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    Joined: Feb 2014
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    Originally Posted by MichelleC
    From our own experience, red flags I can now recognize in retrospect include:

    * Being unable to read a word she'd just read correctly several times, even when on the same page.

    * Substituting words when reading out loud, with a plausible alternative that starts with the same letter.

    * From age 5 - 7 she was able to read increasingly complex levelled texts out loud with a fairly consistent error rate, but they never got easier - and the EASY texts never got easier even when could could read the harder ones (i.e. same error rate regardless of text difficulty).

    * Rhyming is often a problem for dyslexics. While DD always loved making rhymes, she could get confused about the difference between rhyme and alliteration (same first sounds) even when probably as old as 6 (or more?).

    * She hated reading out loud, even when she seemed quite able to.

    * She'd avoid reading voluntarily, even when it seemed difficult to avoid (e.g. bringing home a library book from school without knowing what the title was - but then reading the whole book to me when I required her to)

    * Avoiding reading people's name's in a text - which I now realize was avoiding non-sight words.

    * Her writing seemed fine at age 5 - but looked the same at age 7.

    This is a really interesting list. I recently had my 5.5yoDS evaluated for ADHD &etc. He doesn't qualify for ADHD, is probably HG (he didn't really cooperate well with testing so he's kind of up and down). But though I'd asked about dyslexia the evalutor didn't really have much of an answer. He seemed to feel you couldn't really evaluated a 5-year-old for this, and DS doesn't really fit the signs. But his reading is weird. He's been reading CVC words for at least 18 months and he's gotten better, but... he's weird about it. He seems unreasonably "forgetful". He substitutes words. He doesn't like to read aloud, though he tells me he "reads quietly in his head" and I don't even know when he started doing that. And yes, if I ask him to rhyme, half the time he'll alliterate instead. He is nonetheless reading decently well for his age so of course his teachers see no problem.

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    I also found the Shaywitz book extremely helpful. My list from when DD was is first grade is similar to Michelle's (having to re-decode the same word multiple times on the same page, rhyming problems, avoiding people's names, hating reading out loud). I would add the following

    *Spells the same common word differently multiple times in the same paragraph (lack of automaticity)

    *When reading out loud will substitute a different word with the same meaning, i.e. the text says "autumn" but reader says "fall." (reading via anticipation)

    *When reading out loud will substitute a different word with the same beginning and ending letters that is no where close to the same meaning, i.e. the text says "miserable" but reader says "marble." At this point DD's oral reading would completely fall apart. She had guessed wrong and you could watch things unravel.

    *Spelling ability varies on a day-to-day basis. Often the teacher would give DD a list of spelling words, we would have DD study them. Her retention was sporadic. If she missed five words on a spelling test, the teacher would re-test her and DD would once again miss five words but they were five different words.

    *Often skipped prepositions and articles when reading out loud making oral reading very choppy.

    Even if your kid isn't dyslexic, you might find that guided oral reading will help your kid with reading out loud. You read a passage out loud and then your kid reads the same passage out loud. This way your kid can focus on decoding instead of having to worry about decoding and comprehension at the same time. You can read a full description of it in the Shaywitz book. I seem to recall that she had some exercises where you timed the kid and/or counted errors but I didn't do this part with my kid.



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    This topic is fascinating to me, because my DD7's spelling is pretty mixed in her writing -- takes me effort to figure out some of the phonetics. In her writing journal I see things like: cod=code, chare=chair, pinaplle=pineapple, riteing=writing, drity=dirty, threed=third, griaff=giraffe, bushus=bushes, oter=other, figer=figure, but she'll spell yesterday, different, and monster correct, or write lettuce on one page and letes on the next.

