Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional 2e Dyslexia/Dysgraphia schools

Hi Everyone,
I have a son 9, 4th grade, IQ in 99.9% with “stealth” dyslexia. Reads above grade level but any sort of writing is incredibly taxing and difficult. Currently in a small private catholic school, it’s not terrible depending on the teacher (this years ok, 2nd grade was awful.) We tried an independent gifted school for a stint in 3rd grade but it seems like with almost every school/teacher, we go through the IEP, they give lip service to his accommodations (extra time, limiting the amount of work, talk to text) but after a couple of weeks, they aren’t taking the time to follow any of it, instead theyre admonishing him him for not trying, not finishing his work, not paying attention. This is almost always involving worksheets with a lot of different boxes or types of questions or extended written assignments. We’ve looked at a project based private school in La Jolla (where we currently live) but it’s more than twice what we’re paying now, the teachers were all very young, and after the introductory meeting where we discussed all of this from the beginning and the director assured us it was almost entirely project based, they don’t use workbooks etc., we went on to speak with the teachers of whom several discussed the basis of the work being worksheets/workbooks. Ugh. We haven’t been able to find anything near San Diego that supports both dysgraphia/dyslexia AND giftedness. He’s bored out of his mind at and at the same time super stressed and frustrated. Looking for suggestions in San Diego area or Salt Lake City/Park City/Logan area where we are considering moving. Or if anyone has info on an amazing school somewhere else we’d really appreciate it. Thank you!!

Welcome, Jwack!

I'm sorry that I don't have direct knowledge of any of the schools in your area, but I do have some thoughts to throw into the mix.

1. In addition to providing appropriate academic challenge, are you looking for a school that will merely accommodate his dyslexia (e.g., 50%/100% extended time, speech-to-text, etc.), or one that will offer skills remediation for the written expression challenges that you describe (which sounds more like dysgraphia), and possibly subtle ongoing word-level reading needs (the stealth dyslexia)? These will lead to different menus of schooling solutions.

2. Think about the range of schooling structures that will work for your family situation and your child's needs. For example, is homeschooling an option? Would a one-to-one school work (e.g. Fusion Academy)? Does it need to be more-or-less five-days-a-week and standard school hours? Do any of the public or private schools accessible to you have a hybrid option (partial days in a school, and partial days with a private tutor/homeschool, or selected classes in-school, and selected classes tutored/homeschooled).

We are one of the many families who found homeschooling to be a good solution for a profile similar to that of your son. In our case, the compensated dyslexia and dysgraphia passed grade level function only after middle school. We started using a home-based Orton-Gillingham spelling intervention (remediating the dyslexia from the spelling side rather than the reading side) around 2nd grade, and completed it during 7th grade. Many years later, there are quite a few other resources available for the same function, some of them self-paced and online. We also chose a focused, targeted writing curriculum not tied to any of the other content areas, which we used from fifth through eighth grades, for lessons of no more than 15 minutes a day. For all other reading and writing tasks (including math), we accommodated with read-aloud, human-scribed dictation or assistive technology (text-to-speech/speech-to-text).

There are others on this forum who have had experiences with one-to-one schools.

3. Consider that a good-enough solution that prioritizes one of the exceptionalities and then relies on afterschooling to support the other exceptionality might actually be good enough for a time.

Hey!

If a public school approves an IEP or 504 and they don’t follow through, it’s illegal. It sounds like you have enough data/diagnosis to get him identified gifted and get a 504 at public school. Our school district takes the 504 accommodations seriously.

Maybe start looking at the public schools. Sometimes there are magnet schools within the system for gifted or interests like stem or creative arts.

Our school district doesn’t have any specialized schools, but I’ve already had a conversation with our school team that leads me to believe that we could get my 2e son enrolled in a neighboring district if it somehow fit better, gifted, disability, or special interest. The catch would be we would have to transport. But if you’re in a bad situation, extra effort on transportation might be worth it.

My son is 2e an and has a 504 at our public school. It’s not perfection… but they do put a lot of effort into making the accommodations happen. Currently it’s hard to get extra time on writing, but the teacher is trying to use the time and resources available and we are doing some catch up work at home.

My experience so far leads me to prefer seasoned teachers who have taught the same grade for many years. They know the material very well and can modify curriculum, the environment and their daily schedule to meet needs. Teachers that get thrown into a classroom at the last second or are brand new will be overwhelmed and intimidated by my kid’s needs and abilities. The last 2 years the school has carefully placed my child with specific instructors. It makes a huge difference. I’ve been in meetings where they tell me they will handpick instructors for him in the future. Literally years of advocacy to get to this point, but it’s possible to get the public school working with you to help your kid!

Parent of dysgraphic here. Got a 504 and lots of advocacy was required to get it followed. It is not going to be smooth. A 504 is nothing without advocacy.
Is it a PIA to advocate? YES! Is it fair? NO! What about kids who don't have squeaky parents?
Don't be quick to write people or schools off. When you get negativity, respond with how it makes your child feel-- no teacher wants to make a kid feel bad. When there are logistical problems, help them work it out. If there are things he's not learning, teach him yourself so he can show what he knows. Solve problems yourself to help them out.
My kid was an "unpleasant" personality so not one that people wanted to go out of their way for. But they still did it. With advocacy and parent support.

