My first thought is, you're in a really good place at this point in time - you were able to place at this point in time - your dd has been diagnosed, you're pursuing outside help to remediate her challenges, and she's being placed in a gifted program at school too. You didn't mention what is in place re her dyslexia at school - will she have an IEP or a 504 plan? Has anything been discussed yet?
I don't have direct experience with dyslexia; my 2e ds13 is dysgraphic and has an expressive language disorder. Like many of the other 2e parents I know, early elementary was really tough for him because his challenges went unrecognized until 2nd grade when he was really *really* struggling, and teachers tended to think he really wasn't all that smart (in spite of his IQ scores) - simply because he couldn't write. If there were two things I could do differently in hindsight in those early years of school they would be to first, give him the intellectual challenge he needed along with the help he needed for his challenges. It would have helped him tremendously to have been in a gifted school with peers who were closer to his level of intellectual thinking, and it would have helped him feel more successful if he could have been doing work in math/science/social studies etc that matched his ability. The other thing that I wish we could have done was know earlier on that he was dysgraphic, because going through his first few years of school undiagnosed he developed tremendous anxiety and also a lot of self-consciousness over his challenges. SO - you are in a good spot with respect to both of those things - she's in a gifted program, and you know what she's facing in terms of challenges.
My one key piece of advice based on watching my ds go through school is - expect and demand that the work your dd is doing in school is at the level of her intellectual ability, even if it's technically "hard" due to her disability. Work on remediation when it's appropriate, but everything else should be at her true intellectual level - give her the appropriate reading instruction during reading, but for "reading" outside of that, give her audiobooks. For my ds, who is extremely challenged with generating ideas to write about, what we've seen time and time again is that he writes *extremely well* when he can get started, and hence his best writing work happens when he's in an appropriately leveled Language Arts class (or history, social studies whatever). It just doesn't happen when he's held "back" and given work that's intellectually "remedial".
I'd also keep myself well-informed about what was going on at school (keep an open dialogue with both your dd and her teachers) - and keep on top of all that you can re knowledge about dyslexia and associated challenges. We found that our ds' dysgraphia and expressive language disorders impacted him in ways that we hadn't anticipated as he went through elementary school and on into middle school - none of it was so difficult he needed to not be in accelerated programs, but we did (and still do) run into small road bumps here and there that have to be addressed. Once they are addressed, he's fine and he does very well in school.
Some things I'd like to know about the school your dd be in (if I was her parent :)) -
1) Experience with 2e students - are there other 2e kids there? How does the school typically deal with 2e issues? Will she have an IEP or a 504 plan?
2) Does the school define giftedness as ability or achievement or a combination of both? We did opt out of our district's HG+ tract in elementary due to concerns that we'd heard from other parents that there was a philosophy of "gifted" = "give the kids a lot of homework" instead of "foster intellectual growth and creativity" - and I think that was the right choice, for elementary and middle school, for my ds. His challenges have meant that he spends a bunch of extra time on homework that his peers typically don't, and we've been able to meet his intellectual needs in other ways.
3) How does your dd feel about her challenges and how does she see herself relative to peers? What is the overall atmosphere at the school like - do they value and support differences? Or will she feel like the only student there who has a challenge and will it make her feel out of place?
I've said it before (probably way too many times here!) - but parenting a 2e child in the early elementary school years often feels like it's much more about meeting and remediating challenges and learning what accommodations are needed than it is about being able to take advantage of gifted programs and fostering huge intellectual growth in leaps and bounds. It sounds like you're in a good place for both... but if you ever get that feeling that it's all about dyslexia and that the challenges are taking too much out of your dd's life (more than you'd want them to)... all the work you (and she) puts in now, early on, is going to pay back tremendously a few years down the road when she's had the remediation and you've both learned how to accommodate/work-around/etc - by the time she's entering middle school she'll be where she needs to be for her intellectual gifts to shine
Best wishes,
polarbear
