Dyslexia?

[cindergretta]

My ds has Aspergers and ADHD with some mild sensory issues. He will be 8 in May and is in 2nd grade. He seems to read pretty well. His writing is nothing short of atrocious!

 

Yesterday, while playing Hangman, the word he chose was "Ironman." But he wrote it exactly backwards - Namnori, with his "r" backwards. He rarely uses capitals and lower cases properly. In this case, it was a capital "R" written backwards.

 

Is this fairly typical for 2nd grade boys? Is atrocious writing fairly typical for 2nd grade boys? Is it fairly typical for Aspies? ADHD?

 

Should I be concerned? Should I possibly pursue OT? His gross motor skills are very behind, in terms of athletics, kwim? His fine motor skills seem lagging, too.

 

Thoughts or opinions?

 

Thanks!

[NCW]

Yup, go to an OT. I'm biased, though.

[Guest Cat477]

My daughter is dyslexic and sounds similar to your son. My daughter couldn't read, write, or spell. Finally, at the end of 3rd grade I discovered the Davis Program. My daughter never reversed another letter or word again after that program. My daughter didn't read past kindergarten level, but at the end of the program she sat down and read her first chapter book in less than 2 hours.

 

We are still struggling with spelling and grammar, but her reading and writing is much better. I did extensive research and do not agree with the typical phonics based programs for dyslexia.

You have your son tested by a facilitator if you are curious. The website is www.dyslexia.com. I'm not affiliated with them at all....just a very happy parent.

[Dobela]

I once taught 2nd grade in public school. Nope, what you describe is not typical. I would look into occupational therapy. I would also consider looking into the testing for dyslexia. Dyslexia and dysgraphia. In addition, if his gross motor skills are lacking, it won't hurt to have a physical therapy eval either. If the writing is caused by low tone, the low tone can be also effecting his gross motor skills. The right therapist can do wonders. I would also consider his vision and vision therapy. Check out http://www.covd.org , in particular their signs and symptoms page. I was honestly amazed at how closely linked vision and fine motor skills were linked when my son was in therapies.

[merry gardens]

My ds has Aspergers and ADHD with some mild sensory issues. He will be 8 in May and is in 2nd grade. He seems to read pretty well. His writing is nothing short of atrocious!

 

Yesterday, while playing Hangman, the word he chose was "Ironman." But he wrote it exactly backwards - Namnori, with his "r" backwards. He rarely uses capitals and lower cases properly. In this case, it was a capital "R" written backwards.

 

Is this fairly typical for 2nd grade boys? Is atrocious writing fairly typical for 2nd grade boys? Is it fairly typical for Aspies? ADHD?

 

Should I be concerned? Should I possibly pursue OT? His gross motor skills are very behind, in terms of athletics, kwim? His fine motor skills seem lagging, too.

 

Thoughts or opinions?

 

Thanks!

It's cause for concern but not cause for panic.

 

Dyslexia is not simply reading and writing backwards. That's a popular misconception about dyslexia. In people with dyslexia, confusion about left vs. right can contribute to some the reading problems, but people with dyslexia have more going on than just right-left confussion.

 

By bad writing, did you mean bad spelling, poor legibility or both? Bad spelling is very common with dyslexia--and for some with mild dyslexia that may be one of the only clues to the dyslexia. Many people with dyslexia have other "dys" problems, like dysgraphia, (illegible with poor find motor skills) but they are separate issues. OT can address problems with handwriting--and some of the other concern you have beyond reading.

 

People with dyslexia may have problems with ways the brain processes sound--particulary with the sounds within words. They may not detect the phonemes (sounds of letters) within words. That makes reading and spelling with phonics difficult until they develop phonemic awareness--and there are ways to develop that. Speech therapists (and others) can test for phonemic awareness problems.

 

They may have problems with processing other areas of language too. That's something dyslexia may share in common with some autism spectrum disorders.

 

Sometimes people with dyslexia have vision problems that contribute to the reading problems. I don't mean glasses--it's something else. Not everyone with dyslexia has those vision issues, but some do.

 

---

Cat477--Hello and welcome .:) Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm familiar with the Davis method that you mentioned. Davis' book presents a positive take on the strong visual-spacial abilities that many people with dyslexia have. The book is interesting, and some people find that method successful, but we did not. I would not recommend that be anyone's only source of information about dyslexia. If a child finds learning to read through phonics unsuccessful, I think it's worthwhile to check that child's phonemic awareness. There can be other things going on that contribute to reading and/or spelling troubles, but solid research shows that there is a strong connection between the lack of phonemic awareness and dyslexia.

