I think my five year old is Dyslexic - I want to get him tested.

[Anonymous]

We just moved to the area over the summer, and my eldest turned five. He started Kindergarten in September and now we find in Feburary he is struggling to recognize certain numbers and letters. We are SO surprised as this kid has amazing social skills, is mature beyond his years and people are always telling me how 'sharp' he is. When I stop and really am honest, I think he has become very clever at diverting attention away from tasks needed to do and changing the task to something he knows and is comfortable with; one he remembers. I want to get him tested to see if my gut instinct is correct and get him the help he needs. Does anyone know of a really good doctor who could help us?

[Anonymous]

I could have written your post. same exact experience. one suggestion, there are some online tests/quizzes that may help diagnos. I would ask the school, but they keep mentioning ADD which is completely not the issue. I am not expert, but they are definitely not picking up on what I am with the little research I've done.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I would follow your instinct and get him tested. Our DD, now age 10, was just like this. Young for grade but very bright and "wise beyond her years." I was surprised she was taking so long to read "Mat and Sam" books in K, but chalked it up to being young for grade. Then we were shocked in 1st grade when the teacher informed us mid-year that DD was behind in reading and should consider joining the remedial reading group after school. Her spelling also looked like that of the cow from the Chik Fil A ads. By second grade she failed the spelling pre-assessment and was put into the lower reading and math groups. It was taking her forever to do pretty basic homework. I began to doubt that DD was in fact ever as bright as we had thought in K.

In the Fall of second grade she took the standardized testing for the gifted program at our school. She scored in the 99th percentile for nonverbal reasoning, and 96th percentile overall for cognitive reasoning. We had a full neuropsych eval done and she has a 97th percentile IQ, with 99th percentile in auditory processing, but less than 1 percentile in visual processing. By the time we had the testing done, DD was reading and writing at grade level. (Spellling was still abysmially low.) However, the academic testing showed she was very advanced in all reasoning categories (reading comp, mathmatical reasoning, etc.) but below average in the basics, such as phonemic awareness, math computation, etc. Her main problem is she has trouble with symbolic memory, e.g., irregulary spellings, math symbols, keeping math computation steps straight, etc.

I wish we'd had her tested much earlier, as she was really beginning to develop anxiety about knowing she was "smart" but not being able to be successful at the basic stuff all the other kids breezed through.

She is in 5th grade now and has done well in the AAP program at her school for the past three years. She has accomodations in an 504, but they really don't amount to much. AAP has been difficult at times, but she's learned to compensate for and push through her challenges and is proud of herself for what she's accomplished.

[Anonymous]

He is too young to be diagnosed with dyslexia, OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He is too young to be diagnosed with dyslexia, OP

No. He's not. It's diagnosable by a psychologist. This is a neurological problem that can be detected on tests. OP, I would get him tested as soon as possible. I waited because my son's teachers said that it was too early to say, even though I have many dyslexics in the family, and I know what it looks like. It was a mistake. Testing sooner and getting tutoring sooner would have saved both of us some headaches.


Also, don't confuse "dyslexic" with "slow" or "stupid." My DS has a tested IQ of 142. He's also dyslexic and dysgraphic. After receiving tutoring, he is reading at a lexile level at the 99%.

[Anonymous]

OP - you may find the ASDEC website useful - they have a number of links to good website that give dyslexia resources.

http://www.asdec.org/

[Anonymous]

You can ask the school or go private--psycho-educational or neuropsychological evaluation.

[Anonymous]

This is 16:00 again. While it may be the case that diagnosis is typically made at an older age (our DD was a young 8 year old when diagnosed), the red flag was waving in our face for years before we had her tested. Even in K, her performance was noticably behind that of her peers (e.g., the writings that are posted up outside the classroom for all to see) and reading was painfully slow.

OP, if your DS is too young for diagnosis, you wouldn't want to lose traction in helping to address his weaknesses. The fact that he is othewise bright and curious is a red flag. For example, our DD LOVED stories but hated reading. She always wanted us to read to her, but would cry when she had to do the reading, because her reading ability was so out of line with her reading comprehension. (By third grade, she figured it out and is now a voracious reader.)

One thing you could do at this stage is call ASDEC, explain your situation, and see if they would do an assessment and possibly tutoring at this stage. The tutors there are experienced in working with dyslexics and likely can provide advice. I woudn't expect your school to provide any assistance at this point, but you could ask your teacher what she thinks. Is she suprised that your DS is having trouble remembering letters and numbers, given his other abilities? What would she recommend to help in this area?

Some things that might be useful to try at home are:

- Continue to read a lot to your child. Make sure he's accustomed to the look, feel and sound of books, even if reading is not comfortable for him. Help to make books a habit for him.

