Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Kind of flummoxed

Hi everyone,

I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but it's been tough to formulate the question. I'd like some input on 2E-ness.

My DS6 is an extremely sunny, happy kid who can be intense. He discovered dinosaurs when he was around 1 1/2 and had already shown high interest in animals by age ~5 months. By the time he was 2, we started to teach him about dinosaurs. He could identify many of them by 2 1/2, could say names like "parasauralophus" correctly, and distinguish very similar dinosaurs in the same family based on subtle differences in, for example, snout length.

He was able to learn from a BBC documentary series called "Walking with Dinosaurs" at age 3 years exactly. We had bought him the whole "Walking with..." series within 3 months or so of that birthday, and he was glued to them. He became worried about extinction when he was 3 or possibly early 4. He was very concerned about the whole idea of gone forever throughout age 4 and death and dying became a big concern at the time.

Over time, his interest has expanded from dinosaurs to all ancient reptilians and some interest in mammals. He's also a normal kid who likes Sponge Bob, playing DS games, soccer, etc.

NO WAY are my other two so intense like this, though they are obviously very bright.

At the same time, although he started to sound out words a couple months before he turned 4, he didn't really want to read until he was 5 or so. His kindergarten teachers refused to help him with his reading (one didn't believe that a five-year-old could actually read words), and so he got no help from them last year. This year, in a new school, he's struggled somewhat with reading. He mostly has trouble sounding out new words in grade-level books or even ones he's read before. In contrast, DD4 does this almost effortlessly and she seems to have what I'd call an innate understanding of when one syllable stops and the next one starts. DS6 fights his way through syllables.

So then one night last week when it was time to read, I picked up a chapter book (about dinosaurs) that said RL3 on the back (I think it's somewhere in grade 2, but whatever). I figured I'd be reading most of it. To my utter shock, he read the entire first chapter with relative ease. I mean, I know that kids can get things from context, but a whole chapter? He only needed help from me on words like "laughed" or "through." He laughs with delight when something silly happens and he actually said "How many MORE books are there in this series???" This from a kid who nearly had a meltdown over the idea of a chapter book a couple weeks ago.

But still ---back to the potential problem. He still has trouble remembering the sound the "ea" makes (meat, eat, etc.), yet he can sight-read words that don't seem guessable from contextual clues, like "tumbled" and "pointed." There are times when he seems to be able to look at words and just read them, yet at other times he really struggles. It's odd (for me, anyway).

Does this sound like some kind of 2E problem? Or is it just a typical course of development in reading? I read a bit about dyslexia, but it didn't seem to fit his problems --- yet I am no expert on the subject!

Sorry for the length, but I kind of wanted to describe him as best I could.

Any input is welcome!

Val

Just so I understand, your DS6 is a great reader except that he has trouble remembering what one letter combination sounds like, and sometimes struggles to sound out words. But it doesn't sound like the problem is too extreme. Did I miss anything? In my opinion, that really isn't a problem at all at his age. He'll get it eventually. If there was some more specific thing that he had a problem with over and over (say, finding the next line of text, or being completely unable to sound anything out, or using an inordinate amount of effort to sound things out every time he does it) then there might be something. But, unless there's something else, he doesn't sound like 2E to me, just E. Is he a visual-spatial learner? VSLs sometimes have more trouble with learning to read phonetically. If you're concerned, the first thing I would do would be to get his vision checked - BOTH for acuity and for motor stuff (as in, by a behavioral optometrist www.covd.org) - they are two different types of exams. All right I'm editing yet again - I did not mean to imply that being a VSL has anything to do with getting his vision checked - two separate issues... For VSLs, sometimes a whole-word approach to reading is best, and the phonetic stuff comes eventually. I only suggested a vision check in the event that he has trouble seeing the individual letters and their order, which is not something you can necessarily figure out for yourself (for dd, the letters kinda "moved").

