Reading Issues

[AngelaNYC]

A few years ago, I was at a loss wondering why my son couldn't read well. He was 8 y/o and still struggling to sound out words. Both his sisters were precocious readers (before 4 y/o) and I just figured he's be the same. I eventually happened upon a huge list of dyslexia symptoms and he had 25 out of 26. I scoured dozens of websites and read 4 or 5 books on dyslexia as well. It all made sense after that - he did better with "whole-language" reading, reversed words and letters, would leave out small words when reading, would see only the first and last letters of a word and make up the middle, etc.

 

I then changed the way I taught, using an intense multi-sensoral way of doing things. Everything from sandpaper words to using a dry-erase board to flash cards and repetitive-word books (Dick & Jane, Dr. Seuss, Fly Guy, etc). He did copywork, classic lit readalouds, narrations, and a spelling workbook a grade-level below.

 

Anyway, he's 11 now and after 3 years of changing up my way of teaching, he reads on or above grade level. Out of the original 26 dyslexia symptoms, he only seems to have 3 or 4 now. He still gets B and D confused (both upper-and lowercase), reverses words (he recently read the word "everywhere" as "wherever", "of" is still "for" and vice-versa), and his overall spelling is pretty bad (but slowly improving). 90% of the time he corrects himself immediately, because he can "see" that what he wrote looks wrong. He is great at proofreading exercises - finding the misspelled word and missing capitalization - and we do those often. He reads fairly quickly and with full comprehension when silent, but trips up a lot when reading aloud. He can do 5th & 6th grade reading comprehension exercises in a workbook and get them all right.

 

I guess my question is - does this sound like he had dyslexia and has overcome most of it? I never got him formally tested, since I couldn't find anyone to do it for less than $1500. I did have his vision tested and it's fine.

 

Any input would be great.

[kubiac]

FWIW, I have two brothers who were diagnosed with fairly significant dyslexia in early elementary. I would say one still struggles with it in his 30s. The other says he has to "concentrate" more than other kids to process and produce written language, but he just finished his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Berkeley and I think we all think that he pretty much resolved dyslexia as an academic issue somewhere in middle school.

 

Long story short, yes, I personally have a hunch that it's quite possible for some (and maybe most) kids to learn their way out of or around dyslexia.

[OrganicAnn]

When you said you had his vision tested - was it through a regular optometrist or someone who specialized in vision therapy?

 

They say there are a lot of overlapping with different issues and that is why some are difficult to diagnosis.

[SailorMom]

This is exactly what my (absolutely) dyslexic son is like.

Once we went to whole word and multi-sensory, he learned to read. But he is still struggling with his handwriting, spelling, and reversals.

I think giving up on phonics really gives these kids a hands-up.

[AngelaNYC]

When you said you had his vision tested - was it through a regular optometrist or someone who specialized in vision therapy?

 

They say there are a lot of overlapping with different issues and that is why some are difficult to diagnosis.

 

She is an optometrist and "vision specialist". I mentioned reading issues and she did a bunch of comprehensive tests on my son and ruled out any issues with visual efficiency or visual processing. She also said he definitely does not need vision therapy. Would there be other signs (besides reading and spelling) that it may be his vision?

[AngelaNYC]

This is exactly what my (absolutely) dyslexic son is like.

Once we went to whole word and multi-sensory, he learned to read. But he is still struggling with his handwriting, spelling, and reversals.

I think giving up on phonics really gives these kids a hands-up.

 

I'd love to hear more about what worked for your son. I'm so glad to know I've been doing a lot of the right things.

[AngelaNYC]

FWIW, I have two brothers who were diagnosed with fairly significant dyslexia in early elementary. I would say one still struggles with it in his 30s. The other says he has to "concentrate" more than other kids to process and produce written language, but he just finished his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Berkeley and I think we all think that he pretty much resolved dyslexia as an academic issue somewhere in middle school.

 

Long story short, yes, I personally have a hunch that it's quite possible for some (and maybe most) kids to learn their way out of or around dyslexia.

 

Wow, that's great that your brother seemed to learn his way out of it and realized he needs to just concentrate more. How does your other brother still struggle as an adult? This is my first experience with dyslexia ever and I have no idea what the future holds. I keep hearing how kids "plateau" and don't move beyond a certain grade level in reading and spelling.

[AvasMom]

This is exactly what my (absolutely) dyslexic son is like.

Once we went to whole word and multi-sensory, he learned to read. But he is still struggling with his handwriting, spelling, and reversals.

I think giving up on phonics really gives these kids a hands-up.

 

See, my experience is the opposite. Whole word reading (balanced literacy is what he did at PS) really fed into the dyslexia and only through daily focus on seeing/hearing/reading the individual sounds was my ds able to make any progress at all. OPGTR, Explode the Code, and All About Spelling have been lifesavers for my ds.

[AngelaNYC]

See, my experience is the opposite. Whole word reading (balanced literacy is what he did at PS) really fed into the dyslexia and only through daily focus on seeing/hearing/reading the individual sounds was my ds able to make any progress at all. OPGTR, Explode the Code, and All About Spelling have been lifesavers for my ds.

 

Yeah, I was never a supporter of whole word reading. I've always been such a phonics person. It was how I learned to read and it was the only way to go for my girls. My son, on the other hand, just did not respond to much of it. We did so many phonics reading programs together from when he was 4 years old. It helped him with some decoding: CVC words, silent E, and he always knew "ing" and "ight" when he saw it. But he couldn't tell the difference between any of the vowel sounds, and sounding out a word was (and is) never his approach. He'd just look at a word and know it based on memory. It was so odd to me - and extremely frustrating. I always told him to chunk it up and sound it out, but it didn't work and he would give up. But I realize that this is how we read as adults. I don't sound words out, I just know them because I've seen them before. When I started using Dick and Jane with him, things improved a lot. We currently use a spelling series that gives 20 words each lesson. The next few pages are a bunch of exercises using those words over and over - in context, rather than the tedious "write each word 10x" stuff I did in school.

 

It's easy to see how schools aren't able to garnish much improvement with learning disabilities when each kid needs something different. The one-on-one instruction is what I think the bottom line is.