FCPS - 2nd Grader with Severe Dyslexia- Options

[Anonymous]

I’m reaching out because I’m feeling a bit stuck and could really use your insight.

My daughter is in second grade and has severe dyslexia. She was diagnosed in first grade, and since this summer, she’s been working with a CALT trained by ASDEC. She also has an IEP and currently receives 30 minutes of specialized instruction five days a week, plus pull-out support for reading, writing, and math. I truly believe her school is doing the best it can with the resources available.

But this is the first year she’s really starting to feel how different he is from his classmates. She’s been saying how hard school is, and it’s heartbreaking. I want to help close the gap between her and her typical peers more quickly — I’m just not sure how to do that.
I know there are CSS programs for kids with behavioral needs, but is there anything similar for children with significant learning differences who don’t have behavioral issues? Are there other specialized settings in FCPS or supports I might be overlooking?


Private school options seem limited — I’ve looked into a few. I don’t think she would qualify for Oakwood because he’s too far behind academically. Lab School feels too socially restrictive for his needs, and I haven’t heard great things about Sienna. She is very social with high Emotional IQ and loves her friends at school.

Am I missing something? I’d be so grateful for any recommendations, experiences, or advice.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry, OP. Inclusion has meant that there aren't specialized classes or schools for things like this, for better or for worse. You can push for self contained classrooms once they get to middle school but pull outs are probably the future for elementary.

[Anonymous]

Op Here: Fixed Grammatical Errors

I’m reaching out because I’m feeling a bit stuck and could really use your insight.

My daughter is in second grade and has severe dyslexia. She was diagnosed in first grade, and since this summer, she’s been working with a CALT trained by ASDEC. She also has an IEP and currently receives 30 minutes of specialized instruction five days a week, plus pull-out support for reading, writing, and math. I truly believe her school is doing the best it can with the resources available.

But this is the first year she’s really starting to feel how different she is from her classmates. She’s been saying how hard school is, and it’s heartbreaking. I want to help close the gap between her and her typical peers more quickly — I’m just not sure how to do that.

I know there are CSS programs for kids with behavioral needs, but is there anything similar in FCPS for children with significant learning differences who don’t have behavioral issues? Are there other specialized settings or supports I might be overlooking?

Private school options also seem limited. I’ve looked into a few, but I don’t think she would qualify for Oakwood because she’s too far behind academically. Lab School feels too socially restrictive for her, and I haven’t heard great things about Sienna. She’s very social, has a high emotional IQ, and truly loves her friends at school.

Am I missing something? I’d be so grateful for any recommendations, experiences, or advice

[Anonymous]

Most people I know either do intensive private tutoring with a trained dyslexia tutor (4x/week or something like that) after school or pull their kids from public to go to a private dyslexia-focused school. It's very expensive but the public services aren't great.

It takes a few years to gain ground.

[Anonymous]

FCPS is terrible with dyslexia from K-12. Accepting that helps. But socially our kid has done well in the public schools. This was important for her to be around friends and not be put at a school that only deals with LDs

What we have done:
-intensive tutoring for three years for reading and spelling
-writing tutor after the reading tutor to actually teach out to form sentences and write information. (FCPS does not teach this)
-IEP for team taught classes in MS and HS. Also for accommodations. We fought to keep the IEP over a 504.
-lots of audio books for the stories and the vocab
-eventually a math tutor for Calculus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most people I know either do intensive private tutoring with a trained dyslexia tutor (4x/week or something like that) after school or pull their kids from public to go to a private dyslexia-focused school. It's very expensive but the public services aren't great.

It takes a few years to gain ground.

Op: She is doing 1 hr x 4 times a week with the CALT. Progress is slow. Trying to figure out how to close the gap faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is terrible with dyslexia from K-12. Accepting that helps. But socially our kid has done well in the public schools. This was important for her to be around friends and not be put at a school that only deals with LDs

What we have done:
-intensive tutoring for three years for reading and spelling
-writing tutor after the reading tutor to actually teach out to form sentences and write information. (FCPS does not teach this)
-IEP for team taught classes in MS and HS. Also for accommodations. We fought to keep the IEP over a 504.
-lots of audio books for the stories and the vocab
-eventually a math tutor for Calculus

Op: Thanks for the insights? Does your child have severe dyslexia?

