Does this sound like dyslexia?

[mystika1]

Hi,

I have been having trouble finding a good fit in curriculum for math and reading. My daughter is 7 years old. Fiar is our main curriculum and is never a problem as we love it. My husband is Dyslexic and I have read that it is passed down to your kids. Now with that said...I will describe a bit of the more pronounced issues.

 

*One day she can read a story very fluently and the next day the same exact story is difficult.

 

*When reading she will sometimes read a word like "bank" as blanket.(she adds letters.)

 

*She can read words in a word list really well but see it a couple of minutes later in a story and stumble big time on the words.

 

*b and d are still getting reversed when reading. She writes in cursive so that is not an issue in her writing.

 

*I takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to do math. One math worksheet takes much longer to do than fiar!

 

*She retains memorized lessons/drill for a little while and then "poof" gone.

 

*She is young but her spelling is not good.(I know spelling at that age isn't expected to be great but...wanted to add that in.)

 

I understand that some of this can be part normal childhood learning. I am only asking because my husband had issues that took forever to be addressed because in ps his problem was unnoticed for a long time.

 

Do you think she may be dyslexic like her father?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Penny

[Sunkirst]

My son is dyslexic, and when I wanted to have him tested, it was recommended that he be at least 8 years old. We used The Gift of Dyslexia to remediate, and the author recommended not beginning the program until at least eight. I believe there are issues with brain development that can mimic dyslexia with younger children (although this is just a guess).

 

For what it's worth, my son could NEVER read anything easily, even when he had it memorized. That said, there are so many different aspects of dyslexia/dysgraphia/dyscalcula that reveal themselves in such a wide range of issues that it's hard to know what exactly is going on with kids with these difficulties. Even when my son was tested, the Dr. told me, "We can't give him a diagnosis of dyslexia based on the test that we just administered. All that test can tell us, is that based on his IQ, he should be reading better." Evidently, "Real" dyslexia test are very expensive and test some aspect of neural function (once again, I looked into this years ago, and chose not to go this route, so I'm no authority). My son can read at grade level now, but still can't tell me how many days until his swim lesson on Friday without some difficulty. He still has a hard time remembering his birthday, or which are the months of summer - Odd stuff, and just wonderful when you're homeschooling (He's 12 and he still can't...:glare:, what must his mother be teaching him!)

 

This link might help you.

[Quiver0f10]

This link has some info on what to look for, signs & symptoms etc http://bartonreading.com/dys.html#signs and a pdf of signs to look out for: http://bartonreading.com/pdf/Dys%20warning%20signs.pdf

 

There are many different sides to dyslexia it's hard to say based on what you wrote if she does have dyslexia. Like the PP, my son could not read at all and while he can read some now he has to struggle through every single word.

 

I recommend getting her evaluated by a professional, either a private eval or through your school system.

Edited April 20, 2010 by Quiver0f10

[violinmom]

Yes! If 1 parent is dyslexic, than likely 1/2 of your children will also be dyslexic. If both parents are, then likely all will be. That is what we were told.

 

I really, really wish I had known much earlier what I know now. It would have saved a lot of trouble. I love the Barton reading system. You can buy them used and sell for what you pay practically. There is also a yahoo group called heart of reading that was a big help.

[LaurainMD]

My 16-year-old is dyslexic, and so is my best friend. When I was going through the process of getting my DD "diagnosed" (when she was 8), my best friend asked her how she knows how to spell a word. My DD replied that she finds the "picture" of the word, and then figures out what letters make up the picture. Every word she knows is stored as an individual *picture* in her brain. And my friend was like, "yep, she's dyslexic." I know that's just one aspect of it, but she turned out to be right.

 

FWIW, my DD is now very, very high-functioning, in all honors & AP classes, etc. She still struggles with speed in terms of reading, and will never be able to spell (spell-check is our friend!), but absolutely excels in math & music. I would recommend using some approaches recommended for dyslexic students (I highly recommend The Gift of Dyslexia), and do testing down the road if it seems called for.

