How do people afford dyslexia?

[Anonymous]

My 5th grader was just diagnosed with dyslexia. We just paid $5k for the testing and just set up a reading tutoring program 4x a week that will add up to $12k for the school year. Her public school can help with supports but can’t offer any kind of OG tutoring, I imagine that’s the norm.

Luckily we can swing this, but how do low income people afford this?

[Anonymous]

They don't and they let the chips fall where they may.

[Anonymous]

They don’t, because it is unaffordable. This is why the percent of people in prison with dyslexia is astronomical - if you can’t read, if your school day makes you feel like an utter failure, if you drop out of high school…your chances of going to prison skyrocket.

My dyslexic kid is a senior, and he’ll go to college in part because we had the money for remediation and private school, and also because we had the kind of jobs where we could take time off to take him to tutoring. I could totally see him dropping out of high school if we hadn’t been dragging him/cheerleading him through it all.

[Anonymous]

You don’t spend $5k on the evaluation for one thing.

[Anonymous]

Special needs supports are for people with money. Not just dylexia, anything that requires large amounts individual time with a professional as part of therapy or support doesn't exist for poor people and it exists as a difficult choice for middle class people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t spend $5k on the evaluation for one thing.

and how do you do that? Different poster but would love to hear the alternatives.

[Anonymous]

It is expensive and out of reach for a lot of families.

We spent close to $30K on a private reading and writing tutor. It was worth every penny for the reading skills, writing skills, confidence boost, ease of working with this person vs the schools who just wanted to gaslight us, etc.... but it is a lot and I feel fortunate we could do it. I worry about other kids all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don’t spend $5k on the evaluation for one thing.

and how do you do that? Different poster but would love to hear the alternatives.

school evaluation then IEE. or go straight to tutoring to see if it works.

[Anonymous]

They don't, at least not the level of services you describe. Public schools provide testing, which is usually insufficient (and sometimes it is). They also provide remediation, which also is usually insufficient to fully address dyslexia.

IMO, as a parent of a kid with dyslexia and researcher with expertise in similar programs, school systems need to spend way more money on this issue AND we need to focus on programs that don't require highly specialized tutors. They're out there; OG is not the only approach.

We as citizens can advocate for better SN supports in public schools. Those are, especially for something as common and profound as dyslexia, far more important than myriad GT programs (looking at you, MCPS). We can also push for better healthcare coverage of various SN services.

[Anonymous]

Imagine a place where -
All children were screened for dyslexia?
All reading instruction was "OG" (or another approach that supported students with dyslexia)

All children would benefit from this approach - not just students with Dyslexia. The costs to train teachers would offset the down stream costs.

But no - the money goes to those who can lobby the strongest. [I am looking at you Reading Recovery].
It is criminal as they knew that the approach they were using was not supporting children.

[Anonymous]

My kids didn’t have dyslexia but other disabilities that required expensive intervention and IEPs. Money was tight but we had exceptional health insurance that made the intensive speech and OT possible. That freed up money for me to pay for extra help for my child with LD who did special summer programs and required an expensive advocate and later a move to a supportive private school for a few years after his self-esteem was tanked. Even then, my parents help and FA were necessary because we could only afford about 1/3 of the tutition. If one of mine had needed OG, it wouldn’t have been a possibility at that time. My kids are doing well all these years later as a result of everything we were able to do for them but throughout I was very aware that many people can’t do it at all. It is horribly unfair. The system is broken and needs to change. The public school system fails to provide appropriate intervention for most disabilities leaving kids to risk a lifetime of struggle. How hard is it to train 1-2 teachers in every school in OG?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t spend $5k on the evaluation for one thing.

You do if you need a neuropsych to confirm diagnosis, get admission to an OG school, and sue the school district for tuition reimbursement.

To answer OPs question I think about this all the time. It’s an upsetting topic. I will say I live in a diverse school district where there’s reverse discrimination - they screw the kids whose parents they assume can pay privately, which is deplorable (and illegal.)

[Anonymous]

While public services aren't widely available enough, I have heard good things about certain schools. For example, a friend's DC has been getting strong OG support at Flora Singer ES.

[Anonymous]

You do what my parents did and just scream and punish the kid for not doing their schoolwork and homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t spend $5k on the evaluation for one thing.

Well sure if you knew what the One Thing was in advance, you wouldn’t need the testing.