Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional stealth dyslexia, dysgraphia or both?

Hi all. I am very new here and have been lurking and reading through these discussion boards for a couple of weeks. I came to this site because DD8 was recommended to apply for DYS by tester (pending right now.)

I have learned loads from just reading and now suspect DS11 may have stealth dyslexia as well as dysgraphia. I had him privately tested last year (4th grade 9 yr 11 mo) because I suspected dysgraphia. His teacher kept telling me he was not working to his potential or showing what he knows on assignments though she knew that he is very bright and expressed complex and creative ideas in class discussion. (He was diagnosed ADHD by another round of pocket-draining tests after K and is medicated as well.)

His testing was

VCI 121
Similarities 14
Vocabulary 14
Comprehension 13
(Information) 16

PRI 141
Block Design 17
Picture Concepts 16
Matrix Reasoning 17
(Picture Completion) 14

Working Memory 113
Digit Span 13
Sequencing 12
(Arithemtic) 14

Processing 103
Coding 9
Symbol Search 12

WJ III
Broad Reading 110
Broad Math 120
Broad Written Lang 99
Acad Skills 114
Acad Fluency 104
Acad Application 110

GORT
Rate 12
Accuracy 13
Fluency 13
Comprehension 13

Beery Visual Motor Intergration 95

My question: with a diagnosis of dysgraphia does considering "stealth dyslexia" add anything of value for him? Reading the description on this website tonight was a revelation. That's my DS! The mighty struggles at school, the underchievement, his struggle with reading aloud, silly mistakes on simple tests, the complete inability to spell anything at all, ever.

But is there any point to pursuing this? He does almost all his work on computer and (sometimes) gets extra time as an accommodation. He has actually made the A/B honor roll this year but I still have the uneasy feeling school isn't even touching his potential. He is a fantastic abstract thinker with very superior non-verbal problem solving skills. It doesn't seem like elementary school even has offerings for this skill set.

Is further action required? Thoughts?

Hi fwtxmom,

My ds12 has diagnoses of developmental coordination disorder, dysgraphia and an expressive language disorder. I suspect if he was seen by the Eides or another neuropsychologist who believed in the "stealth dyslexia" diagnosis he would most likely have it too. The neuropsych we've seen is aware of the Eides' work but doesn't necessarily agree that what they are seeing is dyslexia. From my perspective, the name of the diagnosis isn't as important as understanding what challenges your child faces and meeting them through remediation where it applies and accommodations where needed.

My first thoughts when reading through your description of your ds and his scores are:

1) What diagnoses was he given in his 4th grade eval? Did you get a list of recommendations that you've been able to follow through on? Did those things help at all? Do you think there is more your ds needs help with?

2) Spelling - my ds' spelling is just horrendous. I don't think he'll ever spell well. We were told to try a visual spelling program through a tutor, which we tried for awhile but put on the back burner when we had other issues with written expression which we felt were more important to address (and also had limited time in the day without totally wearing our ds out). Although it might not be anyone's first and optimal choice, there are ways to accommodate for bad spelling that will work both in school and in life after school, so that's the route we've chosen for now for our ds. He uses word prediction software when writing, and that helps him tremendously with spelling and with freeing up enough working memory to also use good punctuation. He's never going to win a spelling bee, but he's also not going to get so bogged down and deflated over bad spelling that he can't focus on other more important things he either needs to or wants to learn.

3) What did the psych say about the GORT results? They look good but not as high as your ds' PRI. Do you think reading frustrates your ds? Our ds has never had the GORT but I've often wondered what his results would be. He also has a higher PRI than VCI on the WISC, but not as large of a discrepancy as your ds. Our ds doesn't really read much for fun, and when he reads for knowledge he seems to skip around in books rather than reading from front to back in a linear fashion. He clearly likes to learn from illustrations and from working with his own hands much more so than from reading - but does that mean he has a reading challenge, or does it just mean reading isn't his area of strength? I have no answers there! I wonder about it often myself, and also wonder if his reading comprehension levels are falling relative to peers as he gets older - there is some indication of this in his achievement testing. Soooo... just fwiw, I've wondered about some of the same things too - still do!

polarbear

Hi polarbear,

Thanks for the reply.