I agree with snowgirl, Val. As soon as I read your posting, I thought of visual-spatial learners. They definitely read whole-words, as opposed to sounding them out. My son, DS8.5 is a strange mix, in that he is highly visual-spatial, reads way, way about grade level, but spell words in his own unique phonetic way. He will often spell the same word different ways within one writing assignment. His teacher is completely mystified by this, so I bought her a copy of Visual-Spatial Learners by Alexandra Shires Golon. I only hope that she reads it. You might want to see if a library near you has a copy, if you haven't checked out this book. It may be useful.

And as for your description of your son at a young age.. You could have easily been describing my son as well. Right down to the "could say names like "parasauralophus" correctly". How very interesting.

Dd is nearly 7 and reads at a 3rd grade level, but has troubles that sound like your son's. She loses her place on the page and her eyes tire very quickly. Pediatrician referred us to a neurodevelopmental optometrist (behavioral optometrist) after she heard dd read aloud, even though she kept commenting that she had never heard a "first grader" read that well before. I had to give more info to "prove" that dd's reading frustrations were a possible issue. She asked dd what she was working on in math and whatnot.

Dh and his dad have similar issues and avoid reading for pleasure. I'm suspecting tracking issues or dyslexia. Really hoping it's not dyslexia! I've heard visual therapy can really help with the tracking.

I'll post with results of the testing when we get them.

Hmmmm... it really does sound like you've got a visual learner?! Both my girls have learned essentially by building up a memory bank of words, not phonetically. With Miss 4, there's always a huge inconsistency between what words she can read easily and those seemingly easy words that she just doesn't get. Chunking has helped us a little this term - encouraging both girls to find bits of the word that they can identify to help guess what word it is.

I loved Upside Down Brilliance...
http://www.visualspatial.org/udb.htm

jojo

Thanks everyone. I've been going barmy trying to understand my son and think you've all finally shown me the light here. I've been doing a bit of reading about visual-spatial learners. Here's something I found on the web:

[VSLs] learn all-at-once, and when the light bulb goes on, the learning is permanent.

I have said, for many years, that DS6 doesn't walk until he runs. This was quite literally true when he started running almost immediately after he started walking. He never had to learn direction control and didn't raise his arms to balance himself at first, the way most kids do. He just took off.

It was also true figuratively when, for example, he started to draw. He didn't pick up a pencil or crayon until he was about 5 1/2, and then he suddenly started drawing quarter-inch high piles of pictures. This happened from one day to the next.

They do not learn from repetition and drill. They are whole-part learners who need to see the big picture first before they learn the details. They are non-sequential, which means that they do not learn in the step-by-step manner in which most teachers teach.

Again, this describes my son exactly. My other two do okay with step-by-step learning, but not DS6. He also prefers to teach himself sometimes --- swimming comes to mind, though it's not a VS thing. He has no interest in lessons. He was afraid of deep water until he was 4, when he suddenly decided (or realized?) that he had taught himself how to swim. The next thing we knew, he was jumping into the deep end and swimming to the edge of the pool by himself, with no problems. Mom and Dad took a trip to Heart Attack City at first over this.

Must visualize words to spell them

He was doing really well at spelling when the words were easy, and now is having a lot of trouble, especially distinguishing the orthography of words like "deep" or "meet" from silent e words like "home" or "cave." Has anyone else observed this trait in a child classified as a visual-spatial learner?

And finally for now:

Learns complex concepts easily; struggles with easy skills

We're always scratching out heads trying to understand how he could, for example, look at a skeleton and say "That's an amphibian" when he was only 4 and yet so completely fail to be able to do simple arithmetic.

(FYI, quoted information came from this site.)

Okay, I'm going to get the book that was mentioned. Thank you so much. I've learned a whole lot about my son today.

Val

Val,
sounds like a lot of valadation for your son's learning style. What a precious moment. I would test for 'behavioral vision' immaturity anyway, if it's not too much of a difficulty.


There is nothing that says it can't be 'both.'

BTW - have you tried him on Non-Dinosaur books? Is his new reading ability 'solid?'

Sounds like you should make some friends in 'Heart Attack City' as I guess you'll be visiting there frequently! I hope he doesn't just 'decide' to start driving a car all at once as well. Or Dating!

Smiles,
grinity