Educational consultant for dyslexic rising 4th grader?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

I don't have any direct experience with Oakwood but I know people who swear by it. I would highly recommend you schedule a tour. Newton might also be an option if you're somewhere in that general area. Newton is not a school for LD but I'm pretty sure they use O-G based reading instruction and they integrate technology early.

Thanks so much. I have scheduled a meeting and tour with the Oakwood admissions person next week. That is interesting too re Newton. They were not on my radar. I will look into them. Thanks for your help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

Ugh! We certainly do NOT want that to happen! Thank you for telling me this! I will have to do some more looking into that, then. Thank you!!!

[Anonymous]

I have a DD in the same grade as yours that is probably stealth dyslexic too. I say probably, because I don't think that's a real diagnosis among many professionals--ours didn't mention it, but I've been aware of it.

I wanted to reccomend a thorough look at vision--specifically visual motor skills and visual perception skills. We found such glaring hole in DDs visual perception skills. it's as if she's completely blind in this one specific way to perceive the world (otherwise her visual perception is in the superior range). It obviously affects reading. And she looks dyslexic because she cannot properly orient letters or remember spelling or sound out words. But she will never get a dyslexia diagnosis because she reads extremely well. Also, it's my understanding dyslexia has little to do with vision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a DD in the same grade as yours that is probably stealth dyslexic too. I say probably, because I don't think that's a real diagnosis among many professionals--ours didn't mention it, but I've been aware of it.

I wanted to reccomend a thorough look at vision--specifically visual motor skills and visual perception skills. We found such glaring hole in DDs visual perception skills. it's as if she's completely blind in this one specific way to perceive the world (otherwise her visual perception is in the superior range). It obviously affects reading. And she looks dyslexic because she cannot properly orient letters or remember spelling or sound out words. But she will never get a dyslexia diagnosis because she reads extremely well. Also, it's my understanding dyslexia has little to do with vision.

Huh. That is a very good point. She has never been to an opthamologist. I should look into this if only to rule it out. Do you have one to recommend?

[Anonymous]

Hi I can recommend an amazing academic therapist who is trained herself in dyslexia and has excellent reading specialist working for her that have helped my son. I really prefer orton-gillingham but any multi sensory approach is great. My name is Sharon if you need further info. Lisa is with Imagine Possibility and my son is still working with her. Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi I can recommend an amazing academic therapist who is trained herself in dyslexia and has excellent reading specialist working for her that have helped my son. I really prefer orton-gillingham but any multi sensory approach is great. My name is Sharon if you need further info. Lisa is with Imagine Possibility and my son is still working with her. Best of luck!

Thank you so much!!! I am going to look her up!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a DD in the same grade as yours that is probably stealth dyslexic too. I say probably, because I don't think that's a real diagnosis among many professionals--ours didn't mention it, but I've been aware of it.

I wanted to reccomend a thorough look at vision--specifically visual motor skills and visual perception skills. We found such glaring hole in DDs visual perception skills. it's as if she's completely blind in this one specific way to perceive the world (otherwise her visual perception is in the superior range). It obviously affects reading. And she looks dyslexic because she cannot properly orient letters or remember spelling or sound out words. But she will never get a dyslexia diagnosis because she reads extremely well. Also, it's my understanding dyslexia has little to do with vision.

Huh. That is a very good point. She has never been to an opthamologist. I should look into this if only to rule it out. Do you have one to recommend?

I don't have any reccomendations for the DC area. We took part in a university program in another state. Part of the eval was done by developmental optometrists or behavioral optometrists. But I believe the assessment that most pinpointed the dysfunction, the MVPT-IV, was done by a psychologist or maybe an OT? Motor free visual perception I believe. it was very clear she had dysgraphia caused by a visual perception deficit compounded by visual motor integration. That is where she really struggles, so it was good to understand the root cause, and that was our focus last year.

When she was assessed by the school psych (just wisc and wiat) she did not qualify for an iep. She goes to a private school, and they refuse to give her extra help, and it's hard to argue, because she's doing really well.

[Anonymous]

You want to look up Developmental opthmalogists.......they will do a full evaluation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

Ugh! We certainly do NOT want that to happen! Thank you for telling me this! I will have to do some more looking into that, then. Thank you!!!

We found that to be true too. We ended up choosing our local public school as a result- we could not find any private school that matched our local public school in terms of math and science (science more in MS and HS). DC could get the advanced math and science courses he needed to be challenged and we did fought for what we could get in school on the reading/writing front and supplemented heavily at home with a 2-3 a week private reading tutor and daily "home" work with us. I would also suggest joining Learning Ally and Bookshare as those are ways to get audio books and textbooks. We found listening to audio books (and us reading them) at our DC's cognitive level (not reading level) helped continue increasing his vocabulary and understanding increasingly complex plot and character developments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

Ugh! We certainly do NOT want that to happen! Thank you for telling me this! I will have to do some more looking into that, then. Thank you!!!

