Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 2e with dyslexia - advice needed

My 2nd grader was identified as highly gifted with dyslexia/dysgraphia this summer. Her school does not acknowledge any disability because she is at or above grade-level in her reading and writing. Her spelling is atrocious. She struggles to keep up with the writing demands of the gifted classroom. The psych who did her testing believes that she should be reading at a much higher level based on her WISC-IV FSIQ of 149.
Since the school isn't doing anything, the psych recommended that we get her assessed by Lindamood Bell to see if they could identify specific weaknesses that could be targeted for intervention. We just got the results back. All of the reading and writing scores are in the 60th to 80th percentile with grade equivalents of mid 2nd grade to 4th grade level. The LMB representative is recommending 40 hours of instruction at $82/hr even though there are no clear gaps. The psych still believes this might be helpful. I am having a hard time justifying the cost, extra driving in winter, and inconvenience where there is not a clear objective. Does anyone have a any words of wisdom?

1) If she isn't touch typing yet, I would consentrate on that right now.
2) Is there any disadvantage of waiting until the spring, and doing the Lindamood Bell then (after winter snows, and frequent cancellations, and short-day blahs)
3) can you try the lindamood bell without committing very much?
4) Do any of us have experience with this particular intervention? Did you ask the Psyc what exactly leads him/her to believe that LB would work for your particular child?
5) Atrocious spelling doesn't bother me 'at all.' If it starts to affect her self concept, be sure to explain that some people are able to learn to spell with a reasonable amount of work, and some only learn with a tremendous amount of work.
6) Find ways for her to keep up with the writing demands of the gifted classroom so she can stay there. Ask the teacher if she thinks that there is a problem, and if so, any suggestion of what to do at home. You can let DD dictate to you, or try Dragon's Naturally Speaking.
7) The Print Tool, by Handwriting without tears, is about 50$, and with a bit of effort, you can observe what she is doing well and what is going wrong, and work with her on the penmanship. For my son, understanding the parts of 'pretty writing' unlocked his ability to make pretty writing. I would consentrate on printing, as cursive has less adult usefulness than spelling (unless she likes cursive.)
8) Your insurance might cover Occupational Therapy. If so, you could have her evaluated by a pediatric OT, and see if they have anything to offer. "Learning is the Work of Children."
9)DS12 suggests to 'drill, drill, drill' with Dad. Apparently, his Dad drilled mathfacts in the car on the way to school all throughout those years... Well you know it wasn't going to me doing that!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I am not at all familiar with LMB, but maybe our experience will help a little bit.

My son has dysgraphia, which lead us to an exceptional OT (I know some of the kids she has helped, and the outcomes are truly amazing). After 4 hours of screening tests, she diagnosed him with a number of issues. Her feeling is that terms like dysgraphia and dyslexia are only descriptive, they don't tell you anything about the underlying causes or how to address them. Because our son also spells terribly, and can spell (or misspell) the same word two times in the same sentence, although he reads well above grade level, she said it is likely he has some form of stealth dyslexia as well. At times he also has a repetitive (phrase based) dysfluency (stutter). But she isn't concerned with that any of these terms particular, because she believes that his OT will address all of them by focusing on the neurological issues he has.

It is unlikely our insurance will cover this, but I do know some people who have had coverage for her services. As Grinity pointed out, if you can get a referral from your primary doctor for an OT eval, that might be one way to go that has some hope for insurance coverage.

And after only a few sessions, we have seen some very positive changes in our DS. I am just glad that he can write a few sentences without bursting into tears!

Cat

She sounds like a very wise woman, and I hope that she is writing about her approach and her findings and experiences.

I'm happy to hear DS is feeling better about writing - that must be such a relief!

Grinity

Well, I am not sure it is the actual OT exercises kicking in yet, he has only gone a few times, but she has helped us with set up (he is a lefty and she has helped enlighten us re: things like slant boards and left handed notebooks - I feel kind of bad I hadn't thought of much of it myself).

One thing she has us do that I think is amazing and makes a huge difference - when he starts to get upset writing, he is to take a break and do certain exercises that activate certain brain connections (not sure what they are called - I still need to have our assessment meeting). After 5 minutes of that, it is incredible how he can settle down and focus, the writing is still a challenge, but he isn't bouncing all over from the frustration bubbling out. I knew that some physical activity sometimes helped, but other times made his focus worse - now it is clear that running around or playing soccer won't help, but certain other types of motions will (football hike motion). Really amazing stuff - and I look forward to having it help my son.

I'd love to hear about how to do these exercises myself!

Which LMB intervention did they recommend? LiPS or Seeing Stars?

DS6 is in a very similar situation as your daughter. He doesn't intuit reading like he does math, and was about at grade level in K. The tester worried about dyslexia at that point, but we never got a formal diagnosis and never went through with LiPS.

You might look into All About Spelling, which I think of as Orton Gillingham Lite. It clears up a lot of confusion for a kid that needs the explicit instruction with as much or as little repetition as necessary.

Thanks for the advice. We are putting off LMB at this point -- they recommended Seeing Stars but not with a lot of enthusiasm. We are proceeding with some vision therapy at this point. Once we have the visual issues are resolved, I am considering a tutor who is trained in both LMB and Orton-Gillingham (cheaper and closer to home). I am feeling less urgency since reviewing some of the Eides' materials.

Why is it important for kids to use the "correct" pencil grip? We are getting mixed messages about whether my daughter should change her unorthodox grip (school OT says it's pointless, VT says it needs to happen) Has anyone gone through this?

I still have an unorthodox grip. It drove my mom crazy for YEARS. (Still does, actually, if she has to watch me write. )

It didn't hamper me at all. I was a lit major (including years of graduate-level work) back in the days when we still wrote by hand, and I took better, faster notes than anyone.

That's purely anecdotal and indicative of nothing about your child, of course. But to answer your question, yes, I personally went through it and came out fine on the other side. I do have pretty ugly handwriting though...

Oh, and now that I'm teaching my son cursive, I find that it fatigues my hand quite quickly. That's certainly a point in favor of proper form. My usual writing looks more like italics, or a weird hybrid of cursive and printing, and that style of writing I can do for hours with no ill effects.