Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Stealth dyslexia

I have been reading about stealth dyslexia, and it seems to describe my son extremely well. He is an excellent speed reader (he read the entire Harry Potter series in 4 weeks), but performs below expected on standardized tests in reading comprehension. He has all the problems with dysgraphia and written spelling that are describes in the articles about stealth dyslexia.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm wondering how we go about getting tested? What is the treatment/accomodation if he does indeed have this diagnosis?

Thanks for asking these questions. We are questioning the same diagnoses for our DD8.5. Her psychologist will see her at the beginning of September to do a handwriting assessment. I have no idea what that encompasses, but would love to know what it should!

If you suspect a LD, a neuropsychological evaluation conducted by a pediatric, developmental neuropsychologist. The professional will assess various aspects of cognition, memory and academic performance to make a diagnosis and recommendations.

Here is an excellent resource about neuropsychological testing. http://www.drmoldover.com/Child%20Assessment%20and%20Diagnosis.pdf

You could also make a referral to your public school. However, sometimes they do not identify kids that are 2-E, and minimize their struggles - especially if the student has been able to compensate.

You ask what the treatment would be - it would depend upon the cause of the comprehension issues. Sometimes poor comprehension is a result of poor decoding and fluency (but this does not sound like your son's case). Sometimes it is related to attention issues. Sometimes the student has language processing or memory issues. Depending upon the root cause, there would most likely be some explicit instruction that would teach the child strategies to overcome their weakness. If attention is an issue, medication or behavioral interventions may help. The treatment would be designed for the child's specific deficit and age. The evaluator should be able to help you with this.

Mich- Thank you so much for the link to Dr. Moldover's paper!! That is invaluable for someone (like me) who is just starting down this path.

My experience with dd12 is here . I won't write much here as you can read the thread. She does not have motor coordination problems, so I don't know if she would fit into the Eide's classification of stealth dyslexia. But her reading & writing difficulties (dyslexia) were masked by her giftedness and vice-versa. I would definitely find someone to assess your child sooner rather than later. If you have questions feel free to ask here or pm me.

Thanks, everybody, for your feedback. DS had a neuropsych eval a few months ago, but she only did the WISC and WIAT. I emailed the psych about the possibility of stealth dyslexia. She said she had to look up "stealth dyslexia", but agreed that it describes DS very well. I'm not sure how I feel about her needing to look it up. I think she should know about it already. Also, when DS tested, I could not remember the term GAI, but wanted her to include it in her report. I described to her what it was, but she had no idea what I was talking about. I had to go home and google it, then send her the technical report for her to include the GAI in his report. Maybe I don't have the best neuropsych for a 2e child? I hate to start over with someone else. Anyway, she is going to talk to the director of the Greengate School, which is a private school in our area for kids with dyslexia, to see what additional testing we should do.

When you find out what tests they will administer, would you mind sharing? DD is being evaluated at the beginning of September and I am information gathering, too. Thanks!

Our son was tested in grade 4 to help us understand why he had trouble with finishing work. The testers used the following:

WRAML2 (Wide Range of Assessment of Memory and Learning),
Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration,
PPVT-III Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, EVT Expressive Vocabuary Test, CTOPP Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, Wechsler Individual Achievement Test

Stealth dyslexia is not widely known because two doctors from the US west coast coined the term, Drs Fernette and Brock Eide. They wrote The Mislabeled Child and a new book called the Dyslexic Advantage. I have the Mislabeled Child and still want to buy the new book. I think that poor scores in Rapid Naming are a diagnostic for dyslexia. My son has excellent reading comprehension but poor rapid naming and poor visual working memory. In Canada, Dyslexia is not a term used in the creation of an IEP, but I found that people mostly understand what I am talking about when I use the term.

This is what happened with our DD10. School will not provide assistance because she has been able to compensate. They would not even admit to a LD even though the testing they performed showed she had one. We had to go to an outside school certified psych. She is going to start tutoring tomorrow which we will be paying for. Depending on how she does this summer with the tutoring we may seek to get a 504 for her in the fall.

UPDATE!

So, the neuropsychologist returned from her conference and was able to take a look at DS9's file and test results. She called me last evening. This is how the conversation went:

Dr.: I talked with XXX at the dyslexia school about stealth dyslexia. That really is just a term coined to describe gifted children with dyslexia. You know, I've already diagnosed DS9 with dyslexia and he is gifted, so yes, I would say he has stealth dyslexia.

