Dyslexia in the upper grades

[Anonymous]

Our son is dyslexic and reading / writing / spelling are all problem areas. He’s only in 5th grade and he’s working with a tutor and speech therapist. Is there ever a turning point where this stuff clicks for a child or will all things academic be a struggle forever? It’s hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel and I simply can’t imagine him ever reading complex texts or completing lengthy written assignments. I would be interested in hearing any stories of how things went for your child in high school and beyond if your child had either intensive interventions or tutoring in the lower grades.

[Anonymous]

My daughter went to Siena. At Siena, they say your child will always be dyslexic, but will compensate with strategies. They really discourage the idea that you outgrow dyslexia. My DD had intensive intervention in the younger grades and then went to Siena in the later grades. She is now succeeding at college, but definitely utilizes tutors, etc. She is not getting straight As by any means, but is hanging in there. I think Siena teaches a pride in the struggle and an acceptance of ones neurological profile. It is what it is - you have to take what you have and go as far as you can!!

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure what to say here.

Both my boys are dyslexic. They will never be straight A students. Their spelling and typos will always be a problem.

They can't read dense text if it is boring, but they can if it interests them.

My oldest is at a very good college, reading a ton of material and writing lengthy assignments. He will get B's and C's. (hopefully) If he fails out, he will come home, go to MD and take a lighter (3-4 classes) course load. He will never follow the path of his friends. It might take 5 or 6 years to graduate, idk. Things will always be harder. Somehow, he is a leader among his group, he has amazing social skills and can do good enough to hang with great students.

My youngest is still in HS. He gets A's and B's and might be getting a C this year (junior). He will go to an SEC type college. He is good at math so probably will do accounting or finance. Probably won't be great, ever at writing papers. He will probably exceed at Excel spreadsheets.

I am dyslexic, I got mostly B's and C's in college. I have a good job in IT.

I want to give you hope but I don't want to be unrealistic. Keep up with the tutor, be realistic about what is a "good" grade. Stay positive, give them love and support.

There are very few things (besides catastrophic illnesses and injuries) more challenging than being dyslexic.

[Anonymous]

A couple more comments from 11:16 above:

1) does your child have a talent? Music, art, sports, bridge, math? Really capitalize on that.

2) it is not such a bad thing to have to work extra hard at something. My DD knows she has to work hard at her college classes, that she can’t procrastinate and pull all nighters. She knows she needs to frequent the profs’ office hours and utilize the writing center. There are a lot of kids who slide through high school and even college, getting good grades without working very hard. Such kids don’t know what to do when a challenge comes, but my dd does because she has always had to work extra hard.

3) Optimally, going through this struggle leads to empathy for others. The other poster mentioned her son having good social skills. My daughter also has good social skills - I think this is connected to the life experiences of at least some people with dyslexia.

[Anonymous]

My mom and brother have dyslexia, as does my own son. My mom struggled through school and had terrible self-esteem because she never got diagnosed or received the help she needed. She is smart, intuitive, and has a great personality and has done well in sales. My brother, thanks to my Mom, received great services and my parents really boosted his self-esteem by getting him involved in sports, etc. He found school difficult but did well in college and does very well professionally in an IT field. At 35, he leads a team of 20 and is a apparently a gifted leader and creative thinker. Success may need to look different for your child than what you previously imagined.

[Anonymous]

My DC has dyslexia and dysgraphia. Academics has not been an issue but learning how to access the academics was a slow road. It comes with many accommodations including audio books, text to speech software, word prediction software, extra time on assessments, priority seating, reader/scribe, teacher notes, four function calculator... with those my DC was able to access the curriculum. It also meant we were his scribe and reader at home until he was fully on technology which took until the start of his junior year of HS. In college, he still has most of his accommodations and it is working well. In HS he took Honors and AP (8) classes, except for English which was team taught.

[Anonymous]

Both my son and I are dyslexic. He is in 6th and writing hasn't clicked, but his teacher says he is no worse than many other 6th grade boys. He writes lovely poetry and stories when he wants to. Creative writing was always fun for me, but spelling and handwriting were a nightmare (still are). It took a very long time for essay writing to click - mid college, I'd guess, and I was an English major! Reading clicked for me in 4th. But I am still dyslexic - poor working memory, terrible spelling, etc.

[Anonymous]

My 2nd grader now uses speech to text software in school. This has enabled him to access writing in ways that were shut down before. Last year he sat and did nothing during writing unless a teacher was with him. Now he grabs his ipad and sets him self up to participate in class like his classmates. I was shocked at the volume he was able to produce!

