Is dyslexia hard to diagnose?
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Anonymous
Yes, DC was "lucky" enough to qualify. |
Anonymous
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Hmm. There's clearly 'something' so follow your gut. I am dyslexic and very organized, never had inattention issues and not at all spatial... not good at outloud reading or spelling and bad handwriting (but grew up to be a professional writer). I think the point is it can present/manifest very differently for different people -- and if she has strengths and weaknesses, it seems worth it as a parent to try to figure out how to provide a boost to help with the trouble spots. It is very expensive for the private neuro-evals but would be worth the investment to me.
I have been trying to track my kindergartener b/c genetics give an added chance of having it. When she was learning to read, did she do things like 'tap words' and phonetics ok? I thought this book was good & had some 'at home' initial signs to look for lists - but also had good background on how brains learn to read: https://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Dyslexia-Complete-Science-Based-Problems/dp/0679781595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467899503&sr=8-1&keywords=overcoming+dyslexia+shaywitz I actually have been 'popping in' to talk to his teachers about what I've seen and also with the reading specialist at the school to push on it and engage them about how and what they look for and got them talking about their training on the issue etc - but it's the type of school where you can do that. Also, others on this board had suggested going to a place called Lindamood Bell for an evaluation which is a private tutoring (not sure if it's the method mentioned above) but given your child is gifted and struggling, sound like it might be worth trying first (not sure the cost) to see if/what they flag -- although it's a controversial track to some. Good luck. |
Anonymous
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PP here - just to also mention, instead of the IQ as 'masking' something, that the term the educators seem to use is 'compensating'.
I grew up in the era before they knew as much about dyslexia and they also often taught 'whole word' reading vs. phonics then as a reading approach generally. |
Anonymous
It could be executive function disorder. |
Anonymous
| My husband has ADD (no H) - and as an adult having gone to lots of different doctors over time - I would say the diagnoses for many of these things are more 'art' than science. I try to focus for my kids on the issues they are having & how to help those vs. the label. The therapies and strategy building or tutoring. |
Anonymous
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OP, I'm the reading tutor/teacher who frequently posts about ABCDarian. I have had very good results with gifted children who are having difficulty decoding. (Usually they stink at spelling and they are losing confidence in reading because they know something just isn't making sense.) These kids often can move very quickly through the program and you do not need to do any expensive testing or get the school to do the remediation.
In my opinion, it is dirt cheap compared with many programs geared for kids with dyslexia. Any thinking parent should be able to buy the teacher guides and do this remediation at home; it is very common sense and understandable in my opinion. If you do it at home you can move SO MUCH FASTER than you can if you hire an expensive specialized tutor unless you enter your child in one of those all month programs that cost thousands of dollars. So many times, gifted kids who had lagging skills in phonemic manipulation in preK and K managed to learn to read by memorizing sight words and word parts. But they didn't learn to decode efficiently and they start to struggle at about the 3rd grade reading level. Most of them have caught up in phonemic manipulation ability by grade 3, but teachers are no longer teaching decoding at this point. Sometimes it is a VERY simple process to go back to basics -- you just have to get over their resistance to doing the easy, baby words...and you need to use nonsense words for them to decode instead of real words, because they have memorized the real words by sight. www.abcdrp.com This program is made up of workbooks, but it is not a bunch of worksheets. You sit with your child constantly and provide direct immediate feedback as she does the program. The workbooks guides you in what to do, and the teacher's manual will explain the correct type of feedback to make. It is the best resource I have ever used and if you follow it it has a high chance of success. Personally I have only once found a child with severe learning disabilities who did not learn to read with this program. This child had Rapid Automatic Naming Deficit that was very severe. It took him so long to remember that the letter "m" said /m/ and then that the letter "a" said /a/ and that the letter "t" said /t/ that he was unable to remember the first sound in order to blend all three sounds together to say /mat/. This child simply didn't make any progress with blending with me. My other students who were diagnosed with even severe phonological processing disorder made great progress, even having their disorder "undiagnosed". Some of them took a lot longer at the first level than others, but once they mastered level A they moved quickly through the program. I just want to share this option with you and others because I feel it is so beneficial, and very thrifty compared with other options. |
Anonymous
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ABCDarian tutor again:
Here is the ABCDarian placement test along with the directions for assessment. I suggest giving the test first to a friend or neighbor once before assessing your child. http://www.abcdrp.com/samples/ABCDAssessment.pdf If you want to give it to your child, and have any questions, feel free to post her results and I will give you my advice on what could be going on and how to remediate it. I find this test especially the use of nonsense words, to be ample information in pinpointing where decoding errors are occuring. |
Anonymous
| My DD is 8 and was recently tested. I'll have to dig the reports out, but she basically scored like a dyslexic would on the tests but then read and comprehended at a 6th grade level. Therefore, according to the psych, she is not dyslexic. However, she writes on grade level or a little lower--but not low enough to get a diagnosis of DWE. She has a very high IQ. One of the evaluators called it even before getting the WISC done. |
Anonymous
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Strongly recommend MindWell in Chantilly. They specialize in dyslexia but also were able to assess for executive functioning and anxiety.
We were recommended to them through ASDEC, DDVa, Susan Barton, and our pediatrician! Really helpful and now we know what to do. Good luck. www.mindwell.us |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
That's who we went to ... and they also have me info on the IEE process. We were very happy with the thoroughness of the testing and the report. |
Anonymous
Me again ... regarding the report, they will write it and work with you to be in the best position to get appropriate accommodations from your school. Which would probably be valuable getting services for a gifted child. |
Anonymous
| Mindwell may be able to make recommendations for public school accommodations and ieps, but understand the vast majority of parents of dyslexic students in FCPS are highly dissatisfied. Most parents will enroll their children in private school or pay for OG tutoring since FCPS fails to identify and serve dyslexic students. Beware and talk to other parents. Your child will slip through the cracks in FCPS. |
Anonymous
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I agree with this comment about FCPS.
We were a military family moving into the area, so we had to go to summer clinic for our IEP. The most memorable experience from summer clinic IEP meeting for us was when the FCPS representative told us that it doesn't matter if we think that our daughter has dyslexia, that they would try non-OG supports first. (We brought very detailed neuropsych reports with us, along with a history of success with OG interventions.) They actually wrote in the notes- "Mother insists that we record daughter's diagnosis of dyslexia although it is irrelevant to the services being offered." We chose to enroll our child in private school. And it is like a riot whenever FCPS runs a session on dyslexia at the parent education center. The stories you hear are terrifying. But this does seem to vary by school a bit. |
Anonymous
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I would discourage any parent of a child with any reading disability to move to Fairfax County. It is a nightmare for families trying to get their children help. Meanwhile, their children lose self esteem, start acting out, hate school, and become anxious and depressed.
To answer your original question, no, dyslexia is not difficult to diagnose. There are free screeners available online. FCPS chooses not to offer dyslexia screenings. This should be a red flag to parents. |