Edited April 3, 2011 by merry gardens

[Rod Everson]

I think you have reason to be concerned. A few years ago I would have recommended having a vision evaluation done by a developmental optometrist. I still do make that recommendation, but lately I've begun to wonder if all of this (ADHD, Asperger's, Autism, Dyslexia) might have a common cause, that being a vitamin D3 deficiency.

 

I know this sounds a little "over the top" but if I had a child with developmental delays I would certainly be making sure that he wasn't running a low vitamin D3 level. And, as I said above, I would check out his vision with a developmental optometrist.

 

I've written a lot on the vitamin D3 aspect of this on my website at: Vitamin D3 and Dyslexia and if you do decide to look for a developmental optometrist, here's a link to the relevant page on my site: Find a Vision Therapy Provider.

 

Rod Everson

OnTrack Reading

[PeterPan]

Yes, he needs an OT eval by someone who treats a lot of sensory (SPD), and he needs a vision evaluation by a developmental optometrist. http://www.covd.org The aspie can involve dyspraxia (motor control, motor planning) as well as the tone, so it's something the OT can help. And of course OT with someone who does a lot of SPD can have DRAMATIC effect on the sensory issues. Some dc will also have retained primitive reflexes that give sensory symptoms. The dev. optom. should look for those but also the OT will. They sort of overlap, shaking two ends of the same stick with eyes, but you really want to see *both*.

[Rod Everson]

I arrived at this Vitamin D3 recommendation via a very long route that started with phonics instruction. From phonics instruction, I was led to auditory issues by the research over the past 3 decades or so.

 

Then I was lucky enough to run into someone who fixed vision issues and found that they were important (and were usually missed.)

 

Along the way, I became aware of an explosion of autism and Asperger's, both conditions that are characterized by arrested or delayed development, or abnormal development.

 

I also became aware that many different "therapies" could help "some" poor readers. Sometimes phonics, sometimes an auditory program, vision therapy, even light therapy (syntonics) or a therapy involving picking out moving bars from the background on a computer screen. The DORE program goes right to the development of the cerebellum and has parents that claimed it worked for their child....etc., etc., etc.

 

What all of these therapies have in common is that they are training skills that either failed to develop, or are developing late, or are mal-developed. And virtually all of them claim some significant success in remediating a struggling reader.

 

On top of that, most of the diseases that are escalating in frequency in the past 20 years are characterized by a poorly developed immune system. Juvenile diabetes is one example.

 

So, what's the common thread in all this? Actually, there are two: Developmental delay and two decades.

 

Exactly 22 years ago, dermatologists began their exceptionally effective crusade to keep pregnant mothers and all children out of the sun for fear of their developing malignant melanomas in adulthood. (Ironically, according to Dr. Cannell, even that might backfire, but that's another story.)

 

Now, 20 years later, we see a clear upward trend of diseases or conditions that can be characterized by poor developmental paths, whether they be auditory or visual or sensory (as with many of the kids discussed in here) or poorly developed immune systems (as with the kids now getting juvenile diabetes at an accelerating rate.)

 

I believe that the evidence suggesting (suggesting, not proving--yet) a link between a widespread vitamin D3 deficiency due to our recent culture of sun avoidance and all of the above has grown to such an extent that a parent is foolish not to consider it.

 

And that is why I now feel that every child, from birth, should have his/her vitamin D3 levels attended to. The medical community is certainly not doing it, so a parent has to take charge. When I was a kid, I was so tanned by midsummer my D3 levels were very likely approaching 70-80 ng/ml. Today, at the end of the summer, most kids are probably lucky to hit 30 ng/ml. Below 15, they're at risk for rickets, and I'd bet a fair percentage of city kids are approaching even that level.

 

The reason I created my website was to put all this in one place to be able to refer people to it. If anyone wants to spend a couple of hours watching some interesting YouTube videos featuring the most prominent vitamin D researchers, I've linked to some of the good ones on the Vitamin D and Disease page of my site. I'll stop here and add more later if there are questions or concerns about what I've said above.

 

Rod Everson

OnTrack Reading

[TAKlinda]

Use dot patterns for letter and number reversals.