Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Receptive speech delay and dyslexia: help me learn

...more about how it all fits together.
I want to be able to be a supportive friend to a mom who is very worried about her 8 year old second grader.

The kid had a *massive* receptive speech delay which was only caught when he started preschool at turning 3. He was one of (then) 5 in a well run household and was functioning adequately at home, so it was only when he disintegrated in the new setting that they realised that what they thought was minor expressive delay and some regulatory issues was a much bigger problem, wth the kid not understanding a word anybody was saying.

With hard work, he has caught up adequately, though I believe he is stillbelow average speech wise. With a late summer birthday, redshirting was a no brainer, but now that he started second grade and expectations are ratcheting up, it’s becoming clear that, at age 8, he is again quickly falling behind.

His reading is at the first percentile - can string a few sounds together but cannot understand a word. He can’t read a sentence. He is exhausted after writing one. The religious education teacher wanted the class to copy down the Our Father which lead to such a meltdown no one at the school can ignore theproblem any longer, and the conferences and testing machinery has started up again.

Problem is, we live in Europe, and all testing, diagnostics and therapy has to run via the medical system, the school is barely involved, all they have to offer is accomodations such as more time on tests and leninency with grading. They don’t have a reading specialist on site.

So, while all the diagnosticians agree stuff is going on and the kid will need targeted intervention, it’s all on the parents to put it in place, with the mom (who’s had a sixth in the meantime, most impressive mom I know!) responsible for all the schlepping.

At school, the friend feels that rather than support, they (both parents are MDs) are getting the „you just can’t deal with one of your kids not being that bright“ vibe. I do tell her that I have seen her kid play and build and it’s just not true. She tells me she looks at my 8 year old fourth grader reading Harry Potter and feels horrible.

She knows I’m not smug - I have a child with a major physical disability and learning disabilities, and the other ones have their own 2 e issues, that’s not it.Her being an M.D., I’m sure I cant help with diagnostics. I’m just tryng to be supportive and saying the right things, but this level of dyslexia and dysgraphia is something I have no experience with or knowledge f.. Can someone of you experienced 2 e parents help me understand how this works, that a kid has to learn how to understand written language all over again?