Outgrowing Dyslexia and other LDs?

[Paige]

My DD had her first session with a math tutor who specializes in kids with learning disabilities and she thinks DD has dyslexia or another visual type of LD. I agree. I was telling her it was strange, however, because DD's identical sister used to have the same issues with math and spelling but they sort of just disappeared sometime over the past year and now her sister does really well and has no problems. The tutor said she sees it frequently and that sometimes the brain will suddenly sort itself out and the problem goes away. Has anyone heard this and is it true? I always thought LDs and especially dyslexia were things that people struggled with all of their lives. It does seem to match what happened with one of the twins. The tutor said since they are identical that it is likely that my struggling DD will suddenly lose her LD symptoms as well. I wish it could be true but I'm a little hesitant to get my hopes up.

[Rod Everson]

It's possible, Paige, that both started with developmental vision issues, and that your other daughter's binocular vision skills just finally matured to the point where she wasn't experiencing visual confusion any longer. Meanwhile, your daughter who is still struggling might just be struggling with the same vision issues that both had a year or so ago.

 

I wouldn't leave it to chance, but would find a developmental optometrist in your area and have her evaluated. If it is a vision problem, her vision skills might eventually develop, but it would be nice to be certain that vision issues were ruled in or out in any case. The longer she goes on with a vision skills problem, the greater the likelihood that her brain will make an adaptation that might have her reading close work with one eye and doing distant vision with the other eye. That might solve the immediate problem, but it's not an optimal solution. For that matter, that might be exactly how your other daughter has resolved the problem. She might be doing close work with one eye and suppressing the other.

 

But vision skills are developmental in nature, so it's certainly possible that the first daughter is okay now, and that the second might be fine in time. If they were mine, I'd prefer to have the examinations done to be certain though, at least for the one still having problems.

 

I've got quite a bit about this on my website, but the page Find a Vision Therapy Provider might be of the most immediate use to you if you decide to go this route.

 

All the best,

 

Rod Everson

OnTrack Reading

[Paige]

Thanks. We just got back the results of DDs psych testing and he strongly believes it is not dyslexia but auditory processing disorder. She's going to see an audiologist for a full evaluation now. He said her visual skills are extremely strong. The DD whose issues have resolved went through some major surgeries and intense physical rehab this year at the same time as her learning issues resolved. The psych is speculating that this major stress on her nervous system with the surgery combined with the intense PT may have been the cause of her issues resolving. She was specifically working on retraining her motor neurons and muscles but perhaps that work led to the brain repairing or rewiring other areas as well. It's too bad we can't replicate that for the other DD.