dyslexia?? HELP

I have never recommended this before, but I just read a fascinating article last night! In technical language, according to John Stein F.R.E.P. (whatever that is) this may be caused by binocular instability. He went into a long and technical explanation of what and why (impaired magnocellular function), essentially he says their eye movements are unintended and uncontrolled and they are misinterpreted as movements of letters.

OK, what did they do? They patched the left eye for reading and close work. Stein says this helped students to permanantly stabilize their eye fixation, relieving binocular perceptual confusions. He also went on to say that after three months not only had reading imporved to a great extent, but they could fixate stably with their two eyes and no longer needed to wear a patch.

So, the upshot of all this is: I advise that you secure an appointment with a competent developmental optomologist for a thorough exam and for possible vision therapy of some kind. This may be the key to fixing moving letters.

Your story sounds so familiar. My daughter is now almost nine, showing signs of dyslexia, and has ADHD. Her achievement tests were not low enough to qualify her for any special ed services through the county. So I am faced with the decision of where to place her next school year. She attends a Catholic school right now but class sizes are quite large. The school for LD cost
14,000. here also which isn’t an option. They are having a summer program I am trying to get her accepted to however . This runs for 4 weeks mid summer.
It is mainly for language arts and math 4hrs a day, and has some self esteem classes along with it. You may want to see if the school near you is offering any summer services.
Good Luck
Shannon

What other testing did they do beside an IQ test? I didn’t think that was the only way you could qualify for special ed services. What test did they use for the IQ? Did she have to do reading or was everything presented to her, orally. That would make a difference. It sounds like you need more testing to get a better idea on what is really going on.

Do you have a family physcian, maybe you could bring this up with him or her and they could refer you to a neuropsycologist who could help.

Your daughter knows best to some degree and if she is telling you that when she tries to read the words are over the page something is wrong!

It’s a difficult situation. Can you support your daughter through the next few years by reading outloud to her and having her dictate her work to any willing typist when her writing can not adequately express her thoughts? We did that with our own son when in the same situation.

Having a dyslexic son and and a fair number of dyslexic students, I know that help isn’t always the help we’d like it to be. No one approach works well for children with dyslexia. With your daughter’s high IQ though it may not be long until she is reading without help from the school. Some children who are supported emotionally can go on to figure it out within themselves. I found with my own son none of the remediations we tried really helped. Time and our patience did finally render him an adequate reader.

Financial aid is also sometimes possible at those costly schools. You can always apply for admission for her daughter and for financial aid and see what happens.

Your story sounds so familiar. We knew in K that our 9 y/o dd was having problems, had her tested at the end of 1st, and although she qualified for spec. ed, the school couldn’t tell us what her specific problems were. She was miserable! We had additional testing performed over the summer at a med center with educational development center attached, and confirmed dyslexia. The school had put a very simple IEP in place at the end of 1st grade, but as we learned much more about her needs over the summer due to the extra testing and summer school at a private school for dyslexic kids, we had the IEP rewritten. However, it became very clear that the school couldn’t meet the goals in the IEP. We made the choice to move her to a school for dyslexic kids, on our dime. It isn’t cheap ($10,00 per year), but you can pay on a monthly basis, which helps. She had made great gains (at the end of 3rd grade is almost to grade level in reading, math, spelling, and writing — from K levels!). Although enrolling your daugher may be too expensive, have you considered tutoring? Our school uses Slingerland (a form of Orton-Gillingham), and I know that they tutor numerous students. I would think even that amount of support, which would be much more cost effective, could help to bring her skills up, and that will help her with her self-esteem.

I believe that school don’t give the appropriate kinds of tests to kids to qualify them for help. They give the same tests to every kid no matter what is wrong with them. They also have a “wait to fail” attitude. When the kid does finally fail, it will take 4 times as long and much, much more money to remediate the child then it would have if they helped the child back in 1st or 2nd grade.

Have you asked for an Independent Assessment at the school’s expense? If you don’t agree with the tests that they gave your daughter, then you can get her tested privately and the school would have to pay for it. Look on www.wrightslaw.com for your rights. Also, did they give your daughter the TOWL III (Test of Written Language)? If her spelling and writing are far below grade level, then she could qualify right there. I know it is very difficult to know what to do. Start researching your rights and researching your daughters weaknesses so you will understand more about what is going on with her and you can speak more directly to what the school tells you. Also, start documenting your conversations with teachers, principals, etc. so you have a paper trail about how your daughter is struggling. Everytime you have to help her with her homework or reading, let the teacher know. That way, they can’t say that she is getting by ok on her own.

Hi
Thanks for all your responses. I will TRY and ansewer your questions in one message.

We took her to a pediatric opthamologist who said here eyes were fine. No problems with tracking or anything eles. It was real hard to even get our ins, to pay for that. That are determined that this is a learning dissability and the school needs to handle this.
The testing they did on her was the WISCIII, woodcook johnson III and goldman evalution test of articulation. I have test scores if this would help anyone trying to help me figure this out.
My daughter has been in speech since she was 5. By the way i had her first tested threw the school when she was 3 and they said she didnt qualify for speech due, to her large vocabulary( even though noone could understand her) When she was in kindegarten the teacher had no idea what she was saying and i went in to the special Ed dept throwing a big additude at them more than once. The end result was the speech teacher qualified her, the speech teacher use to have to go in and tell her teacher what my daughter was saying due to her speech being so bad and They offered me a job which i currently still have.

I dont understand why the schools wont help us. It seems like alot of people have payed alot of money to have there kdis tested or in a provate school due to the public schools not meeting thiers childs needs. THIS IS NOT RIGHT!

The school had suggested I take her to a school of Opthamology for testing. its 30 minute test and its 250.00 to walk in the door. I am resposable for this. The school will not pay for it. If there is no tracking problems then why go?I am so afraid of getting into all these different places to test her and all that happens is i am loosing money. Dont get me wrong, I would love to help my daughter but financially this isnt possbable. And PLUS i shoudlnt have to pay for this. We have medical ins. and she goes to the public school. Something is wrong with this picture. I even wrote to President Bush, all i got back was a form letter saying if this has to do with 9-11 click here, if it has to do with this click here. I was SO mad. Hes about ready to get another letter .

Thanks again

The patch is how they used to treat dyslexia when I was growing up, 40 years ago. I always wondered what happened to that idea.