dyslexic freshman hitting a wall

[Anonymous]

DD did really well the first six weeks or so (whatever we've had so far) of school. Now, she's tanking. She's trying; clearly, things are getting harder. I'm really upset and worried. She has an IEP. She had been at one of the much touted dyslexia schools in this area for middle school and we pulled for public now (now in MCPS). The middle school did not do right by her; she made very little progress there. The high school has actually been helpful in getting her what she needs (not everything but they are trying). So, what should be my next step? Ask to meet directly with the teachers? One teacher in particular doesn't seem to care whether she passes or not.

DD has dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, EF issues, poor processing...

She's starting with a tutor this week, but there's so many issues - reading fluency, comprehension, EF challenges. There's only so much she can accomplish in the time she has.

DD has gone from an A to a C in history, math and English in a flash. History and math are close to Ds.

[Anonymous]

Does she use audiobooks and other assistive technology?

[Anonymous]

She has access to them but hasn’t been using them like she should. She is resisting it I’m sure bc it makes her different and she just wants to fit in.

[Anonymous]

Can she watch history videos to help her learn? The APUSH kid use them to study.

[Anonymous]

There is no way she would stay an A student with those issues. Get tutoring but don’t focus on maintaining A’s.

[Anonymous]

For my kid with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADHD, and EF challenges the biggest challenge was the EF. It drives all the rest. It’s hard to motivate yourself to find and use the audio version of a short story or essay, or figure out text speech and take notes. Thee are online assignments and paper assignments and things due at random times and in different ways (turn this in on Google classroom, this in by email).

My kid refused an EF tutor, but that is what would have helped him most. We did get him a math tutor for parts of some years to get him through, and he accepted that.

He is in college now, which I hope gives you some hope. And you know what he told me the other day? “Mom, you know what most of my classes do? They just assign all the week’s work for Friday, every week. All quizzes and exams are on Friday. It is so simple!” He’s doing great, and he matured SO MUCH between freshman fall and senior spring. Hang in there.

[Anonymous]

What is APUSH?

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP with the personal anecdote. I sincerely appreciate that and I hope mine will find a similar path. Right now though, she is struggling so hard to decode and comprehend so many words in these massive passages they have to read….she does take notes but I think she’s trying to memorize them and that’s going to be impossible for a kid like her. Not helping is that the class is literally the last period of her day.

[Anonymous]

Does she have Resource? That might be helpful with the EF issues. Another thought is her case manager. Does she know who that is and is she using that resource.

You mention meeting with the teachers. Not sure what your goal will be for that. They can’t reduce the course content for her. And they will tell you that she needs to use the resources that are provided in her IEP like the audiobooks. But if there is something specific you think isn’t happening that should and is the teachers’ responsibility, I’d talk to the case manager before I’d go to individual teachers. The CM is your go between.

Also if you haven’t developed a relationship yet, I’d try to set up a weekly contact - probably by email because that’s likely to be most successful.

It’s hard when your kid struggles so much. I have a kid whose grades in everything but PE and vo tech were Ds. But that’s all it takes to graduate and even that was serious struggle and effort for the entire four years, plus summer classes for grade recovery for the first three years, which feels like forever. One other suggestion is to make sure she finds other things that make life satisfying and happy because if your entire life is about school where all you do it struggle, it’s hard to get up in the morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is APUSH?

AP US history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PP with the personal anecdote. I sincerely appreciate that and I hope mine will find a similar path. Right now though, she is struggling so hard to decode and comprehend so many words in these massive passages they have to read….she does take notes but I think she’s trying to memorize them and that’s going to be impossible for a kid like her. Not helping is that the class is literally the last period of her day.

I’m sorry she’s struggling so much. My child was similar and she’s now in college, and much happier.

The workload of the reading passages is a huge time and energy suck for these students. And the text to speech for random articles often don’t have great prosody, so that makes it hard to comprehend. And in many cases the students have to figure out audio access themselves as teachers haven’t made lesson plans accessible.

I spent a lot of time reading to my freshman. I could add the appropriate emphasis to make it more easily understood. If there were questions that had to be answered, we would look at those first and pause the reading so she could respond as soon as she heard info.

We tried to make it fun with stuff like bubble tea or snacks. As time went on I had her “book time” with me to do this to encourage her to plan.

But honestly she spent a lot of time stuck in panic thinking about how she would never get her homework done- and that was not helpful. So I set up a “planning check in” each day to come up with a plan for that night. I framed it as planning my time in case she needed help, but it also helped her plan her own work/ time.

And it may be controversial, but it might be worth looking into some of the AI tools that can help summarize longer passages or simplify them. The use would need to depend on the purpose of the reading. But if decoding is still an issue, that can maintain access. Some course materials have alternate versions with different reading levels. You may need to ask the teacher and share how long the reading is taking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks PP with the personal anecdote. I sincerely appreciate that and I hope mine will find a similar path. Right now though, she is struggling so hard to decode and comprehend so many words in these massive passages they have to read….she does take notes but I think she’s trying to memorize them and that’s going to be impossible for a kid like her. Not helping is that the class is literally the last period of her day.

Has she been fully remediated? Gone through all the levels of a program like Sounds in Syllables, etc? If not there is still time to improve her reading. I know you said she was in a dyslexia specific school but my understanding is they don’t always fully remediate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is APUSH?

AP US History, the advanced high school US History class. It's a broad survey course so kids have to cram a lot to do well.

In olden times, we used prep books. Today's kids prefer videos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One other suggestion is to make sure she finds other things that make life satisfying and happy because if your entire life is about school where all you do it struggle, it’s hard to get up in the morning.

OP, this part is so, so important. My kid did not do this and is now at the bottom of a well of depression because of the school stuff.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all.

She does have resource and a case manager, though she is very green and neither she nor I are big fans.

Her tutor is amazing and will probably continue the SIS program with her. Don’t believe she ever finished it bc she went to the SN school and frankly, I trusted them to remediate this. Oh, how they failed her. I don’t even understand how that can happen.

DD is an athlete so that is good and helps her tremendously. It’s been a godsend for her but she’s also terrified bc she knows if her grades don’t come up, she won’t be academically eligible to play and that would devastate her.