually finding a diagnosis? What is the procedure for helping her (and me!) to cope with her learning difference? I am convinced that in order for her to go any further in her education, this really needs to be addressed.

 

Go to the special needs board. You'll see that this question is asked frequently. And if your dd has dyslexia, you'll want to take advantage of the wisdom that is there.

[LizzyBee]

Two of my kids were tested by an Educational Psychologist in the Psychoeducational Clinic which is part of the psychology department at the local state university.

[Dobela]

My son's vision therapist did a dyslexia screening to rule that out when looking for other eye isses. I found her by usingthe search function at covd.org. We started with a psychological eval at a private center. Our pediatrician also made recommendations of people that he knew were qualified to make the diagnosis. Usually a reading specialist or a psychologist will make the diagnosis but we found that not all are familiar with the tools/evaluations/assessments required for making the diagnosis and were not comfortable assessing our child for this.

 

Scottish Rite is amazing if you can get into one. We didn't but we do have a Scottish Rite tutor using the Scottish Rite reading program with our ds and all I can say is WOW. It is just fabulous.