1) He was diagnosed with disorder of written expression (dysgraphia) and ADHD (previously diagnosed at great expense after K.) The tester is not a psych but an M.Ed. that works with learning-different kids at our school. She recommended extended time on written work, reduced length assignments, minimizing distractions, class outlines for notes and computer or Alphasmart use. The computer has worked wonders but he only got the extended time and reduced assignments last year. He is doing well this year and making the honor roll but I have been informed he has the "easy" teacher and will suffer for his success in 6th.

2) Remediation for handwriting and spelling was not even recommended. If it was, honestly, I doubt I would have done it. DS and I spent 4-5 hours per WEEK studying for the weekly spelling quiz in 1st to aim for a "B". Even if he squeaked a decent grade he never actually retained the words he learned anyway. Handwriting is another disaster. He simply can't learn cursive. Happily, his work is almost never assigned in cursive. When it is, he has to pull out the cursive formation chart with the arrows and write one letter at a time. It's a nightmare beyond description but it has only happened about 3 times this year.

3) The tester did not mention the GORT in our meeting so I assume she did not think it was clinically significant. My DS is simply a non-reader which is sad to me. He won't read anything that is not assigned or full of cartoons. He loves Legos but what he loves most is video games and apps. I limit them very strictly but he would play 24/7 if he could.

What really caught my attention about "stealth dyslexia" description, outside the dysgraphic handwriting and spelling issues, is the word-for-word reading issue. I spent the summer between K and 1 tutoring DS in reading because he simply didn't learn it in K. I would come home after work and we would struggle through easy readers together and he continually guessed the word he was reading from the first two sounds instead of sounding it out. If I had a nickel for every time I said "Don't guess it! Sound it out!" He still does word substitutions when reading aloud even in 5th though his comprehension overall is very good.

In short, his reading is pretty good for longer works when he can afford to misread some words and still piece the meaning through his excellent abstract thinking skills. On short passages he can completely miss the boat though. However, if this diagnosis is sort of controversial perhaps I should just continue on with dysgraphia treatment and hope for the best?

Hi I am also new to this site and very interesting discussions, however i have a 14 year old son ADHD and Dysgraphia diagnosed when he was in 6th grade 2 years ago.
However my son loves to read but only what interests him not school assigned books. He has a kindle now and loves to use that as all the pages as in a book distract him. He has horrible hand writing and Math is a struggle daily. If you chold has dysgraphia and ADHD it would be very apparent as when my son would study his Math and we test him verbally he had all the right answers. Once he has to write it down on paper for a test ,it was no where close. BIG Flag for dysgraphia children. I am in TX and COGAT scores are the big sign for us verbal verses written and they are night and day for my son. His occupational therapists says he is extreme in both ADHD and Dysgraphia. I meet with the school administrators monthly to review my sons accomodations and trust me they need to be updated monthly as changes are needed to adjust based on teachers and their updates.

Hi TxMom2Boys!

My 15 yr old son is dysgraphic (among other things), too. You are in good company here. I look forward to sharing about our kids!

I do want to point out that if a child is "extreme" in dysgraphia and ADHD, then using his symptoms as the yardstick to determine whether another child also has these disorders can be problematic, and lots of bright kids with disabilities compensate for them very well when they are young, so they can be hard to diagnose.

Hi fwtxmom!

Nice to "meet" you!

I think that investigating the possibility of dyslexia, as well as the possibility of a hearing or auditory processing problem (through a complete audiology exam, not just a hearing screening) is an excellent idea. If there is something else going on, it would be good to know because what you would do about it would depend on the nature of the problem. Keep in mind that dyslexics have acess to different accomodations than dysgraphics do, and the right accomodations can make a huge diference in a person's ability to produce work at their intellectual level. A dyslexic could have access to specialized reading instruction, a reader, audio recordings of texts , and text-to-speech software, in addition to the extended time and keyboard use that the disorder of written expression qualifies your child for. If the problem is one of auditory processing, then very different therapies and accomodations might be needed. Mcuh as I agree with the statement that you should look at the child, not the label, clearly identifying the nature of the difficulties is an essential part of treating the whole child.

Thanks for the input aculady! It's really helpful to see all the dialogue on here about dysgraphia.