Three years ago, DD9 was diagnosed as HG with dyslexia and dysgraphia. When I got the educational psych's report back, I was overwhelmed by the recommendations. I felt like I had to do everything right away. I felt guilty that I couldn't get her reading instruction, vision therapy and keyboarding instruction that summer. I read everything that I could and beat myself up that I wasn't doing enough. I got a lackluster response from the school. As long as she was at grade level, they weren't going to offer anything. I felt like my husband and I were the only ones who could see the problem but couldn't handle all of the extra needs by ourselves.
After about a year, I had a friend lend me her copy of a webinar by Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide called "Dyslexia and Writing Challenges in Gifted Children." The graphics quality was poor and sometimes it was hard to follow but I still found it helpful. A couple things have stuck with me. First, that dyslexia may look very different in gifted children so some of the traditional screeners done by school don't flag it. This helped me believe the diagnosis and understand the school's skepticism. Second, that there is is time. Yes, some things need prompt attention, i.e. phonemic awareness, but other things like spelling can wait. These kids tend to be late bloomers but they do get there with appropriate support. They just may do it by a non-traditional path. I found this to be the most liberating tidbit for me. It helped me let go of my guilt re not being able to tackle everything at once. Drs. Eide also wrote Mislabeled Child and Dyslexic Advantage. I've read the former, but not the latter. I suspect that much of the same info will be in the latter because it came out shortly after the webinar.
Three years later, DD9's oral reading fluency is much better. Her decoding has improved but deteriorates rapidly if she is tired or frustrated. She's working on keyboarding with mixed success. She can pass a spelling test but there seems to be no transfer to her written work. Her self-esteem with respect to writing is fragile at best. She had a great teacher last year and another one this year so I am feeling more supported by the school. Somedays, I am overjoyed to see her reading independently. Other days, I am so frustrated that she can spell "perspicacity" but can't spell "when" with any consistency. Overall, things have gotten better but it's not easy.