    She's in grade 1 but her reading level tested is 2 yrs ahead and her oral reading speed is twice grade benchmark. She entered Pre-K knowing all her letter sounds and reading early emergent books, and had steady progression (minus a couple months of not enjoying reading, where we discovered she needed glasses). But she has struggled with new words when reading aloud, neglecting her decoding tools, saying a different word based on the first and last letters. The other day, she struggled with 'uniqueness' -- not easy by any means, but she was stuck on the 'ness' part, not just the beginning, even as I helped. I've just assumed it's age/grade appropriate, but would hope she didn't happen to miss some skills along the way.

    Would her private psycho-educational assessment flag for further eval if something is off there? We didn't indicate developmental concerns when scheduling, so hers is just an educational eval.

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    Originally Posted by longcut
    Would her private psycho-educational assessment flag for further eval if something is off there? We didn't indicate developmental concerns when scheduling, so hers is just an educational eval.

    Our experience was that not only did early assessments not flag it as an issue, the early testing looked fantastic. DS was probed very carefully: We approved his grade skip the same day we qualified his 4th grade sister for an IEP for (stealth) dyslexia. We looked at every score we could to see if there was any sign of his sister's issues, and they looked golden: 95th percentile across the board on all phonological testing.

    And those phonological skills made zero progress in the next three years, so as a 4th grader, he's also now on an IEP for (stealth) dyslexia.

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    a fsiq of 144 on a Wisc is one point short of DYS qualication so saying somewhere in the MG to HG no mans land is underestimating him. But letter reversals are normal at 6.5 and a lot of the other things can be attributed to a system of inventive spelling and using picture, first and last letters and context to work out words. When it comes down to it though you have to trust your gut.

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    Originally Posted by longcut
    Would her private psycho-educational assessment flag for further eval if something is off there? We didn't indicate developmental concerns when scheduling, so hers is just an educational eval.

    The assessment probably wouldn't see decoding issues unless your psych was specifically primed to test for them. Most of a basic assessment is oral, especially at that age (and stealth dyslexics can often write at a seemingly grade-appropriate level even a bit older than your DD). Your psych would need to use a specific test such as the CTOPP to catch discrepancies.

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    Hi all,

    Reviving this thread with questions about DS6. I've had this nagging feeling about the possibility that he might be dyslexic for some time now, but DH thinks I'm imagining it. To be fair, that's not unrealistic given that I once "diagnosed" DS6 with rickets. As DH says, the internet can be a dangerous thing.

    Lately though, DS6's reading and spelling are causing me a bit of concern again. So I googled dyslexia characteristics and came up with a seemingly commonly used list of 37 characteristics. According to Dr. Davis (from dyslexia.com), dyslexics will exhibit "about ten" of the traits. Even when I am very cautious in my interpretation, I find that DS6 exhibits a solid 19-21 of them:

    General:

    - Appears bright, highly intelligent, and articulate but unable to read, write, or spell at grade level (intelligence). I would replace grade level for intelligence, because he does read at grade level.

    - Labelled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, “not trying hard enough,” or “behavior problem.” We haven't labelled him as such and certainly not out loud (!), but those thoughts have crossed my mind.

    - Isn’t “behind enough” or “bad enough” to be helped in the school setting.

    - High in IQ, yet may not test well academically; tests well orally, but not written.

    - Feels dumb; has poor self-esteem; hides or covers up weaknesses with ingenious compensatory strategies; easily frustrated and emotional about school reading or testing. He doesn't feel dumb, but the rest applies.

    - Seems to “Zone out” or daydream often; gets lost easily or loses track of time.

    - Difficulty sustaining attention; seems “hyper” or “daydreamer.”

    Vision, Reading, and Spelling:

    - Confused by letters, numbers, words, sequences, or verbal explanations.

    - Reading or writing shows repetitions, additions, transpositions, omissions, substitutions, and reversals in letters, numbers and/or words. His reading shows everything listed, not so sure about his writing. But he does still reverse several letters and numbers.

    - Spells phonetically and inconsistently. He doesn't only spell phonetically, his spelling is just odd. For instance, he will spell best as "bast".

    Hearing and Speech

    - Has extended hearing; hears things not said or apparent to others; easily distracted by sounds.

