My daughter is entering 4th grade this year and has already been held back once to repeat 1st grade. She does well w/ her grades because of help from myself, family and some EIP programs through the school. Since she usually ends up with good grades in the end, the school does not feel as though there is a major problem. However, I know that if not for all of the additional help she would not be making the better grades. She worked extremely hard last year with school, then a “helping hands” program immediately after school, then an additional tutor each day after the helping hands program. It worked out good for her grades but she was beat after each 10 hour, non-stop day.
I had taken her to a local learning center for evaluation and possible tutoring when they suggested ADD. She was tested and is receiving medication for this. But, I still feel that she is either only dyslexic or both dyslexic and ADD. Her Father is dyslexic and she shows several signs of dyslexia. She has been tested two times by the public school for dyslexia but they claim she is not. Even though I feel she is, she is actually a good reader with the exception of mistakes with short words such as confusing “and” and “the”, twisting words such as “pasghetti” for “spaghetti”, and other small mistakes. Her biggest problem is w/ numbers.
I have two questions, is it possible to be dyslexic and be a good reader? And, does the school legally have to pay for a second opinion from an outside source [Georgia school system]?
I would appreciate anyone’s help. I am hoping for a better start to this year for her!
Re: Pls. offer answers to frustrated parent of possible dyslexic
Some experts, especially Martha Denckla, believe that many children with ADHD will also have subtle (or not so subtle) language, writing and reading difficulties. That might be what is happening here.
Andrea
ADHD & Dyslexia
Andrea,
Would like more info. on Martha Denckla. Any favorite books or articals you would recommend. Thanks.
Re: ADHD & Dyslexia
[quote=”RA”]Andrea,
Would like more info. on Martha Denckla. Any favorite books or articals you would recommend. Thanks.[/quote]
Here are some links. The videocast link doesn’t deal specifically with reading and ADHD but it is a fascinating presentation by Dr. Denckla at NIH last year.
http://www.helpforadd.com/reading.htm
http://www.additudemag.com/addabc.asp?DEPT_NO=201&SUB_NO=5
http://www.dyslexia-ncbida.org/articles/feb02/readadhd.html
http://www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_touch_article.jsp?pid=1272
http://videocast.nih.gov/ram/ccgr100902.ram
Dyslexia & ADHD
Thanks Andrea. My 8yo daughter has both dyslexia and ADHD. I’ve been looking for articles/research that specifically address both issues simultaneously. She also had/has extreme difficulty with rapid naming, phonological processing, and working memory. Fasinating reseach and I have not run accross Dr. Denckla’s work. Will investigate more.
Re: Pls. offer answers to frustrated parent of possible dyslexic
Rmm - You could also have a very bright dyslexic child. My daughter never failed K-5 and 1st, but the evaluator said, “If you knew how hard she was working just to keep afloat it would break your heart”. (Found out gifted dyslexic) She was evaluated privately @ the beginning of 2nd and started LMB and SI OT
How detailed was the evaluation you had? Make sure your not medicating LDs that could come back to haunt you later on. Don’t want to scare you, but with a “family history of dyslexia”, it could be there.
BTW, my daughter says bisketti, headfore, etc.
Re: Pls. offer answers to frustrated parent of possible dyslexic
Mine says spaghetti like that, too. Maybe that should be a new dyslexia test…parents list all the words they say wrong! The other day, my husband was taking Anna to the pool. He asked her to get the suncreen and she asked him if he wanted to get a “tun san”. I asked her what she said and she said it wrong a second time. I thought she’d self correct, but she didn’t.
Janis
Re: Pls. offer answers to frustrated parent of possible dyslexic
At the start of this thread, the poster asked if a child could be a good ready and also be dyslexic. My son is a very good silent reader (more or less on grade level in high school.) He is dyslexic. What he isn’t good at is reading out loud. He’s also terrible at spelling. Unlike a few previous posters noted, he never mispronounced words. In fact, he had unusually clear speech, which made it hard to originally convince the school there was any problem. I was also told he was lazy, because he could clearly demonstrate he knew the work verbally, but his written work was dreadful.
Kids can learn amazing ways to compensate for their LDs. If you can get your child a tutor that understands the problem (and is possibly dyslexic themself), you may find your child make rapid progress. Keep in mind, the dyslexia will not be cured…but your child will learn how to work with the dyslexia.
Cheers,
Kay
dyslexia
My son could learn to read well with appropriate methods (phongraphix.) He still didn’t like to read, missed small words (reading and for the is typical), lost his place when reading, couldn’t spell and didn’t write well.
Turns out all of these can be signs of vision problems. He has a severe visual motor problem that had him looking fairly adhd and also fairly lazy. He could verbalize very well and most who knew him outside of school assumed he was gifted.
Vision therapy has him enjoying reading, spelling and writing much better and he is just less spacy in general.
Interactive metronome also helped tremendously with the attentional issues.
dyslexia
My son could learn to read well with appropriate methods (phongraphix.) He still didn’t like to read, missed small words (reading and for the is typical), lost his place when reading, couldn’t spell and didn’t write well.
Turns out all of these can be signs of vision problems. He has a severe visual motor problem that had him looking fairly adhd and also fairly lazy. He could verbalize very well and most who knew him outside of school assumed he was gifted.
Vision therapy has him enjoying reading, spelling and writing much better and he is just less spacy in general.
Interactive metronome also helped tremendously with the attentional issues.
Replies appreciated
Thanks to everyone for the replies - lots of good information to study. It is interesting all of the similar signs with different solutions or diagnosis. My daughter has alot of the signs mentioned: she fails miserably at spelling, gets extremely frustrated with creative writing and has messy, large hand writing for her age. I have noticed that her pencil grip is fist-like and have tried to get her to hold it differently but it causes more aggrevation. Sounds familiar, huh?
She is an extremely hard worker at school, but when she gets home she gets frustrated and cries easily stating that she can’t do the work when she hasn’t even attempted the first problem. This could be due to overexertion at school and wanting to rest when she comes home. She and I do not work well together because of her frustration level at home. She seems to do better with a teacher other than me.
I will continue my research and reading the posts for additional help.
Re: Pls. offer answers to frustrated parent of possible dyslexic
Leave it to Kay to try to keep us all “on task” :P
MHO is that your daughter is probably exhausted from the school day where she “sucks it up” and then “lets loose” when she gets home. That was my daughter exactly b4 remediation.
Janis, I love the “tun san” story. THose funny (and exasperating) stories keep us sane and make memories! My daughter’s LMB tutor says these kids “slip up” and do that when they are “most relaxed”, b/c most of the time they are fighting to keep it all straight. A “hats off” to the hubby for the fun day.
Jami still does it, but not as often as she used to. “Lion mountain”, “head fore”, “We trust in God” (instead of In God We Trust” on a sign). I asked her again - she did self correct (almost 11) and said, “Well, Mom, We trust in God, In God We Trust” - same thing”. Urrrg I told her that MOST of the time it WON’T have the same meaning.
I have also made her PROMISE to never sign anything as an adult until someone else reads it.
Unfortunately, there are some children who compensate well for awhile and simply do not have the low test scores required for the LD reading label. She certainly could have an undiagnosed reading disorder. Unfortunately, schools rarely remediate dyslexia anyway, so you really are better off finding private evaluation and therapy. All the extra tutoring is keeping her head above water now, but as school becomes more difficult, she may not make it if her underlying deficits are not addressed. See if you can get a good private reading evaluation. Find a tutor who is certified in Phono-Graphix or is trained in Lindamood Bell. Commercial learning centers like Sylvan are not appropriate for children with dyslexia.
Janis