Does my kid have dyslexia? Does it matter?

[Anonymous]

My kid has pretty significant dyslexia and we had been doing daily remediation tutoring for 5 months with almost no progress... until he was medicated for his ADHD. It's not that he had ADHD and NOT dyslexia - he has both. But without medicating the ADHD, he couldn't get past the "distraction" to actually let the remediation lessons sink in and to learn to read. Within six months of starting the ADHD meds (and remediation ongoing) he was at least at the very bottom edge of "normal" and within 18 months of that he was actually getting an "advanced pass" on the reading SOL. But he still very much has dyslexia. With the meds on board, he's been able to learn how to decode, but he still reads slowly and his spelling is abysmal.

I'd guess that if the reading issues were fixed in as short as a week of starting meds, then that's not dyslexia. But it's also pretty uncommon for good testers to find dyslexia when it isn't there, so keep an eye on it, maybe there are some challenges that you want to be aware of in case they come up as school gets harder in future years.

[Anonymous]

Who did the most recent testing level? The school? A clinician? What was their process? Was there a process for testing or were they just observing your child read early in the school year? What type of school is it public, private, specialized? Is it an academically strong school or one that is used to recognizing potential Learning disabilities? I would give it a few more months and then see what the school says. It may also be useful to take the child off medication for a short while and see how the reading is and maybe just assess before and after. It's also possible the testing was wrong, people spend a lot of money on private testing and sometimes the testing just doesn't fit the child especially those with attention or language issues. And it's possible the child was just a late reader. But it can go both ways. We know someone who had a child who was not a late reader but a slow one that was tested by the school system and they missed the dyslexia which became a much bigger problem in middle school. Interestingly,we moved from a small private to a very good public and are finding out that some of our child's grade level skills aren't as good as the previous school said it was. Not saying the school is inaccurate, but just watch it for awhile. Hopefully everything is good! Sounds like your child has made great progress.

[Anonymous]

My kid has dyslexia, and I have dyslexia, so I sympathize! I am also a super speedy reader with great comprehension, and I also learned to read in a flash sometime in second or third grade. I don't have ADHD, though. Brains are weird, and dyslexic brains are especially weird. I'd read Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz, just so you know more about what could challenge your kid. One thing to remember is that Dyslexia and ADHD travel together - they are very often found together.

I can't say what challenges your kid might face, but there are a quirky set of things that challenge me, still. Spelling. Working memory. Math facts. Remembering names, dates, and places that don't have personal memories associated with them. Remembering what I read (not understanding, but remembering) if it doesn't have a story or plot. But I am really, really good at making sense out of confusion, seeing high-level trends in messy data, and seeing the way ahead through uncertain situations. Those things are dyslexia, too.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that nice personal example of your strengths. I need to re-read that book.

You've inspired me to show my 8yo dyslexic/add child some of the cool data visualization work that is happening and talk about data science as a career path. She is always asking what she can be when she grows up and is increasingly tired of my "anything you want to be" answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for that nice personal example of your strengths. I need to re-read that book.

You've inspired me to show my 8yo dyslexic/add child some of the cool data visualization work that is happening and talk about data science as a career path. She is always asking what she can be when she grows up and is increasingly tired of my "anything you want to be" answer.

I would read about some "successful dyslexics" with her:
http://dyslexia.yale.edu/successfuldyslexics.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has dyslexia, and I have dyslexia, so I sympathize! I am also a super speedy reader with great comprehension, and I also learned to read in a flash sometime in second or third grade. I don't have ADHD, though. Brains are weird, and dyslexic brains are especially weird. I'd read Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz, just so you know more about what could challenge your kid. One thing to remember is that Dyslexia and ADHD travel together - they are very often found together.

I can't say what challenges your kid might face, but there are a quirky set of things that challenge me, still. Spelling. Working memory. Math facts. Remembering names, dates, and places that don't have personal memories associated with them. Remembering what I read (not understanding, but remembering) if it doesn't have a story or plot. But I am really, really good at making sense out of confusion, seeing high-level trends in messy data, and seeing the way ahead through uncertain situations. Those things are dyslexia, too.

OP here. Thanks so much for this very helpful post!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for that nice personal example of your strengths. I need to re-read that book.

You've inspired me to show my 8yo dyslexic/add child some of the cool data visualization work that is happening and talk about data science as a career path. She is always asking what she can be when she grows up and is increasingly tired of my "anything you want to be" answer.

Did you know that while people with dyslexia make up 10-15% of the population, 35% of entrepreneurs have dyslexia?

Proust and the Squid is also a good book for explaining the positive attributes of brain differences correlated with dyslexia. I also mentioned The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan by Ben Foss on another thread. A lot of that book is Ben's personal story and is good read. The audio book version is narrated by Ben himself and includes segment on how he did that which I found pretty impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have her read to you out loud. My dyslexic kid can read silently but when he reads out loud he pronounces all the word incorrectly and can't spell anything. It's weird because he comprehends everything just says the word incorrectly. It makes writing an issue.

What kind of tutoring?

I would do Orton Gillingham.

NP here - this is my son too. He can do beginning sounds, makes up the middle and sometimes gets the end. Comprehends above grade level, can't spell or write.

[Anonymous]

This is the adult dyslexic with the dyslexic child again. Cool that your daughter wonders what she can be when she grows up! The answer is, of course, the one you have given her. But it may seem far fetched to her now if she struggles. So she should know that she may have to work harder than other people at certain things. But sometimes that struggle leads to insights - dyslexics literally have to construct new brain pathways to read and do other tasks, and if you are on a new pathway...you see new things. And you see old things differently.

Take a look at the Dyslexic Advantage website and book. The book felt a little rah-rah dyslexia for me, but they also run an annual writing contest for young dyslexics that my child entered and won a prize. It did wonders for his feeling of what he could be...he can't yet spell, reads slowly, but he writes a mean poem.