Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 2E dyslexia parents (or other E

I'm curious about the same thing. FWIW, I think that 2e kids with SLD (dyslexia, dysgraphia etc) are probably much rarer than we *think* they are when we're parents of them, scouring the internet for resources, and finding each other online. I haven't met any other 2e parents in "real" life - the 2e kids that I've met through our local gifted school district program are ASD, ADHD, or emotional challenges, not 2e due to learning disabilities. The gifted teachers we've met through the school district seem to not have experience with kids like our ds - but is it because they are rare or because they largely go unidentified? We had to advocate like crazy to get our ds id'd as "gifted" in our district in spite of his obviously qualifying IQ scores. We even had one teacher who was convinced our ds was below average intelligence *in spite* of having seen his IQ test scores - honestly, I think most of his teachers never believed his IQ scores when he was young because they saw the kid who couldn't write and automatically equated that with cognitive ability.

polarbear

Thanks everyone for your advice. What is the intervention strategy like for a young student with dyslexia or dysgraphia? I know from our visit with the K teacher/school director (same person) last month that they start keyboarding in K and all students are encouraged to become comfortable doing school work using computers. For example, spelling tests are given individually and I think the student chooses if they write or type. Handwriting seems to be treated like a separate subject.
I've read about some of the learning to read strategies for visual spatial learners. Are they similar for dyslexics?
Is it something our OT could help with? She works at the school too. Basically I am wondering if we could do some of the intervention strategies either at home or school without a diagnosis. Would the intervention strategy harm or confuse a non-dyslexic if it is in fact just his age?
I am not against the idea of getting an assessment for it. We just happen to live near the Eides' Neurolearning Clinic and if we get an assessment, I would like to try to go there. I think the earliest he could be seen is in March.

polarbear,
First off, what a rotten second grade teacher! She deserves an apple with a worm. Perhaps we should start another thread entitled the Wormy Apple Award and you can nominate her.
Secondly, my son sounds a lot like yours. Right down to avoiding the academic work in the Montessori preschool. He does not enjoy school work at all.
Another thing I wanted to clarify is that it is not just "b and d" and "p and q", it is all four together. He doesn't just reverse, he flips too. Hence the "u and n". His favorite letter is "o". He says he likes it because it is easy to write and it is always the same.
He had a vision screening with a pediatric optometrist recently and there were not any issues.

I think signing up for the Eidies would be a wise investment. How cool that they are local to you.
From reading the Eidies book, I've worked out this 'whole brain' way to get spellings into my visual working memory, which is very weak at seeing details: http://wp.me/p2tcDf-8b

Something similar might help with keeping those 'u's from rotating into 'n's.

I like the idea of a little hothousing....maybe some of the Handwritting wiithout tears preschool 3d materials like Matt Man?
Hugs
Grinity

The thing about reading and writing in kids with dyslexia is that nothing is intuitive. They don't make leaps in understanding the way they do in other subjects. So reading and writing instruction is very explicit and multi-sensory. You can look up Wilson or Orton-Gillingham. My son did Wilson.

Personally, I think there's a lot of quakery in the dyslexic intervention community, and I think if you do some reading you'll figure that out. For instance, I liked the message in "The Gift of Dyslexia," but their interventions seem like pure magical thinking. And a friend of ours went to a clinic where their dd was rolled around in blankets to cure dyslexia-- again, not something we would subscribe to.

If your son is receptive, I think you could start any kind of reading program that excplicitly teaches reading-- Hooked on Phonics, is actually a good program for really young grades. If I'd have known about that in K for my son, I would have purchased it (but I didn't know anything about dyslexia). Instead I tried other lessons and he was extremely resistant, mostly because his twin was so far past the baby-book/learning book stage, there was no way he would try easy readers.

I do think the point is to try to get him up to his ability/IQ level as soon as possible, before he might develop an aversion to reading.

Another thought: while remediation is extremely important, you might also want to balance it with some enrichment in your DS' area of strength. That may be math or science with his high block design score.

Kids don't like to work in their area of weakness all the time any more than we do as adults. This is a mistake I made with my son. His frustration level with having to work on reading and writing all the time (his two worst subjects) was very high. I think it would have been better to balance that important work with instruction and play with math and numbers which come so easily to him.

