When DC gets older- highly recommend a Grammerly account!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was super verbal as a baby and toddler and curious and loved stories and books. He flew under the radar until 1st grade when he still couldn’t read at all. We had him tested and then started 3x/week specialized dyslexia intervention.

Academic challenges popped up all through his academic career even after he could read on grade level. Mostly due to profound working memory deficits, which go along with his dyslexia but not every dyslexic has. The memory issues are much more challenging for his academic success than the phonological and orthographic deficits. Those we remediated - the working memory issue is forever (I’ve got it too - pain in the a$$).

He is in college now and stressing that he’ll fail microeconomics. Sigh. That aside he is successful and happy, it’s just always a bit of a bumpy road.

What has helped your son (and you) combat the working memory challenges? This seems to be what most greatly affects my DS as well. Did you consider specialized schools like Lab?

To be honest the working memory hasn't gotten better for either of us. It is something we live with and work around. It is super difficult in many school settings. Outside of school it really isn't a problem for either one of us. It leads to some of the ability to see the forest for the trees that dyslexics are known for, I think. I UNDERSTAND things - concepts, ideas, feelings, etc. - but I can't recall things like dates, names, disconnected facts. It requires me to focus on big things, not small things, and so I'm really good at strategy and vision and leadership. I say all of that to give you hope that your kid is going to be just fine! In real life the working memory isn't some horrible disadvantage.

We thought about a school like Lab, yes. But my son was in a school he really loved and had great friends. He loves sports and is incredibly social, and so we prioritized keeping him in a school where he enjoyed the social/sports part of school enough to get him there every day.

His grades in middle school and high school weren't great, but good enough to get into a solid college and he is now doing really well in classes where rote memorization isn't needed. So he'll major in something that isn't memory heavy - paradoxically, it he could be an English major in the end.

Anonymous wrote:My son was super verbal as a baby and toddler and curious and loved stories and books. He flew under the radar until 1st grade when he still couldn’t read at all. We had him tested and then started 3x/week specialized dyslexia intervention.

Academic challenges popped up all through his academic career even after he could read on grade level. Mostly due to profound working memory deficits, which go along with his dyslexia but not every dyslexic has. The memory issues are much more challenging for his academic success than the phonological and orthographic deficits. Those we remediated - the working memory issue is forever (I’ve got it too - pain in the a$$).

He is in college now and stressing that he’ll fail microeconomics. Sigh. That aside he is successful and happy, it’s just always a bit of a bumpy road.

What has helped your son (and you) combat the working memory challenges? This seems to be what most greatly affects my DS as well. Did you consider specialized schools like Lab?

Thank you for the helpful feedback.

To add from an above post, OG private tutoring four times a week. It’s really the best if you can possibly afford it.

FCPS was terrible for our dyslexic smart kid. Elementary school ignored all the signs and basically passed her along.

Finally after being gaslit for two years we got private testing (took a year to get off the list) and it was much worse than I had expected.

Private OG tutoring for almost three years got her to be able to read on grade level. As a HSer now- she does well but FCPS is still terrible about honors classes, accommodations, etc... Terrible.

Good luck. Best advice is to not listen to anything FCPS says.

My son was super verbal as a baby and toddler and curious and loved stories and books. He flew under the radar until 1st grade when he still couldn’t read at all. We had him tested and then started 3x/week specialized dyslexia intervention.

Academic challenges popped up all through his academic career even after he could read on grade level. Mostly due to profound working memory deficits, which go along with his dyslexia but not every dyslexic has. The memory issues are much more challenging for his academic success than the phonological and orthographic deficits. Those we remediated - the working memory issue is forever (I’ve got it too - pain in the a$$).

He is in college now and stressing that he’ll fail microeconomics. Sigh. That aside he is successful and happy, it’s just always a bit of a bumpy road.

The best advice I received when my child was diagnosed was this: don’t rely on the FCPS alone for remediation.

The real progress came from outside support. My child does four hours a week of 1:1 tutoring with a CALT, and without that, he would be in a very different place academically.

If you can, I strongly recommend working with a OG certified tutor (not just trained) or a CALT so you’re not wasting time or money. And do as many sessions as your budget comfortably allows — it truly makes a difference.

We also have a 2E kid. In early elementary was highly verbal but just couldn’t read. Really big disconnect.

I think paying for a private neuropsych test is worth every penny. Personally I would not depend on the school.

I have two children with dyslexia in FCPS, and their profiles are very different.

Oldest child: His biggest sign was struggling with reading, consistently testing just below the 50th percentile. He scored 145 on the COGAT in second grade, and we noticed a clear gap between his cognitive ability and reading skills. The school wouldn’t test him (not “low enough”), so we pursued outside testing, and he was diagnosed as 2E, with mild dyslexia.


Youngest: He showed all the classic signs—late talking, difficulty rhyming, couldn’t recognize letters in his name, and didn’t learn all the letters until late first grade. The school tested him in first grade, started reading intervention, and outside testing confirmed moderate dyslexia.

Dyslexia can manifest very differently since it’s a spectrum—each child can have unique strengths and challenges.

FCPS won’t provide a formal medical diagnosis, but they can evaluate for a reading learning disability and may say something like “the child’s profile is consistent with a reading disability.” We had to go outside the school system to get an official diagnosis.
What grade is your child in?

K–2 students are tested with VALLSS, which I’ve found to be much more informative than i-Ready for early reading skills. Students flagged as high risk (like my child) should receive 2.5 hours a week of reading intervention per the new literacy act in VA.

For older grades, if a student has not passed the Reading SOL, the school typically must give VALLSS as well.


If your child hasn’t had VALLSS, I’d request it. Based on those results, you can decide whether to ask for a full evaluation next.

If your DC has dyslexia, what challenges did they exhibit in school.

If you are in FCPS, does the school evaluation for special education test for dyslexia?