[Anonymous]

Hi Op - very similar story here. In 2nd grade we worked with a great ASDEC tutor 4x a week. Progress was slow but there was progress. We had great teachers that were trying. Fast forward to third grade and everything fell apart. The teacher did not understand my child’s challenges and my child also really became aware of her own challenges. My once happy kids began to cry in the mornings before school and was just generally down. The school also dropped the ball on consistently pulling her out and having an aid push in when needed. My kid is severely dyslexic but bright so she was fully aware of how behind she was falling. Confidence took a huge hit even though she had a tight group of friends. We took her out mid year and enrolled her in a private school for dyslexia. You could visibly see the relief she felt that first week. Progress is still slow but she loves school and has made new friends. She is in her second year there now and loves it. I feel like her soul was saved. I don’t know if it’s rigorous enough academically but we will get there. I just hope we can continue to pay for it for a few more years because I don’t think a large public school works.

[Anonymous]

The thing that helped my DC feel like he was keeping up with his peers was listening to audio books at his cognitive level. We also made sure he had audio books. He also has severe dysgraphia and getting the reader and scribe for all assessments and doing it at home with him for his homework helped immensely.

The audio books help increase vocabulary, increase background knowledge, help with learning increasingly complex characters and plots. We mined the Newberry Award and Honors books in addition to Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and all the half bloods have dyslexia) and for my DC -books with sports.

Sometimes, I put it on in the car when we were driving along to get him hooked on another book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most people I know either do intensive private tutoring with a trained dyslexia tutor (4x/week or something like that) after school or pull their kids from public to go to a private dyslexia-focused school. It's very expensive but the public services aren't great.

It takes a few years to gain ground.

Op: She is doing 1 hr x 4 times a week with the CALT. Progress is slow. Trying to figure out how to close the gap faster.

Think marathon and not sprint. My profoundly dyslexic DC took a very long time to get to a place where he could read ok but still very slow. He still has electronic text to speech textbooks and software accommodations in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is terrible with dyslexia from K-12. Accepting that helps. But socially our kid has done well in the public schools. This was important for her to be around friends and not be put at a school that only deals with LDs

What we have done:
-intensive tutoring for three years for reading and spelling
-writing tutor after the reading tutor to actually teach out to form sentences and write information. (FCPS does not teach this)
-IEP for team taught classes in MS and HS. Also for accommodations. We fought to keep the IEP over a 504.
-lots of audio books for the stories and the vocab
-eventually a math tutor for Calculus

Op: Thanks for the insights? Does your child have severe dyslexia?

Profound dyslexia diagnosed in 4th and dyscalculia found in 8th grade

[Anonymous]

My child has severe dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. She’s in 11th grade now, was privately diagnosed end of 1st grade( with only dyslexia, the others were added in 4th grade). We are in a Md school district. If I could go back in time, I would put her in a specialized school until the end of 8th grade and transition to public for HS.
IMO, a severely dyslexic child will not be well served in public and the idea that they will “ catch up” will also be difficult to achieve, especially if they struggle with memory, math and potentially writing. My child will always have a gap, specifically with rote memory and it will impact her in many ways.
I completely underestimated the social difficulties faced by kids with LDs, specifically in MS and it has been a continual issue in many ways for our child. A supportive environment in a specialized school has really been beneficial as she figured out her strengths and has to advocate for herself as well as using resources to overcome things that are difficult for her. The specialized schools aren’t perfect but it has been the best all around supportive environment for our child,
Asdec is incredible and the best program by far that my child was to exposed to for reading /spelling.
I hated when people told me this is a marathon not a sprint when she was younger but it is so true. It is a long process to remediate severe dyslexia and it is impactful for life. Best of luck to you and her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi Op - very similar story here. In 2nd grade we worked with a great ASDEC tutor 4x a week. Progress was slow but there was progress. We had great teachers that were trying. Fast forward to third grade and everything fell apart. The teacher did not understand my child’s challenges and my child also really became aware of her own challenges. My once happy kids began to cry in the mornings before school and was just generally down. The school also dropped the ball on consistently pulling her out and having an aid push in when needed. My kid is severely dyslexic but bright so she was fully aware of how behind she was falling. Confidence took a huge hit even though she had a tight group of friends. We took her out mid year and enrolled her in a private school for dyslexia. You could visibly see the relief she felt that first week. Progress is still slow but she loves school and has made new friends. She is in her second year there now and loves it. I feel like her soul was saved. I don’t know if it’s rigorous enough academically but we will get there. I just hope we can continue to pay for it for a few more years because I don’t think a large public school works.

Op: Thanks for replying. What school did you move her to? Do you still have her go to tutoring with the ASDEC tutor?

[Anonymous]

McLean School has been amazing for my dyslexic son ( grade 3). Not limiting socially either. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

I know a girl who went to Oakwood and then started at a large public high school and is doing very well. It’s important to educate your child about dyslexia and keep reminding them that they are not alone and lots of kids Wyeth that profile are successful, while acknowledging that it is very hard and not fair.