X-post: Is my child abnormal?

[sdobis]

A quick background on my 11 yo dd: she is artistic and always coming up with amazing ideas. She's an entrepreneur. She makes $50 an hour when she sets up lemonade stands. She's a deep thinker and always has the best questions. She's also dyslexic. She recently decided to read the Percy Jackson series. Right after that, she read Moby Dick. Six months ago, she was only reading Adventure Time and My Little Pony graphic novels.

 

Ok, so here's where I'm stumped. For the longest time, she struggled with identifying basic items. She couldn't tell the difference between the stove and microwave, the fridge and freezer, the dresser and bedside table. It always seemed odd to me. Now she seems to have figured those out, but she still cannot figure out days and months. She learned both the days and months through songs when she was in first grade. Now the only way she knows them is to sing the songs. She still has a hard time reading a clock as well. The concept of time seems to elude her, and she just doesn't care. 

 

Does anybody have a child like this? My husband seems concerned which always concerns me. He very willingly lets me homeschool, but I'm always worried that one day He will insist we put her in public school

[displace]

From my understanding it's very common for dyslexics have a distorted sense of time or difficulty learning calendars or other time concepts.

 

If you aren't, I would institute a daily calendar and time exercise. Have her read the calendar and tell you the day of the week as well as the date. Have her go over basic things as well like what day was yesterday and what day is tomorrow? What month was last month? What month will next month be? I personally think being able to read an analog clock is important so we have one at home that we practice reading the time off of every day.

 

Have you had formal evaluations or testing? Does she have any other academic or other problems?

[displace]

I also wanted to add that it may be beneficial for her to have a student child's timer on her desk. And for her schoolwork you could tell her, for instance, please read for 30 minutes and then set the timer for 30 minutes so that overtime she has a better awareness of the passing of time. They also make apps for timers like that. Basic things that may help would be to institute structure and her day if she does not have much structure. For instance, keeping her daily routine very regular with everything. I'm not sure if formal musical training would help with this ?

[PeterPan]

Did you have her evaluated by a neuropsych and SLP (both) to make sure dyslexia is the correct or only issue going on?  

[Mandamom]

I see this regularly with those with dyslexia. Not all of them but many. Most of the students I work with have Dyslexia so I see it a lot. It is not unusual for these kids to have difficulties with math facts, clocks, seasons, and other calendar skills. 

 

 

My ds9 has the same issues and although he's reading very well, when he was younger he had many dyslexic symptoms. When I tell him to go right or left he reminds me that he mixes them up and he'll check with me before he goes in that direction. He regularly messes up ankle, shoulder and elbow. 

 

So, no your child is very normal. But you may need to continue to practice these skills so that they stick. 

 

 

[Heathermomster]

DS wore a combo analog/digital watch for about two years before he mastered reading an analog watch. Now, he only wears an analog watch.

Days and months were never a problem. I have a laminated classroom type calendar kit with that info hanging in the office/school room.
http://www.mpmschoolsupplies.com/p-40516-boho-birds-calendar.aspx?gclid=CjwKEAjwrpGuBRCkqeXpn-rt5hsSJAC9rxrPeYG62BIsy5eXXJWYr47HngSzEIinVCIEcAOpowNG5xoCIyHw_wcB

[WinsomeCreek]

My ds(7) is obviously dyslexic. We have gone over months and the year calendar repeatedly. He made a monthly calender every month for the last year. He still cannot tell me the order of the months or which are in which season. I do not think it's normal, but perhaps not uncommon for dyslexics?

[sdobis]

Thanks for all the replies. It's good to see that my daughter is at least dyslexic normal. She has been diagnosed by 3 separate specialists. It was through the school system a long time ago. I don't remember their titles. She has blossomed so much over the past few years. Everything but spelling is at an average level. We're using Apples and Pears this year to hopefully improve that. 

 

She has a hard time with left and right too. 

[displace]

L/R confusion is normal too. Maybe she can wear a bracelet for that on one wrist (perhaps a watch to practice reading clocks?). Play some twister, map work instructions. I think it's worthwhile working on that too for practical purposes.

[geodob]

The difficulty with days/months, clocks and the concept of time?

Is more typical of the math disorder Dyscalculia.

Which is basically caused by a difficulty with 'spacial thinking'.

Where you wrote that she has a hard time with left and right.

 

Though with spacial thinking, we concieve of space on the left in one side of the brain.  Then space on the right in the other side of the brain.

But the brain makes use of these 2 sides conceptually?

Which first creates a mid-point between them, right between our eyes.

 

It then uses this mid-point to locate and concieve of zero and now.

With 'before' concieved of one the left, and 'after' concieved of on the right.

So that yesterday, last week, last month, last year, are spacially concieved of. Further and further to the left.

With the future extending to the right.

It also uses the left to concieve of a 'beginning point',  with the 'end point' of on the right.

But a most important aspect of spacial thinking, is that we can use it concieve of quantities, and then divisions and multiples of it.

 

Though coming back to 'a hard time with left and right'?

Conceptually it creates a difficulty with locating and concieving of beginning and end points, and then ordering things between them.

[momof4babes]

Many of the things you describe are familiar.

 

My son has had trouble with colours, days of the week, left and right, breakfast, lunch, and dinner,

telling time. Some of this has resolved, but he still asks me weekly which days are the weekend. Lol

 

I also struggled with some of this as a child.

I still have to stop and think left or right, but it's almost instant now, after years of wearing a ring on my left hand. Things like songs, rhymes, and repetition help things to become second nature eventually.

[PeterPan]

I think some of that is a sequencing issue.  Ds, for instance, could count to 10 or 20 (or higher!) in order, but if you asked him what comes before 5 he was stumped.  So then we had to step it up with what comes before, what comes after...  

 

There's a good book on naming It's On the Tip of My Tongue.  Although some issues are normal, I think more extensive naming issues are good to get checked by an SLP.  If she hasn't had a psych eval and SLP eval, it would be good to get those to make sure you have a complete sense of what is going on.  It's easy to assume everything is dyslexia and miss that there's *more* going on.  There are also some things, for instance non-verbal learning disorder, which will look like dyslexia but more complex.