I agree with spaghetti and wanted to add a bit more:

When I was trying to request a 504 a year ago, I reached out to my Parent Training and Information Center. I had a contact from my county who knew a lot about my school district, student services and the law.

She encouraged me to absolutely be a squeaky wheel. And she also told me that a 504 is only as good as how much effort the family puts into it. That really encouraged me to stand up and ask for what I believe is appropriate and not let the school spin things around and gaslight me.

We had private testing & diagnosis. I requested the 504. The school asked me what we wanted for my son. I wrote a 504 plan for him based on the testing report and some specific problems we had with keeping track of work. The school approved nearly all of my requests. It was a ton of work on my part and I still have loads of meetings and emails to make sure everyone understands my son and is following the plan.

It’s working, but has required a ton of effort. It’s getting easier now that we’re past the initial requests.

This part “instead theyre admonishing him him for not trying, not finishing his work, not paying attention.” I had a similar problem with my son. I would nix this as firmly and swiftly as you can. Once I had diagnosis, I had a meeting with a bunch of school people and said that he absolutely needs to stop being punished for things related to disability. I was calm but also mad and unsure this school was going to work out for him. He hasn’t been punished for things related to disability since. I requested a ton of people to be at that meeting: school psych, principal, classroom teacher, gifted coordinator. If he has the potential to get in trouble for behaviors related to disability (like not doing his work)… whoever is in charge of discipline at the school needs to be informed. In our case it’s the principal.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I’ve become a good advocate, and a squeaky wheel. I actually had to threaten to take the district to court to get them to test him in the first place, then went on to have him tested privately because they didn’t test him for dyslexia since he was reading above grade level. The problem is we’re at such a small school that there is only one teacher per grade. It seems that he’ll try really hard at the beginning of the year, then get burned out. By this point the teacher has decided he’s “capable” and just not trying hard enough. We do have a new principal who seems to “get it” a little better, and we have a really great OT who’s acting almost as an advocate for him at this point. So I’ve asked the OT to start having check ins regularly with the teacher. Im hoping not to need to involve the principal yet, as this teacher is the only option and I don’t feel like that is going to go well. His self esteem/image is my absolute biggest concern at this point. I’m starting to think homeschool/online school might be the best option for the next little bit. I worry about this though because he’s really social, so maybe a hybrid type program is what we should be looking for. I think after school OT support for the dysgraphia would be enough, he actually does completely fine in school if he has a teacher that is patient and willing to let him finish assignments verbally or with talk to text. If anyone has recommendations for homeschool dysgraphia/dyslexia programs, or hybrid programs, I’d love to hear them. Again thank you all for taking the time to reply!

Also I agree about seasoned teacher's. And thanks for the advice about the 504 only being worth the effort you use to advocate for it. Unfortunate that that’s the case but nice to hear that we’re not the only ones.

There are several decent homeschool-friendly dysgraphia/dyslexia curricula out there. You might try sampling some of them with your DC to see if any seem to meet his needs or appeal to him. Most of them have placement materials, so you can skip some levels, but I would suggest doing so with caution, as many high cognitive dyslexics are using subtle workarounds for lower levels of reading and spelling, and you might accidentally omit a critical phonological processing skill.

1. Nessy. This is an online, self-paced curriculum designed along Orton-Gillingham lines. It has modules for decoding and spelling, and a few other little things. Make sure you're on the US English site, and not the British English site. https://www.nessy.com/en-us/nessy-reading-and-spelling

2. Reading Horizons. Also an online, self-paced OG curriculum. There are two levels--one for younger and one for older learners. With his reading comprehension, the older learner module might be a consideration, but then again, the lower level has phonemic awareness exercises, and the older level does not. https://athome.readinghorizons.com/store/elevate/overview. https://athome.readinghorizons.com/store/discovery/overview

3. All About Learning: Reading & Spelling. Paper-based scripted OG curriculum intended for parent/homeschool. You can attack phonetic decoding skills from either the reading or spelling sides. Sometimes compensated dyslexics do better from the spelling side, as they are less able to infer their way through exercises. Excellent support and an informative blog. I love that it's designed to be used for only 20 minutes a day, two to three days a week. https://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/

4. Logic of English. Paper-based, lightly scripted OG curriculum intended for intervention with older learners or instruction with younger learners. Reading and spelling are taught concomitantly, so if your learner is at different levels with reading and spelling, you'll have to put some work into decoupling them. But if otherwise, it's a nice way to tackle both at once. Some homeschoolers use it as a core English curriculum. Online supplements and teaching helps, but no fully online intervention program. https://www.logicofenglish.com/

5. Wilson. You'll need a certified tutor for this one. This is one of the gold standard OG reading interventions, used in schools and clinics. https://www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/wilson-reading-system/

6. Barton. Similar to Wilson, you are best off with a certified tutor, although I know homeschool families who have done it themselves. https://bartonreading.com/

Thank you so much! This is really helpful, I will look into all of them.