Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Never thought I would end up here. Hello & help!

Our youngest, 12, has dyslexia and dysgraphia and it looks like maybe an auditory processing disorder as well. Here is what I suggest bringing up at the 504 based on our experience:

Dictation allowed on long reports
Alternative assignments that do no require writing, i.e. video report
Scribe on long tests or those heavy on writing
Peer or teacher provided notes in lieu of copying from the board
Typing instead of writing; access to class computer for note taking, etc. or permission to bring her own device such as an iPad, laptop
Calculator allowed on math work where rudimentary computation a process of the assignment and is not directly being tested

As my son's second grade teacher said, "When he dictates his stories, his sub-plots have sub-plots. When he has to write his own story, he doesn't even get to the plot."

There is an amazing group of parents here with great advice. It's been such a help to me - if only to not feel so alone in it sometimes.

I think this is a fantastic approach. If we dwell too much on their weaknesses, I think they can feel overwhelmed and disheartened, whereas if we enable their strengths, we boost their self esteem and give them tools to conquer challenges

This is a bit of an asside, but have you encountered morphographic spelling programmes? These are like phonics on steriods for people who notice that phonics and English don't get allong too well.

I was a grade 6 reading medical textbooks but unable to spell "the" consistently when my gifted programme handed three of us morphographic spelling -- the goal was exactly the same as yours... to make us ready for the greater output demmands of highschool. They thought they'd need three years, but we all finished the programme in less than one year, and it worked. We all passed the exams to continue in gifted a couple of years later with no further intervention. I was the only one who continued to need any spec. ed. services at all, and those were not for spelling (though I still can't spell my way out of a paper bag, I can generally make myself understood

I intend to "aftershcool" this with DS when he's doing grade 1 or 2, partly because I think it's just a better way, and partly becasue we noticed early on that he thinks in morphographs, not words, and I soooo totally do not have a problem with that. (see, he really is brilliant, he sees right through that darned awkward superficial structure to the meat of it all!!! Bwaaahahahahahha)

wonder if I can find a link online....
mmmm, looks like the programme I did is out of print. Looking at some of the studies, it looks like there's not much proof they work... but I have to say, those are studies in non-gifted populations, and I would definitely have said (actually, I kinda already did say) that this approach is really suited to a gifty brain with spelling issues. I would have trouble just explaining it to a lot of people, and one of my language profs, when I so much as understood the meaning of "morphograph" well, got REALLY excited about me.

Anyway, it worked really really well for me. I think it would work really well for a smart kid who understands how language works. I'm not surprised it doesn't work well for kids who don't grasp underlying structures easily. YMMV. So there. Worth checking out?

Good luck!

That seems similar to sequential spelling. We used it for about 4 months earlier this year. We got some improvement from it, but the slow pace was frustrating.

Thank you all so very very much. I am reading and researching everything that you have said here. I did read the "Stealth Dyslexia" article and that is my daughter to a T. I appreciate so very much you all taking time to make me feel welcome and to offer me ideas, suggestions, and stories of similar kids.

I have done more and more reading in the last few days, and talked to DD a lot more about this voice thing. I am realizing that although she is a very motivated reader, she "sees" reading in an entirely different way. That is, she just kind of absorbs it in a way that I can't really relate to.

She is working on summer homework now, and I am going to do something we haven't ever done. She types most of her reports now. I am going to try letting her fully dictate her summer reports to me. I am curious to see if her written reports start to more resemble the way that she can easily talk in extreme detail about a subject. I had never agreed to typing her things for her before because I felt that she should learn to organize this stuff for herself - now that she has been diagnosed, I see that it is far harder than I would have expected. If this goes well I will look towards getting her a new laptop and Dragon.

Thank you all so much for your help.

Lots of people have given lots of good advice, so I have really only one thing to add:

Federal case law states that grades may not be used as a disqualifier for offering services: that is, if a child has a disability, the fact that they are an A student does not mean they cannot benefit from remediation, and it must be offered. Especially with gifted kids, being an A student is an indicator that they are finding work-arounds and ways of getting past the disability, not that it is being ameliorated. The key phrase is "adversely affecting a child's educational performance"-- which encompasses more than just marks.

I believe the case in point is LI vs Maine SAD 55, US Court of Appeals, First District. Here's the case link: http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/06-1368-01A.pdf

I've found that referring to case law when talking to the LEA rep tends to get their attention quite satisfactorily.

I'd never heard of Stealth Dyslexia before this forum (thank you all ) ...it fits my son completely. He's currently diagnosed with a language processing disorder, and at a team meeting the school psychologist kept commenting on how interesting it is that his English reading is still so good. Hmmm... it makes me wonder.

Hello and welcome! This is a tremendous site. I'm not sure how I would have made it through the last 3-4 years without all these wonderful people to share their been there/done that stories.

Our DD9 is an amazing kid. I'm completely bIased ;-), I know. She was crackerjack smart and old beyond her years as a toddler. As a preschooler, she amazed us with her photographic memory, but stumped us by refusing to colour, draw or, temper tantrum worthy outright refusal to write. Her first two years of school were horrendous. She hated everything about it, from sitting still to learning dumb things to the dreaded printing. We went looking for a learning disability in grade 2. It took three years and three separate sets of assessments to finally put a name to her struggles. She has ADHD, 'mild' dyslexia (stealth), and dysgraphia. Buried under these diagnoses is a PG child who developed an anxiety disorder from being forced to sit in a class, day after day, where no one understood her and most labelled her as 'lazy'.

Fast forward to the end of this school year, grade 4, at a new school. She described it as the best year of her life! Appropriate accommodations are imperative. Cooperative and supportive teachers are a blessing. We are finally seeing what she is capable of and she is knocking everyone's socks off! She reads so high above her grade level that no one wanted to give her a dyslexia label. But she can't read aloud very well. She changes words and guess and switches things around. But, she can read a 700 page Harry Potter book in three days and recall every single detail.

Your daughter already excels at school. Getting the accommodations incorporated will allow her to soar to new heights. There are some great suggestions in the previous posts. We made suggestions to DD's school based on the ones I garnered from posting here, just like you. She had tried a lot of them and get teacher helped her figure out what works best for her. The typing and use of 'ginger' software have made the biggest difference.

Good luck as you sort things out. You aren't alone! The world better watch out when all of our kids get what they need to succeed!!

(apologies for all typos. Typed on iPhone with one finger because I gave a herniated disc, can't bear to get up and walk to the computer downstairs.)

I haven't had a chance to read through all of the responses here, but I did read your post. My son is experiencing some of the same issues you describe, although he has just turned 9. I found this great article you might want to check out if you haven't already.

http://www.davidsongifted.org/db/Articles_id_10435.aspx

We have a stealth dyslexic too. she taught herself to read pretty early, likely by whole word. But she has pretty significant disorder of written expression. and had no phonemic awareness when we were starting out. She benefitted tremendously from the Barton program by Susan Barton. it is extroidinarily tedious, but over time it worked. Also she advanced a good bit when her school started using a "Words Their Way" curriculum.
Even though these kids can read well they still need to go back and learn the phonemic components of words and how to break words in syllables. Wilson or some other Orton Gillingham based program might be available from your school. We were in a private school at the time, and they wouldnt do anything. that's how we ended up with Barton.