I'm starting to get concerned that Wolf (8 1/2) might have undetected dyslexia. I've been talking with his teacher and she sent me to a site. I made a list of all the markers he showed:
trouble tying shoes and other knots, speech delay (checked at 18 months), still does not consistently know left/right, trouble with spelling tests when given out of sequence, 2 finger writing grip, trouble copying, word spacing problems, spelling problems, trouble consistently writing on the line, inconsistency of letters shape and creation, letter size issues, still reversing letters after 4 years instruction and practice, problems with forgetting punctuation and capitalization, difficulty getting thoughts down on paper in acceptable form, Written work shows signs of spelling uncertainty—numerous erasures, cross outs, etc, Writing is a slow, labored, non-automatic chore, Avoids writing whenever possible, Does not notice errors when “proofreading,” trouble with long division, trouble organizing belongings,
This really stood out to me: People with dyslexia usually have an “impoverished written product.” That means there is a huge difference between their ability to tell you something and their ability to write it down.
I know "gifties" can compensate for things like dyslexia until the work load gets too heavy and I think that might be the case here. In December we started focusing on his writing and expected more advanced output which he should be capable of, but he started losing his appetite and has actually lost weight. He's also started getting very upset over even simple problems in unrelated areas. When i asked him what the hardest part of writing was he told me, "Figuring out how to write my letters."
So, has anyone else been in a situation like this? We're moving schools next year (he's going into a 2 day a week middle school homeschool program, the equivalent of a second skip, and the school looks like as close to a perfect fit as we will ever get) and I'm trying to figure out if we should test now, in our current district which doesn't have a Gifted program or if we should wait till we get to the other school district (our home one) where they do have a Gifted program. If it ends up with an IEP it would be nice to have the gifted stuff on there, but I'm also worried that switching schools with an IEP will cause issues.
Any advice from those of you who have been here?