    Writing and Motor Skills

    - Trouble with writing or copying; pencil grip is unusual; handwriting varies or is illegible.

    - Clumsy, uncoordinated, poor at ball or team sports; difficulties with fine and/or gross motor skills and tasks; prone to motion-sickness. Each of these applies in spades.

    Math and Time Management

    - Computing math shows dependence on finger counting and other tricks; knows answers, but can’t do it on paper. Not sure about this one, except for the fact that he is still dependent on finger counting, which seems to be inconsistent with his WISC-V results.

    Memory and Cognition

    - Excellent long-term memory for experiences, locations, and faces.

    - Poor memory for sequences, facts and information that has not been experienced. This one seems to apply inconsistently. For instance, it took him a terribly long time to learn our telephone number.

    Behavior, Health, Development and Personality

    - Can be class clown, trouble-maker, or too quiet.

    - Had unusually early or late developmental stages (talking, crawling, walking, tying shoes). He was late in each of these, and still can't tie his shoes. He only started walking at 21 months.

    - Can be an extra deep or light sleeper; bedwetting beyond appropriate age. He is a very deep sleeper.

    - Strong sense of justice; emotionally sensitive; strives for perfection.

    - Mistakes and symptoms increase dramatically with confusion, time pressure, emotional stress, or poor health.

    Apologies for the long post and thank you if you have read this far. I would appreciate any thoughts, including if anyone thinks I'm out to lunch on this one. smile

    Platypus 101? aeh?

    I would appreciate it if responses didn't quote the above. It seems like sensitive info to be posting about DS, and I will likely delete it after having received feedback. Thanks!

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    RRD -- I sent you a PM.

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    I'm not a dyslexia expert AND I'm a big believer of following your gut so take the next bit with a large grain of salt and know that it is based on a sample size of 1 which is oh so reliable smile

    Much of that list would have applied to DS when he was that age. His reading was actually below grade level until part way through grade 2. Then something clicked and in the space of a couple months he went from getting C's to getting A's and was reading chapter books far above his grade level. I have no idea how it happened but I was very close to thinking that there was something that we needed to dig into.

    I will also add that my DS does have dysgraphia and some of the things that I would have checked off are very much tied to that. I also think that there are other e's that could check off a few boxes but end up not being dyslexia in the end. I'm definitely not saying that your DS isn't dyslexic, just be aware that there are a lot of possible somethings that make this stuff hard to tease out.

    Just wanted to pipe in that asynchronous and 2e kids make these type of checklists very challenging. I'll now defer to the dyslexia experts, hopefully they can provide some more useful things to help you narrow it down.

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    RRD, it's tough to tell from a parent's description of behaviors/etc if what you're seeing is a typical 6 year old development, or early signs of dyslexia or some other challenge - there are quite a few things (typical and atypical) that might cause the things you've listed above.

    I took a quick look and saw that your ds had a psych-ed eval last spring. Did the eval include anything beyond ability vs achievement testing? If not, it may be worth looking into further assessments... but what to recommend is tricky. I've found that neuropsych evals were worth their weight in gold for my 2e kids' assessment, because they take a global look at functioning and include testing to tease out the why behind uneven results in ability/achievement scores... otoh you will most likely need further assessments post-neuropsych by specialists such as reading or SLP etc *if* there's a challenge discovered in the eval.

    Sorry I'm not any help - none of my kids were tested until late 2nd - 3rd grade... not because the signs weren't there (one is dysgraphic, one had severe vision issues, one has a reading challenge)... but because they weren't falling behind in school until that point and we (parents) didn't realize that the obvious-in-hindsight-signs meant anything. I do absolutely wish we'd realized that there were challenges earlier.... so if you have any doubts, look into an eval. If nothing is found, you've spent some time and $ but you will be reassured that everything is ok. If something is found, you'll be in a good position to start remediation and accommodations now, and that will ultimately benefit your ds.

    Best wishes,

    polarbear


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