[PeterPan]

It doesn't hurt to TEACH her like she's a dyslexic. You don't need a diagnosis to start making those changes now. I started with programs like SWR and using cursive (not printing) from the beginning, not knowing whether my dd would be like my husband or that there was a name for my husband's issues, hehe. You can go to Jan Bedell's website http://www.littlegiantsteps.com and read through the myriad of informative articles she has in her resource section. Nothing you would do with these things is going to "hurt" a regular child, but they might clue you in or help you figure out how best to help her. You can go to http://www.eyelearn.com and learn about eye tests and eye exercises to see (albeit informally and fallibly) if she has some issues there. You can do things like Puzzibits and whatnot that Jan Bedell sells to work on hand strength if that's an issue. So I'd get as informed as you can and do as much as you can for what you're seeing, no need to wait. There are kids who have a myriad of symptoms that look like dyslexia, smell like dyslexia, and get some other fancy name, yet are dealt with like dyslexia. So whatever it is, you're still wise to meet it head on and start dealing with it.

 

I'm particularly fascinated by Jan Bedell's math fact recall system. Might be something to look into. Besides all those informative articles, she also has a couple auditory and visual processing test books she'll send you as e-files.

[PeterPan]

It doesn't hurt to TEACH her like she's a dyslexic. You don't need a diagnosis to start making those changes now. I started with programs like SWR and using cursive (not printing) from the beginning, not knowing whether my dd would be like my husband or that there was a name for my husband's issues, hehe. You can go to Jan Bedell's website http://www.littlegiantsteps.com and read through the myriad of informative articles she has in her resource section. Nothing you would do with these things is going to "hurt" a regular child, but they might clue you in or help you figure out how best to help her. You can go to http://www.eyelearn.com and learn about eye tests and eye exercises to see (albeit informally and fallibly) if she has some issues there. You can do things like Puzzibits and whatnot that Jan Bedell sells to work on hand strength if that's an issue. So I'd get as informed as you can and do as much as you can for what you're seeing, no need to wait. There are kids who have a myriad of symptoms that look like dyslexia, smell like dyslexia, and get some other fancy name, yet are dealt with like dyslexia. So whatever it is, you're still wise to meet it head on and start dealing with it.

 

I'm particularly fascinated by Jan Bedell's math fact recall system. Might be something to look into. Besides all those informative articles, she also has a couple auditory and visual processing test books she'll send you as e-files.

[King Alfred Academy]

I have been wondering the same thing about my almost 7 yo.

 

Here is a thread I have started and have received some great insight and advice. Hope this helps! :001_smile:

[FO4UR]

I don't know if it's dyslexia, but it sure sounds like my ds7. I took him in to a developmental optometrist and he scored in the 8th percentile for visual discrimination, and borderline on a bunch of other stuff (in spite of having 20/20 vision). We do VT at home for that.

 

I've read Gift of Dyslexia, Making the Words Stand Still, Overcoming Dyslexia...and a few other titles. My momma-hunch for my ds7 is that he has the visual form of dyslexia. I haven't even pursued having him officially tested for dyslexia, though I've thought about it. I just teach HIM. kwim. It's a wild ride for me...:tongue_smilie:

 

The VT....though helps with some things, hasn't addressed the reversals. I have been dictating the /b/ /d/ /p/ and /qu/ sounds a little bit each day, and he 1st points to the letter that makes that sound for a warm up, and then he writes the letter each time he hears the sound. I make sure he's writing with proper formation (in print - we start Kindy with cursive too which has saved us a bunch of trouble, but for this we print;)). This is helping - for now atleast.:lol:

 

Math - Cuisenaire Rods are our saving grace in math. They are 3D and concrete and ds7 can visualize them easily. I try and seperate the worksheet from the math...my ds7 is pretty good with math but HATES worksheets!!! (ummm..he can't decipher them so readily, doh!!:001_huh:) To give an idea of what I mean, he would literally cry over a page of 1 digit addition, yet adds multi-digit numbers, with regrouping, in HIS HEAD orally and can go on and on asking for more numbers to add. I know when his vision/reading/etc catches up, he's going to outpace me in math...it's just a matter of time...for now math is NOT reading a worksheet. If we use a worksheet, I only make him read a little bit of it and I use it as a guide for oral math work.