We found that to be true too. We ended up choosing our local public school as a result- we could not find any private school that matched our local public school in terms of math and science (science more in MS and HS). DC could get the advanced math and science courses he needed to be challenged and we did fought for what we could get in school on the reading/writing front and supplemented heavily at home with a 2-3 a week private reading tutor and daily "home" work with us. I would also suggest joining Learning Ally and Bookshare as those are ways to get audio books and textbooks. We found listening to audio books (and us reading them) at our DC's cognitive level (not reading level) helped continue increasing his vocabulary and understanding increasingly complex plot and character developments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you say more about your daughter? Most dyslexic kids don't need a special school - I say this as a dyslexic myself and the mother of a dyslexic rising 5th grader. If she has covered her deficits thus far she probably isn't profoundly dyslexic, and my guess would be that you will be able to keep her in her normal school if she'd like.

The major danger with dyslexic kids is that they feel crappy about themselves and their abilities, since they have to work so hard and they think they are dumb. Get a kid help, let them know they have different brain wiring that comes with positives and negatives, and they are much more able to deal with the ups and downs.

Good luck, OP! Oh, and you might want to let your daughter check out the new Made by Dyslexia organization on Facebook - Richard Branson (dyslexic) started it to highlight the positive sides of dyslexia. My son likes seeing all the brilliant famous people who are also dyslexic.

Thanks. She has a form of dyslexia called "stealth dyslexia" https://www.understood.org/en/community-events/blogs/the-inside-track/2015/03/04/stealth-dyslexia-how-some-dyslexic-students-escape-detection so, while she can keep up now, it will be (and is) getting harder and harder for her as reading texts become more complicated, and writing expectations get higher. So, while she is hanging on by the skin of her teeth now, it's only with a ton of my hand-holding and heavy-lifting each afternoon when we sit down to do homework together. We've got to address this now, before she gets older. I am thinking if she were to spend a year or two at a place like Oakwood, perhaps then she could mainstream back into a regular classroom? The other problem is: she's not doing badly enough to get any IEP (we tried) and we also tried with her (parochial) school, and they are not equipped to really give any accommodations - ugh! So, we're kind of falling through the cracks here, if that makes any sense.

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

I don't have any knowledge/experience at Oakwood, but do have experience with another SN school that specializes in dyslexia. Our experience there was that grade level expectations were much lower than public school, which made switching back to public more difficult than it should have been. The SN school was telling us that DC was on or above grade level in all aspects, so it was a shock to switch to public and learn that she was on (not above) grade level in her strongest subject and below (not on) grade level in other subjects. We lost a year of instruction because of low expectations.

Ugh! We certainly do NOT want that to happen! Thank you for telling me this! I will have to do some more looking into that, then. Thank you!!!

We found that to be true too. We ended up choosing our local public school as a result- we could not find any private school that matched our local public school in terms of math and science (science more in MS and HS). DC could get the advanced math and science courses he needed to be challenged and we did fought for what we could get in school on the reading/writing front and supplemented heavily at home with a 2-3 a week private reading tutor and daily "home" work with us. I would also suggest joining Learning Ally and Bookshare as those are ways to get audio books and textbooks. We found listening to audio books (and us reading them) at our DC's cognitive level (not reading level) helped continue increasing his vocabulary and understanding increasingly complex plot and character developments.

Sorry, my response got lost somehow, so I am reposting it here:

Ok, so these are two arguments for better academics over all by staying in "regular" school and supplementing/tutoring as needed. I am really glad you guys are pointing this out to me. I originally was leaning the other way just b/c of the time factor. Timewise, it seemed better to get all the dyslexia "stuff" done during the regular school day, in a school such as Oakcrest, rather than having to squeeze in tutoring and other remedial help at home. My daughter also does ballet 4x/week and I am worried about how we can fit all this in 24 hours in one day.

[Anonymous]

I am also looking into the vision thing. So far three names keep popping up:

Dr. Kavita Malhotra: http://www.optometrists.org/drmalhotra/vision_therapy.html

Dr. G. Vike Vicente: https://www.edow.com/about/g-vike-vicente-md/

and

Drs. Stan and Bryce Applebaum: http://www.appelbaumvision.com/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am also looking into the vision thing. So far three names keep popping up:

Dr. Kavita Malhotra: http://www.optometrists.org/drmalhotra/vision_therapy.html

Dr. G. Vike Vicente: https://www.edow.com/about/g-vike-vicente-md/

and

Drs. Stan and Bryce Applebaum: http://www.appelbaumvision.com/

We went to Dr. Vicente. He and his office staff were beyond accommodating with my anxious child and I really appreciated that he didn't find any problems -- it didn't feel like he was a hammer looking for nails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also looking into the vision thing. So far three names keep popping up:

Dr. Kavita Malhotra: http://www.optometrists.org/drmalhotra/vision_therapy.html

Dr. G. Vike Vicente: https://www.edow.com/about/g-vike-vicente-md/

and

Drs. Stan and Bryce Applebaum: http://www.appelbaumvision.com/

We went to Dr. Vicente. He and his office staff were beyond accommodating with my anxious child and I really appreciated that he didn't find any problems -- it didn't feel like he was a hammer looking for nails.

Oh, that's great to know b/c I was wondering about that. I do not need to spend time or $$ on some other treatments if she really does not need them!