Take a deep breath and don't be depressed. You and your child will come through this just fine. Your child has gifts and struggles that other kids don't have-- and that's OK. His gifts will win out.
My son was diagnosed at age 7 and I felt depressed and overwhelmed, too. He's 10 1/2 now and is doing great and has scored to 100 % on two spelling tests in the last month and is a grade above in reading. His writing still isn't where it should be, but it has improved dramatically this school year and I think he'll be fine. When he was diagnosed, he could barely read at a kindergarten level (which somehow the school thought was within the range of normal), so he has made up a tremendous amount of ground in a few short years.
What I suggest is that you immediately find a good tutor, regardless of what your school plans to do. We had one come to the house 2x a week, in the mornings for 2 1/2 years. We bribed my son to cooperate, because by the time he was diagnosed, he had a pretty bad attitude about school and reading. We stopped the tutoring when we realized he was 1 year above grade level in reading. That was in early 4th grade.
We used Wilson. We had a wasted 3 months where my son got worse in reading when we tried some slick new scam-program called Fast-track. I think there's a lot of voodoo and wishful thinking when it comes to dyslexia remediation, so make sure you do your homework when you select a remediation program. I also wanted an actual research-based program to follow, not just a tutor.
The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Eides seem to have the most scientifically based information. Lindamood-Bell is a program that seems to work for a lot of people. Davis seems like magical thinking to me. Another family we know used some kind of dyslexia therapy where their child was rolled around in blankets. (They think it worked, but sounds doubtful to me.) So there are many, many options out there.
As for school, what we did, we contact the principal to tell him we had a formal diagnosis of dyslexia and we wanted to discuss how to get remediation. That started the ball rolling for meetings that led to a 3-month 1xweek intervention through school. Because my son is HG, and wasn't behind enough, he never qualified for anything beyond that, which is why we did a private tutor. But my son does have a 504, which gives him accommodations. Each kid needs different types of help-- so you might get an IEP or a 504, depending on your child's needs.
It is a long road-- and I'm sure there are many frustrating times ahead for us still, as well. But I do believe you can manage the situation, and your son can still succeed, even thrive with dyslexia.
Hang in there are just move forward one step at a time.
Last edited by syoblrig; 12/03/12 01:15 PM.