- Figure out how your DS learns best and apply that method to memorizing letters and numbers. If your DS is more auditory or tactile, rather than visual, you could form letters with clay and make sure you verbally repeat the name and sound of each letter, and talk about workds that start with that letter sound.

- Practice memorizing numbers by using concrete objects, such as buttons or poker chips, etc. and count out how much is 5, how much is 10, etc. Given your son's strong reasoning skills, explaining what the number means is likely to resonate with him.

You might also want to call the Lindamood Bell center in NW DC and get their thoughts on your DS' situation. They have fantastic summer programs for remediating dyslexia. Your DS may be on the young side for this, but if he is like our DD, he is mature for age and highly "teachable." I'm sure you can tell from my posts that I really wish we'd done this for DD much earlier than we did, to spare her several years of feeling lost at sea until we knew what was going on.

[Anonymous]

Sound exactly like my kindergarten boy!!!! Don't wait. Never heard a parent say, "Boy, am I glad I waited I waited to diagnose my kid's learning disability." Also, what's the worst that happens...you find out he is fine? Doesn't sound likely anyhow...he sounds too bright to have this problem without an ld of some kind.

Would not waste my time trying to get the school to test if you think the problem is dyslexia. The testing for dyslexia is best done with a full neuropsychological exam, and the school's testing will not be adequate in many cases. If you have the means Stixrud's group is great. We had a neuropsych for our daughter with Elliot Blumenstein and loved him too. These private practitioner's do not take insurance though...just reimbursement. We got very little for ours and had to pay several thousand out of pocket.

If money is an issue, Children's and Kennedy Krieger take insurance. KK told us we are approved for 85% coverage. I have heard good things, and we get my son's testing in a few weeks. I think it was a 3 month wait, but you will find longer elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He is too young to be diagnosed with dyslexia, OP

No. He's not. It's diagnosable by a psychologist. This is a neurological problem that can be detected on tests. OP, I would get him tested as soon as possible. I waited because my son's teachers said that it was too early to say, even though I have many dyslexics in the family, and I know what it looks like. It was a mistake. Testing sooner and getting tutoring sooner would have saved both of us some headaches.


Also, don't confuse "dyslexic" with "slow" or "stupid." My DS has a tested IQ of 142. He's also dyslexic and dysgraphic. After receiving tutoring, he is reading at a lexile level at the 99%.

I work with a number of psychologists and they don't like to do the testing / diagnosis until age 6 or 7 for learning disabilities. They get a much better picture at that age then they would at 4 or 5 and retesting is costly so it isn't something most parents want to do every year.

[Anonymous]

Regarding what the immediately prior poster said, even if age 5 is "too young" to formally diagnose, you may still want to start contacting ASDEC, Lindamood Bell or other organization that works with dyslexics and can help provide advice about what steps you can be taking now to address what you are seeing as an obvious issue. If you go with Childrens or KK, you should start getting on the appropriate waiting lists now, as it can take months until you actually get a testing appointment, and your appointment will be a few months out from there.

[Anonymous]

While ASDEC is a great resource, their academic therapists cannot diagnose a learning disability such as dyslexia. A psychologist must do that. What does your child's teacher say about his progress?

[Anonymous]

Our kid was diagnosed at 6, so you could wait until the fall to have him tested. (Also, if it does turn out that he's dyslexic, ease up on relating how surprised you were and how bright he is in other ways. If it's in front of other parents, you'll annoy them; if it's in front of him, you'll give him a complex.)

[Anonymous]

Read The Dyslexic Advantage. You'll see all the wonderful things that go along with all the school struggles DC is having. That book took a 1000 lb weight right off my shoulders, as I recognized all the amazing things he could do since his brain was "different" not "worse".

[Anonymous]

OP here. His teacher is concerned and is seeing the same. He is making progress but really, really slowly. I have not shared my suspicions with her just yet. We are meeting with the committee at the school in a few weeks to discuss techniques and ideas to help him. I certainly have already eased up on the whole "he's so bright, this can't be" kind of attitude. He is the most amazing person, like I say, has an incredible awareness and maturity; an ability to discuss concepts and an imagination that so many people observe as ridiculously advanced for a 5 year old. He is so talented in so many ways, but I asked him to write his numbers 1-10 today and he completely could not get "8" or "10". And reading tonight we were looking at the sight words he should recognize and he just could not get the likes of "It" or "as". Since I have had the 'aha' moment and realised something is up, I have also stopped saying "Come on, we KNOW this" because we had gone over it numerous times before. All very new to us but it is very reassuring to read your experiences and advice. THANK YOU.