Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Possible Dyslexia advice?

I think that it's impossible to know for sure what's up with these types of challenges without a thorough evaluation. I've found there are different definitions of what is "dyslexia" among different professionals, and in my own experience it's been more helpful understanding the impact on life and academic functioning as well as understanding the root causes *behind* the symptoms you see more than simply thinking of it in terms of a name/diagnosis. Most of what you wrote describes my ds13 when he was 8 1/2 years old before he was diagnosed with dysgraphia. In his case, dysgraphia exists alone, without any concerns about what is typically considered to be dyslexia. OTOH, my dd8 has a dyslexia diagnosis (from one professional), is considered solidly *not* dyslexic by another professional, struggles tremendously with one particular skill related to reading, but doesn't struggle with writing. Even though one professional labels her dyslexic and the other doesn't, both are well-respected in our community, both gave a routine dyslexia screening as well as additonal testing, both see the same area of weakness and challenge, and both agree on the type of remediation she needs.



I would want to get an evaluation *now* - losing his appetite and losing weight sound like he is struggling with anxiety.


I wouldn't be quick to assume that the "unrelated areas" aren't related problems. You mentioned challenges with long division - what specifically is happening with long division? Is he having difficulty understanding the concept? Difficulty remembering how to do the calculations step-by-step from one work session to the next? Or is he having difficulty coming up with the correct answer because he accidentally switches numbers around or makes mistakes in copying? If the challenge is mistakes in copying, switching numbers etc - that's most likely either dysgraphia or dyslexia. The other types of difficulty are more likely related to a different type of challenge. These are the things that are (in my experience) best understood through a full neuropsych evaluation.


This sounds like classic dysgraphia.

Among the reasons I would strongly recommend a private neuropsych evaluation:

1) Understanding what's causing the issues you're seeing- this is important not only for you, but also for your ds. My ds was diagnosed at 8 1/2 years old - but he'd been struggling (unrecognized) for years, and his self-esteem had already taken a big hit and he was struggling with a huge amount of anxiety due to undiagnosed dysgraphia. Having a diagnosis and an explanation of his challenges made a huge difference in *his* life and relieved quite a bit of his anxiety.

2) Creating a plan forward- if it's either dysgraphia or dyslexia (or another type of challenge) your ds will need accommodations (such as typing, extended time on tests etc) and possibly remediation - the neuropsych will be able to help you come up with a plan for accommodations and remediation if it's needed.

3) Whatever is impacting your ds' academics at the moment may be something that impacts his life beyond academics, and may continue to be a challenge for years to come - ie, it's quite possibly not just a "school" issue. We focus so much of our attention on school when our children are young simply because that's what takes up 90% of their lives at that point, but LDs etc don't stop at 3 pm when school lets out, and they don't get left behind when a student graduates from college or whatever. If you only look at them in terms of academics, it's easy to do things such as accommodate in ways that get around the challenge, when understanding what's up can instead help you face it and learn how to best deal with it for life, not just work-around it for school.


My recommendation, just for the moment, is to separate the issues of planning academics for gifted instruction vs finding an understanding and plan forward for the challenges you've outlined. You have a good understanding of where your ds is academically re his strengths, and you need to determine why he is struggling with writing etc.

The first step (again, jmo) you need to think through is: will you get a better and reliable understanding of the challenges through school district testing, or through private testing. There are some advantages to private testing, and for many of us here, private testing has been invaluable. Our ds has been through both, so I'll outline the differences we've experienced - your school district may be more helpful with testing than ours was.

School district:
- had very low bars on what was considered to be a concern, hence very difficult for the school to see issues for a child who's overall cognitive abilities are high.
- is very limited in $ and staff that are available for providing services, hence the school staff seemed to be operating on an agenda of not finding anything wrong that they might be required to accommodate or remediate.
- school staff had *very* limited experience evaulating 2e kids
- IEP process only gave us a "plan forward" for one school year at a time
- we had to know what to ask for re accommodations and remediation; the school didn't offer up anything we didn't ask for
- we also had to know what type of testing ds needed to understand his writing challenges; the school only offered up ability vs achievement testing, but when we asked for an additional test they provided it - the key was, we had to know what to ask for
- the school shared subtest results from their psych testing, but didn't prepare any type of detailed report or offer up a diagnosis from it; instead they the school psych gave us a list of all the possible things other than an LD that could be causing ds to not produce written work in the classroom

Private Neuropsych eval:

- included far more testing than the school district eval, including testing that highlighted the cause of ds' dysgraphia, which was key for us in remediating/accommodating
- gave us a vision for a detailed plan forward (remediation and accommodation) not just for one school year but for the remainder of elementary, middle school and on - what to do now, what to do over the summer, what to do next year and what to do when that accommodation is outgrown etc
- gave us specific recommendations for what we could expect the school district to offer as well as recommendations for private professionals who were good sources for OT, tutoring, etc
- looked at the WHOLE picture of our ds' functioning and development, including early development history, family history of related challenges, looked through schoolwork samples, included a functional behavior inventory filled out by parents and teachers
- the evaluation wasn't targeted at one specific diagnosis; the neuropsych listened to our concerns, but provided a comprehensive evaluation. In our ds' case, this was significant, because it caught issues we'd never seen simply because we didn't know to look for them
- the evaluation *did* provide a diagnosis, as well as a full report which has been invaluable not only in helping us as parents understand how to deal with the challenges our ds has, but also has been invaluable in advocating at school.

I see it all as steps:

1) Figure out what the challenge is (you'll need some type of eval, either private or through the school)
2) Determine what you think your ds will need (accommodation, remediation, both)
3) Seek either an IEP or 504 based on the answer to #2

Meanwhile, in parallel or after you've worked your way through defining and making a plan for the writing etc challenges, figure out what you'll need to do for gifted services in your new school district and whether or not the services are documented through IEPs (they aren't in all school districts). You can always request that they be added in with an IEP for challenges, and you can also always *always* request an IEP meeting to update an IEP once it's written and in place.

Best wishes,

polarbear