Yes it’s upsetting - I remember being so surprised when DC was diagnosed how little school admin and teachers generally know about dyslexia even though it’s a relatively common learning disability. I felt like a crazy mom for being concerned because teachers told me DC was “fine” and “not the worst reader in the class”. Meanwhile DC misread simple words aloud (e.g. “and” instead of “but”) and cried over what seemed to me to be undemanding writing and spelling homework.

Good luck OP - you’re on the right track to support DC. It’s a marathon not a sprint.

Anonymous wrote:Seems tautological. Reading wrong words is dyslexia. The question is how to deal with it

Actually, reading wrong words could be tiredness, lack of good instruction, distraction. Dyslexia is an actual brain difference in how we process the tiny individual sounds in words, for the most part. Good readers like you and me make mistakes reading mistakes too - everyone does occasionally. There is a pattern with kids with dyslexia where they guess the word from context and it fits but has no relation to the sounds in the word. OP’s daughter read hand for arm. A good reader might make an error like army, or art, recognize it doesn’t make sense in context, and glance back at the word.

It’s just one clue - the actually diagnosis of dyslexia looks at the underlying processes, not just single word reading.

Seems tautological. Reading wrong words is dyslexia. The question is how to deal with it

How do you find someone for the diagnosis? I suspect my son is, but don't know who to reach out to

Just a PSA: my kid was just diagnosed with dyslexia. At the suggestion of someone here, I am reading Overcoming Dyslexia. If I had read this a year ago, I could have diagnosed my kid immediately. She tested as “on grade level” or “above grade level” for reading on standardized tests, but, when reading out loud, she often replaced words with words that were phonologically different but had a similar meaning. For example, she would read “Larla broke her arm” as “Larla broke her hand.” I thought she was just rushing, but now I see how this is a sign of dyslexia. Anyway, I suggest chapter 10 of this book—it clarified a lot.