Our Dyslexia Story

"Look mom, I spelled Love!" 

When my son first called me over to see the word he had just spelled I was tickled that he even tried to spell anything. He was seven years old at the time and his sister had just been diagnosed as a 'mild dis-phonic dyslexic'. I knew very little about dyslexia and being completely honest, I felt that it was just another label to stick on a child. 

My daughter began therapy but it was extremely expensive. I thought that I just needed to have her read more. Her fluency was not where I felt it should have been but I kept saying, "She'll be fine. She take off one of these days."  And she did, too. I had stopped pressuring her. She's a reader now. 

Her brother on the other hand didn't progress so well. I was slow to do any academics with him until he turned 7 and even then I was very relaxed. I'm really glad I was. However, when he couldn't remember the sounds of letters he learned yesterday or last week. I thought something was odd. I also thought he was just being ornery and didn't want to learn. I knew he was smart. He was so smart in fact that he seemed to memorize poems before his older sister did (without me prodding him). 

As a matter of fact, he would play while I did a bulk of my daughter's school with her in the next room. He was always close, even while in the next room, and he listened to everything. Later in the day or following weeks he would ask me questions about what I had taught sister. He was intrigued by the evaporation process. Of course, he didn't use the words 'evaporation process' but he described it as if he were a little scientist and had been paying attention. 

When it came time for handwriting my little guy had pretty neat penmanship.  However, he may copy two perfect letters and then completely turn the letter around or upside down. For example: d or b or p or q. And tears would flow when I pointed that out to him. He didn't see it as a goof, he literally thought he was making the letter correctly every time.

Then we started on sight words. Oh how fun are those. He knew them one minute and not the next. I just couldn't make sense of it. I can not tell you how many times I must have said, "We just went over this." 

THEN there came a time when we put the kids in public school. (Oh joy) This child cried and cried and cried- every night for about 7 months he cried. He cried over his homework. Oh! I remember the horror. I hated it. I dreaded homework time. He begged me, "MAMA!! I wanna be homeschooled again."  Crazy thing was, he came home with a book everyday and could read it!! Did you hear me? I said the boy could read it!  How was that possible?  So, I decided to go to the school and find out how this was possible. I sat in on reading time. Oh yes I did. They read that book so many times that my smart child just memorized it. He would bring that book home and read it so fast. I decided one time to take the words from the reader and write them on flash cards. Then I showed them to him and he could NOT tell me what they were. Hello, People!! We have an issue.

I even brought up the idea that my son may be dyslexic to his teacher. After all, if anyone should know about a reading issue, surely she would. She was a veteran teacher and well liked by everyone I talked to. So when I brought that up she was quick to tell me that he was fine and showed no signs of dyslexia. I will tell you that I knew better. I knew my son. I knew his struggles. Thing is, at the time, I was too busy dealing with life to really look into it. 

I owned two books about Dyslexia and I began to educate myself. As I began to read, I realized I was reading a book not only about son but about myself. I would talk to my husband about it and he said that the book described him to a T, also. Oh, Huston, we have a problem. 

Time went on and we homeschooled again. I was still frustrated because public school did nothing for my soon-to-be- diagnosed Dyslexic son. Not that I expected them to. But my daughter improved quiet a bit. So all was not lost.

The day finally came when I asked for my son to be tested for a learning disability. He was tested for ADHD. I loved the results of that and the reaction of the tester's face as he read the results. "Um, He definitely has focus," stated the examiner. "He only missed one."   Out of a 20 minute computerized test, my son sat still and focused enough to hit the control when needed. They tested his IQ. The tester stated that he was superior intelligent. That's ABOVE average by the way. HOWEVER, a big FAT HOWEVER, they tested him academically. He didn't score so highly. When you take the two scores and combine....blah, blah, blah........"So, Mrs. Ihne, we are looking at a learning disability for sure."  

Anti-Pharmaceutical plug here:

Since you can not give a person medication for Dyslexia - doctors, testing examiners and the such are hesitant to give a Dyslexia diagnosis. There is no reward or compensation for giving such a diagnosis.  

So having said that, my son was given the diagnosis of  'disorder of the written word'.  As a mom who had just educated herself on dyslexia by reading two books on the topic, I knew enough to know he really meant Dyslexia.  

My first call after that visit was to my Speech Therapist friend who confirmed that yes, 'disorder of the written word' is in fact the same thing as dyslexia.  Turns out though dyslexia is so much more than just a disorder of the written word, more than flip flopping letters or writing letters and words backwards. It is a language processing disorder and also effects comprehension. (Oh, now that explains a lot!) 

I took a 35 hour Orton-Gillingham class that has taught me so much more about dyslexia and how to teach my son. OG is a multi-sensory approach to learning to read. It is great for dyslexics but also for any struggling reader because of it's hands on approach. The student is using their auditory, visual and tactile senses to learn. And hey, who couldn't benefit from that?? 

My son has progressed so much through our O-G lessons. He loves to write and illustrate his own stories. He even enjoys reading now. I highly recommend an Orton-GIllingham trained interventionist to help your struggling reader. I happen to be one so if you need my services just send me a message. 

There is so much more to share on the topic of dyslexia so I shall share more information in future posts.

Also, for wondering minds, the first book I read on dyslexia was The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis. The second book title has slipped my mind, however there is a third book that I have read and it is simply amazing. It is Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.

I also want to give credit where credit is due: My Orton-Gillingham training was provided by The APPLE Group for Dyslexia. You can find them at http://applegroupdyslexia.com/