I think a key point is whether the kid seems to be progressing at a normal rate or seems stuck. That's what's striking about polarbear's story, each teacher was only looking at one slice of time and not looking at the fact that the kid had been at that same stage for years.

I too am curious, though, about what dyslexia intervention consists of, other than just really good phonics instruction.

This is what I do with my DS8. He has a language processing disorder (plus ADHD) accompanied by fine motor issues and printing/spelling issues. He's in French which makes it harder. (Interestingly he has no trouble with English reading). Anyway... we spend equal time working on his written language output in both languages as we do on his favorite subject (at which he excels and is above grade level): math.

Fyi my main reason for doing this is because I wanted him to feel good about his smarts: "You may not write or read French as well as the other kids, but you're way ahead in math." It seems to be working... he's pretty happy in school.

What an excellent thread!! I have read through all the responses and nodded my head, tearing up once or twice. I would give just about anything to be able to go in time and redo DD9's early years of school with an accurate diagnosis.

I say 'Hear, hear!' to Polarbear's post. If you are worried, DO NOT WAIT to test. Sure, it may be developmentally appropriate for kids in kindergarden to make letter reversals..... but since when have our kids ever stuck to age-related norms? We all know it. The hard part is convincing everyone else at school that they cannot use typical as a comparison to our kids in all instances.

DD9 has dysgraphia, 'stealth' dyslexia, ADHD, and anxiety. Like previous posters' children, her world fell apart in grade 2 after three years of undiagnosed learning diabilites. Her anxiety required therapy until June of this year. To hear her talk about school A.C. diagnoses, well, I'll be honest that I can't bear to listen. It kills me to know what she went through. She thought she was the stupidest person in her school. Her psychologist used to give her a pack of smarties at the end of every session to remind her that she was, in fact, the smartest person in her school. It took her two full years to get anywhere with the non-existent self-esteem.

As for rotten apple award, that rightfully belongs to the most awful human being I have ever met.... DD's primary teacher. Actually, scratch my first wish. I want to go back in time and Tonya Harding that woman in the parking lot. But, I digress.

Our DS is turning 4 in a few short weeks. He just starting seeing an OT for sensory issues and even she commented on the red flags for dysgraphia/dyslexia in his assessment. He will not colour and runs away crying when I try to play alphabet games with him. She gets it and wants to start tactile alphabet learning (using playdough, sand, etc) to pave the way for primary next year. She can see that there are going to be problems and is coming up with a plan to work on things before we even get there. There is no doubt in my mind that DS will have LDs. My sister's son has severe dysgraphia and her daughter was just diagnoses, at 9, with dyslexia and a visual processing disorder. That is 3/4 grandchildren. The odds are not in DS's favour.

I will never let DS have the experience DD did. And neither will she! She has said that the best thing about her experience is that it will keep her brother from having to go through it, too.

Good luck with everything. This forum is such an amazing resource.

I want to echo so much of what I read here - really, really good advice all around. I think it's an especially important point that the waiting which is appropriate for typical kids is really damaging to kids who actually have ld's. Early identification and intervention is key. Also it really is important to focus on their strengths while they struggle here.

For us it has been especially important to use audio books for DD's high level comprehension. Looking at her reading list for the summer is sort of amusing - very basic K/1 books for what she has read herself (i.e. book in her hands) but in terms of audio books she is about to finish the 5th Harry Potter book and start the 6th. DD has a good friend who has spent the whole summer with her nose in a book reading probably 2nd-3rd grade or higher stuff. At first it caused me some pangs of disappointment - if not for ld's I just KNOW DD would be doing the same thing. Then I realized - she is. But for her the books are audio. If she could just sit in the car all day listening to her books we would never get her away. Will the folks at her school understand that? I don't know. I *think* for them reading level will be limited to what she can actually decode herself. At least when your child's area of strength is something like math it's tangible. You, he and the school can see the problems he's working out. Yes DD has a huge vocabulary (and she's not afraid to use it ) but many teachers just see the kid who is struggling to read and write. Oh and the anxiety - they definitely see the anxiety...