My 8 year old in 3rd grade has a reading disabitly, I suspect dyslexia.
How much information do I give her to prepare her for the testing she will be getting? And how do you simplify dyslexia for her to understand?
Re: helping child to understand LD
My son is 10 and has done extensive testing since the age of 3. He assumes that all kids have gone to OT or speech therapists and educational testing. It’s just something you do like going to the dentist. If you act like it is “no big deal”, your child won’t get as anxious about it. When my son has done testing in the past, I don’t call it testing for starters. I’ve told him that the activities will help us to learn ways to best help him at school and to see how great he is growing. I’ve often reinforced the idea that God made everyone different and special. It helps us all to understand our own strengths and weaknesses.
Good Luck. It is hard not to stress out if you are going through testing for the first time. If you get bad news, try to balance out your fears and sadness about it by focusing on all the GREAT things about your child too.
Rosie
Re: helping child to understand LD
Not before the testing. I’d simply tell her sometimes in school and in life, we take “tests” but they’re not like school tests. We want to see what we’re really good at and what’s harder for us. I’d tell her it’s not a test you can pass or fail. It’s like going to the doctor and getting measured for your height.
If you’re already using the word dyslexia, it suggests your daughter struggles with reading. Tell her these tests help us to understand why reading can be hard for us because you know she always tries her very best.
A good psychologist can take over from there. They tend to be very “child-friendly” people and are good at helping the kids to feel at ease.
Only after testing shows her to have a disability, would I consider discussing dyslexia with her.
I don’t think I would get into possible diagnoses with her before the testing. It will just make her more nervous.
When I test- especially elementary kids- I always ask them if they have been told anything about what we are going to do. Invariably they tell me they are going to be tested, with a fearful sort of look. They really don’t understand much more than that- even if the explanation is really well done. I tell them we are going to try and figure out how their brain works when they are learning something and then we will look at what sorts of things they have learned. Some want more details and we talk about folks who learn from listening etc… and I always ask how they think they learn best. By this time they have relaxed a bit and we can finish th interview and get started with them feeling as normal about this as they can:) I do not talk about troubles in school unless they want to- beyond asking what is hard or easy- because I will get that info from teachers and scores anyway. I want them to feel positive and relaxed as much as they can. Does this help?
Robin