Me: YOU'VE ALREADY DIAGNOSED DS9 WITH DYSLEXIA???????????????????

Dr.: Yes, that's what "reading disorder" means on his diagnosis list.

Me: Really? Well, it sure would have been nice to know that "dyslexia" is what you meant my "reading disorder".

Anyway, she is sending all of DS9's testing (the actual work, not just the results) over to the head of the dyslexia school for her to review. She said that the dyslexia school might be a good place for DS9 next year. (Another piece of information it would have been nice to have when she gave us the results of his evaluation).

I spent a little time researching the school and it does sound like it might be a good fit. The teacher to student ratio is 4:1. The following information is from their website:

* A typical day�s schedule is much like a school day in traditional schools except for the heavy emphasis on language skills. Students have a challenging and enriching curriculum which includes science, social studies, physical education and the arts.
* In addition, children have individual language tutoring each day.
* Science, math, and social studies rely less on textbooks and involve more hands-on, experimental and project-oriented work than traditional schools.
* The emphasis will be placed on concepts and ideas rather than on memorization.

* Each child has a plan reached through consultation with teachers, parents and students. The plan charts the child�s educational path and sets goals that will be monitored and reported in regular, quarterly reports to the parents.
* Each child receives specific language evaluations at the beginning and end of each school year to determine the child�s needs and progress.
* Assessment in subjects relies on methods such as oral reporting, audio recording of answers, group projects and collaborative reports, as well as written tests. It is our intention to give students the opportunity to show what they can do.


All of this sounds wonderful to me. And while they are not a gifted school, I feel like the low teacher to student ratio and the individualized approach they take in developing each child's educational plan will allow them to accelerate where needed.

The director of the school is supposed to call me after she goes through DS9's testing to let me know if she thinks he needs more testing or if she thinks it is worth exploring whether he is a good fit for the school.

This journey never stops, does it?

Ditto Dottie, and my son most likely has CAPD, but we haven't had him evaluated, because we realized we were already doing everything we would do should he get the official label.

Perplexed,
My son just graduated from a school specializing in teaching bright students with learning disabilities. He started at grade 3, he is now a rising freshman. The school was life changing for him and for our entire family - especially me, the keeper of our children's education and their main advocate. We actually were able to secure an out of district placement from our school district, which means they paid for the $40K tuition and transportation back and forth (40 miles away). I'm not sure where you are in the special ed process, but this is something to consider. I'd be happy to provide you more information on this should you decide to pursue an OOD placement.

There are many many benefits to a private LD school. First and foremost, specialized schools know how to teach kids with disabilities. They have the luxury of "grouping" them by learning profile/skill level. So 2-E kids can be together. For example, my son has excellent comprehension skills, is very bright, but is an extremely poor decoder and slow processor. He was placed in a class of similar 8th graders. The overall environment is tailored to the student - daily remedial tutoring was built into my son's schedule and he had 3 language arts periods per day = with no pull outs. What's more - the History teacher also used the content area to teach reading, writing and public teaching skills. So, he received a large amount of instruction, and had the opportunity to apply and generalize the skills across content areas. The school was able to teach him organizational and other compensatory strategies - and these strategies were integrated into every subject area. Every teacher used the same system, same language, same processes - so he was able to apply and over learn the strategies and master them. AND he was still able to enjoy electives - art, music, gym, outward bound - because his remediation was built into his schedule. He wasn't forced to choose between tutoring and art.

The school you are looking at may be similar, and if so, you will feel so grateful.

I'm glad that you got the answers you were looking forward AND you have a plan to address the issues. Best of luck!

Just chiming in to say that what we have been told (and this may be a difference in popular ways of thinking about things in Australia v. the US), is that Dyslexia is primarily an auditory based disorder - so does regularly go hand in hand with CAPD. And that where you have gifted + CAPD + dyslexia you almost always also have inattentive ADHD (or what I think you call ADD?).

All of DDs initial test reports 2 years ago pointed out audtiory issues and probable dyslexia (I am not sure why the psych wouldn't diagnose dyslexia then, she should have). But because DD was already getting great support at school we didn't do formal CAPD testing then. Two years on the school have asked us to get a diagnosis so that she will have it on record in primary school lest she need extra help in high school exams. So DD was just diagnosed with CAPD recently, the testing was fascinating. She scored 98% for some tests and under 2% for others (enough to get a diagnosis).

