Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Can you "grow into dyslexia"?

An Educational Psychologist who specializes in 2e tested my child at 6.3 and results came back EG and no 2e issues. Fast forward 1.5 years and a new teacher and eye doctor are suggesting dyslexia. Is this something that could have been missed or not evident at 6.3, but now is at almost 8?

I thought when I read the post title that maybe he had reached a point where he couldn't compensate but the first assessor sounded much more expert than your doctor or teacher. Is it possible to contact the person who did the assessment? Also why did you have the assessment done in the first place - did you have concerns about reading.

Almost as if your kid always had it, but it was operating in stealth mode until now?

In fact someone coined the phrase "stealth dyslexia" to capture that very thought.

Here's a quote from http://jimforgan.com/stealth-dyslexia-undetected-reading-problems/

"Stealth dyslexia is form of hidden dyslexia. These highly intelligent and often gifted children compensate for their dyslexia because they learn to rely upon their outstanding memory, keen intuition, and general smarts to work around their reading weaknesses. Stealth dyslexia often goes undetected until the child is in fourth grade or older and then starts to struggle with reading longer and unfamiliar words that are specific to science, health, and social studies."

It's popped up a quite a few times here, too. Having the term "stealth dyslexia" you may be able to uncover a lot more.

FWIW my dysgraphic ds went through ability/achievement testing at 5 for a gifted program, and there were no issues found re 2e - but 3 years later in 2nd grade h was literally drowning at school due to severe 2e issues. When we looked back at the previous tests, the discrepancies in test scores that are indicative of his challenge were already there, but because we hadn't seen any reason to think there was an issue, the psych wasn't looking for it and she only saw a very bright high-overall-IQ kid. I'm guessing you were already looking for 2e issues when your ds was tested at 6 (just a guess based on what you wrote in the post above) - even if you were and they didn't jump up screaming from the test results, my guess is indications were already there, but the challenges in academics etc at the time hadn't increased to the point your ds had trouble keeping up.

My dd9 has a dyslexia diagnosis - it's not classic dyslexia, but it's also not really "stealth dyslexia". FWIW, she appeared to be way ahead in early reading, was at the top of her class in K/1, then dropped back to just a bit higher than average in 2nd, and continued to fall behind until the books she was reading were complex enough she could gather meaning from context - then she was reading back at grade level and/or above - but again, as time went by, she started slipping relative to peers again, as well as having difficulty reading instructions (short-sentences etc). She's a kid who does *not* want anyone to know something is difficult for her, and her HG-abilities make it difficult to realize she's having a tough time reading.

I'm curious about your eye dr suggesting dyslexia - is this a regular eye dr or a developmental optometrist? Are they suggesting vision issues such as tracking etc or are they suggesting dyslexia? Vision challenges are often present in dyslexic people, but an eye dr wouldn't suggest dyslexia (I don't think) unless maybe you had asked about possible tracking/convergence etc and the dr didn't see it and suggested reading issues were dyslexia related, not vision related?

polarbear

Thank you all. In response...yes I specifically went to this person for 2e testing as I suspected dyslexia. She is pretty confident that it is not. I have a lot of respect for her and she has a stellar reputation so I have little reason to doubt her. That said, the struggle continues and seems to be getting worse. I have seen the term "stealth dyslexia" a number of places. Based on your experiences, should I trust the tester or retest? If retest, what age?

Polarbear...as for the eye dr...he is an optometrist but specializes in tracking and convergence issues so I went to him based on some "new" symptoms that have appeared since the beginning of the school ear--watery eyes when reading, eye exhaustion at the end of the school, complaints that the words are blurry etc. So yes, he suggested it based on the lack of any vision problems.

I can come up with two ways:
The first is that the testing done at age 6 often doesn't test some of the higher level phonological processing, so it only crops up at an older age when the normed expectations are higher. A highly gifted child can brute force some of the lower level skills with a strong memory and above-level reading skills. Stealth dyslexia would fall in here.
The second, and what I suspect was the case for my DD, a child well above level not instructed at that level fails to develop the encoding/decoding skills. In DD's case, her reading instruction was all focused on decoding well within her automatic reading level, which meant she learned little of the higher phonological skills, and she forgot the early skills, reading entirely through sight recognition.

DD was diagnosed at 9, and now at 11 is about to get herself undiagnosed after remediation.

I suggest also posting this question on the Dyslexic Advantage forum.

http://dyslexicadvantage.com

That's wonderful. May I ask what rememdiation you did?

I guess I'm confused. Aren't these (the bolded) vision (or at least *eye*) problems?

Yes, me too ... these are the exact symptoms of my son's convergence inssuficiency!

Kai and Irena...I am also confused. I was told these are also symptoms of dyslexia b/c the child has to strain to read and understand. Irena...what treatment/intervention did the dr recommend for convergence insufficiency?

Geofizz...would also love to hear what remediation you did.

Mykids, he did and is doing vision therapy. I paid for it privately last year (actually my insurance covered it but I had to pay a $40 co-pay each visit. It took me all last year to get the school to agree to provide VT so this year he is getting VT paid for by the school.

The VT has helped a great deal. I STILL have plenty of days where I suspect dyslexia even though it's been "ruled out" by more than one psychologist.

Actually, the place where DS got vision therapy last year screened him for dyslexia and based on the screening they recommended he be formally tested for it (VT helps vision but not dyslexia and they made that very clear). But no one I take him to seems to think he has dyslexia. It's complicated b/c he does have the convergence issues AND dysgraphia AND is gifted AND is reading about a year above grade level. I am often frightened that he has stealth dyslexia (if only the Eides could evaluate him!) The position of last neurpsych I took him to was that he has visual processing issues as a result of his convergence issues and not dyslexia.

I'd love to just get him some really good dyslexia remediation, just in case (it can't hurt I am told even NT kids benefit from being taught reading the way they remediate dyslexia!) but it has to be on a high level (b/c he reads so well) and finding a true Wilson certified is proving difficult and expensive.

DD did 200 minutes a week (40 min/day) Orton Gillingham at school on an IEP for 4.5 months at the start of 5th grade. Her phonological skills went from kindergarten level to 100% accuracy on all tests, and her spelling improved by something like 4 grade levels, from a bit below grade level to well above. A combination of tutoring and push -in services for writing brought her well up as well, but she still has IEP goals on writing.

Irena, I just wanted to chime in that my son, recently diagnosed with dyslexia, is finishing up some intensive work at Lindamood Bell. It is very expensive, but I do see some real improvement. Specifically, he used to look at longer words and merely guess based on first and last letters. Now, I hear him sounding things out. I was very impressed with the Lindamood Bell center near us. They really got my son, including the giftedness. He isn't the typical kid who goes there, because he is actually performing above grade level. I was worried that they wouldn't meet him where he was, and that would be frustrating for him. But they got it, and started working right where he needed. They also moved very quickly through their material. So at this point, I feel that Lindamood Bell was a good fit for us, even though of course it was very expensive.

This is exactly one of my concerns.



This is very good to know... especially since we are in the same area and it is very likely the location we would use! I looked in to there (just on the website) - very good to hear this kind-of review! Thanks!

Thanks. I actually have a friend who does Orton Gillingham tutoring but she is a bit far from us in Jersey. It would be a trek to do twice a week.

Did you do the full day intensive at LB? I have been thinking about going to LB but my concern is missing that many weeks of school.