If your child is not using this - please get it into their IEPs as an accommodation.

[Anonymous]

My fifth grader was diagnosed in the spring with dyslexia. With a phonics-based tutor twice a week, her reading has really improved. She still won't sit and read a chapter book for fun, but sometimes she will read a graphic novel. Her spelling and writing are somewhat improved. But school is a struggle, despite the fact she can read above grade level. Having read what others posted, I expect school will never be what she excels at (she also struggles with math). But a friend's brother is dyslexic. He is very successful and runs his own business! So many people with dyslexia achieve great things. I know my daughter will, too, but I also know, already, that it is never going to "click" for her at school and be the easy road it was for me, or for her older siblings. It's always going to be a struggle, and I think she will always have to compensate (as others said) for the dyslexia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My fifth grader was diagnosed in the spring with dyslexia. With a phonics-based tutor twice a week, her reading has really improved. She still won't sit and read a chapter book for fun, but sometimes she will read a graphic novel. Her spelling and writing are somewhat improved. But school is a struggle, despite the fact she can read above grade level. Having read what others posted, I expect school will never be what she excels at (she also struggles with math). But a friend's brother is dyslexic. He is very successful and runs his own business! So many people with dyslexia achieve great things. I know my daughter will, too, but I also know, already, that it is never going to "click" for her at school and be the easy road it was for me, or for her older siblings. It's always going to be a struggle, and I think she will always have to compensate (as others said) for the dyslexia.

But it is also her super power. Because the way her brain works, she might see patterns or connections that others do not.

[Anonymous]

My husband is Dyslexic, and he’s one of the most successful entrepreneurs in our area. He always jokes and says I can’t spell to save my life, but i’ll Just hire people to do it for me so he can focus on running my business. He’s a genius at what he does, and has his whole corporate office running all the reports, spreadsheets for him. To be inspired please read the Dyslexia Advantage book on amazon. I subscribe to their online magazine I get digitally monthly. After reading those I want to be Dyslexic. Instead on focusing on everything that’s perceived to be wrong with them they focus on all the things that are right with them., and how amazing their brain works, and how successful thry’ll Be with a good support system.

The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452297923/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_i_.68bCb4MENEAW

https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org
Join their premium membership and it changes the way you view your child! You see them as having super powers that only kids with these kinds of brains will have., and they go on to tell you all the current and past inventors, creators, that change the world with their kind of brain.

[Anonymous]

More from 11:16 above.

The guy who founded Honest Tea has an inspiring spiel on dyslexia. I don’t believe he is dyslexic, but his son and other relatives are. He talks about the “grit” which the dyslexic exhibits to learn to read is the same “grit” needed to start a successful business.

This is not to say it is easy to be dyslexic or that all dyslexics succeed in some noteworthy way, but do capitalize on your child’s strengths and think outside the box in terms of his/her future!!

[Anonymous]

NP here. So for those people with dyslexia who are in IT, are you able to learn code? I think with how my child processes reading that coding would be just as difficult. And for accounting, I know it's numbers, but there must be some words in those spreadsheets? I want to help my child on the right path and show him some options now, especially since these days it seems the kids have to specialize and choose their careers even as they're applying to college!

[Anonymous]

I have a friend with dyslexia who's a couple months away from finishing her PhD dissertation in the humanities. Choosing a major and a career really depends on the individual, and it seems too early to steer towards a couple of fields based on dyslexia.

Accounting is a snooze fest and involves memorizing a lot of arbitrary seeming rules, and will be largely taken over by computers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. So for those people with dyslexia who are in IT, are you able to learn code? I think with how my child processes reading that coding would be just as difficult. And for accounting, I know it's numbers, but there must be some words in those spreadsheets? I want to help my child on the right path and show him some options now, especially since these days it seems the kids have to specialize and choose their careers even as they're applying to college!

For my DC, with profound dyslexia, he has learned Python at school and has done well. He is slower at the typing out of it though.

For people with dyslexia, they tend to learn the jargon they need to in their niche job. The words become sight words. They will still have trouble reading things that are outside of their niche, but with text to speech getting better and better, it is coming lesson an issue.

My DC is in his sophomore year of college and is majoring in math with addtional interests in physics and evolutionary biology. He gets the accommodations he needs to be able to do the work. It also helps that at his school, students typically take four classes each semester.