And we are about to have her tested for dyslexia and inattentive ADHD, both of which I am expecting her to be diagnosed with. It took her 3 agonizing years to learn to read, and another 1.5 yrs to reach the point that she now finally reads for pleasure. I just had her do the DORA test and she's 3ish years ahead in word recognition, vocab and comprehension - and 2 years behind in spelling and with "poor" phonemic awareness.

I guess she would now be described as having "stealth dyslexia" but it was brutally obvious that there was a problem when she couldn't learn to read... And when thinking about ADD as the ability to control her attention and memory at will, rather than the ability to pay attention well sometimes, it is quite clear that she does indeed have ADD. Put a child who can't read, can't process auditory information that doesn't having meaning to them and has ADD in a classroom and you have a perfect recipe for abject failure...

Re: Stealth dyslexia

Me again...my dd's psych actually wrote the term "dyslexia" in his report diagnosing her with a reading & writing disorder. I questioned him about it, wondering if the school (& my insurance carrier) would balk at the terminology. He said that it was coming back around again & mentioned a couple of states that were using the term in particular. One was Mississippi. I looked on the MDE site & found a couple of interesting resources. One was a handbook from 2002 that described dyslexia better than I have read anywhere else. It also goes into detail about identification, intervention, modifications & accommodations. It is here. They have an updated "Best Practices Handbook" from 2010 but I found the earlier one more to my liking.

In the US, IDEA (federal special ed law) lists eligibility categories. A child must meet the criteria for these categories to be considered eligible for special ed/IEP. The categories include "specific learning disability" (SLD) with an option of reading, reading comprehension, writing, math etc. Dyslexia falls under SDI and many of the subgroups.

While there are some states(TX and MS) and even some districts (mine would) that will use the term dyslexia, most will not. I believe their reluctance is due to the categories listed in IDEA. My experience working with my own child and as a special ed advocate for other families, is it is more effective to abandon the discussion of whether the disorder is dyslexia or SLD in reading, and use whatever term makes the district most comfortable. Focus instead on the needs of the child, their unique profile (believe me there are an infinite number of dyslexic profiles!) and getting the support and instruction needed to help the child make appropriate progress and unleash their other gifts.

Ginger - thanks for posting the link to the resources. It is very helpful to have a clear understanding of what one is dealing with, and these links will help parents and educators immensely.

Thank you, everyone, for the great responses!

DS9 has not been tested for CAPD (I have to admit that I don't know much about it), but he does have sensory processing disorder and ADD-inattentive type. It sounds like I need to investigate CAPD. I was getting very discourage by this "diagnosis creep", but now I understand that all of these diagnosis share the common trait of "mixed up brain-wiring". Throw in the giftedness and you have one very quirky child!

Mich- I did notice that the school I'm looking at has group names rather than grades. I guess this is because they are more concerned about ability than age? I haven't heard back from the director yet, but I am anxious to talk with her. If she thinks DS might benefit, I plan to tour the school and give it serious consideration. If we decide to pursue it, I'd love to hear more about how to get an OOD placement.

I'm overwhelmed. Last year at this time, I had a fairly bright 8 year old who couldn't tie his shoes. A visit to the occupational therapist because of that started us on this road...now I have a 9 year old who is gifted (GAI 140) with SPD, ADD, dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. WHAT A RIDE!!!

I like your idea of "mixed up brain wiring" - this is probably the best descriptor I've heard!!

The school you are looking at may be a bit smaller than my son's school. Some smaller schools group the by skill level and profile rather than grade. My son's school was large enough to group kids by both grade, skill and profile as there were 63 students in his grade. When there is less "critical mass", the school has to be more flexible in how they group. There is another well known and respected LD school in my state that is relatively small in the elementary and MS grades (about 20 kids per grade), and like the one you are looking at, sometimes group kids together from different "grades".

You said it!! Two years ago we had a verbally precocious child who couldn't sit still and hated school. Now we have added lots of labels to her, and she still can't sit and still hates school. I feel like we are going sideways instead of forward. Very overwhelming.

DS13 (CAPD, dyslexia) started liking school more in grade 7, so it may get better for your kids too. He has an FM system (head phones for him, a microphone for the teacher) that keeps him focussed on what the teacher is saying in his lower interest classes like math. It really helps, although he is the only one in the class that needs it. You may want to consider an FM system depending on how severe your child's CAPD is. Our Ministry of Education funds FM systems for children who need them, so maybe Nova Scotia will too.

Ginder, thanks for the links to the Mississippi Dyslexia material. It's a really good summary and I will pass it on to some people at our school board.