 

My ds7 is verbally advanced for his age...so I thought learning to read would be easy for him. sigh!

[mystika1]

Thank You! Thank You for all of the helpful replies. I will dive into the suggested sites as I feel they would be a great help. I finally feel like I am getting somewhere......Yay!

 

Penny

[mystika1]

I have looked at all of the links which have been a great help. In looking at curriculum choices for kids with dyslexia I am most interested in trying AAS or Dianne Craft Right Brained Reading Book with her suggestions for spelling. These methods both seem very different as AAS is rule based. Anyone use both who could help me choose?

 

Thanks,

 

Penny

[PeterPan]

I know someone locally who has blended Dianne Craft's ideas with SWR (like AAS) to good effect. I think DC takes things further, giving more explicit instruction how how to build phonemic awareness and skills that some kids really, really struggle with. So I think it's a matter of degrees. If you try AAS and it nails it, then you're good to go. If your dc needs even MORE foundational work than AAS provides, then you back up further in the process and go to Barton or DC recommended stuff. Have you looked at Barton? Even if you don't need it, they have an informative set of free videos you can watch on their website. They have one that is a "pretest" or readiness test for their program, and it might give you a sense of this issues and what you need to explore next. That's where I'd start, since it's free to watch.

[siloam]

I have looked at all of the links which have been a great help. In looking at curriculum choices for kids with dyslexia I am most interested in trying AAS or Dianne Craft Right Brained Reading Book with her suggestions for spelling. These methods both seem very different as AAS is rule based. Anyone use both who could help me choose?

 

Thanks,

 

Penny

Penny,

 

I haven't used Dianne Craft, but from what I have seen it is very visual. It would work well for a child who is a visual learner and could retain pictures of words in their minds well, but if there are visual processing problems or if they have another preferred method of learning then it probably wouldn't be very effective.

 

AAS is multi-sensory, so it works with visual, auditory, and hands on and movement learners (your basic Orton-Gillingham philosophy). The reason why this works well, other than appealing to multiple learning styles, is the brain stores information from each sense in different parts of the brain, thus the more senses you use the more places you have the information stored. If you have a processing issue in one or more parts of the brain you have somewhere to fall back on to retrieve the information from.

 

The first steps I would take in your shoes, is to take the Barton Reading student screening and ask him if he sees words in his mind.

 

This will make sure there isn't a hidden phonemic awareness problem. For example my 8yo couldn't hear the difference between short /i/ and /e/. She also couldn't hear both sounds in blends, even though she read these word fine...most of the time (she loved adding l and r to words a couple of years ago). :D I ended up taking a step back with her, even though she could read and doing LiPS for her, which works on hearing, feeling and labeling the difference between sounds. Now she is doing Barton Level 1, which is phonemic awareness work, and she is doing well. From there she will use AAS because she is reading above grade level and only needs spelling help.

 

Though I also discovered that my girls who can spell (the older two) create pictures of words in their mind, and can spell from those pictures, while myself and my 8yo, who can't spell, don't. We can't see words in our minds at all. Thus I am having her do Seeing Stars (SS) work with AAS. SS was written to work with the other L/B programs (LiPS, VV, OCN), but when put into a packaged program it is separated out. I personally wouldn't buy it as a package program because it is more focused on reading, and

doesn't have the tile work that I like. The manual does state you can do the exercises with other programs, so I use them with AAS which I think is a stronger combo than the package anyway.

 

If those two pieces are in place, hearing sounds and seeing words in the mind, then it is a question of if you need a full reading program or just a spelling program. AAS is not really a full reading program, especially for an LD student. Eventually it will be for regular students, but even then I think LD students will need the controlled vocabulary and nonsense words used in a traditional full O/G reading program. What that means is a child doesn't read a word they haven't been directly taught, and AAS just doesn't have enough readers to do that, and that a child is forced to apply the rules to words they can't use context to figure out. Dyslexic are masters at using context. Forcing them to really learn the rules and apply them gets them beyond the guessing a word based on how it looks (bank for blanket).

 

And remember, just keep swimming.... (and you will get there.)

 

Heather