Anonymous
08/17/2025 17:30
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Someone diagnosed dyslexia in a five year old who hasn't started kindergarten yet? That is incredibly concerning. I would hold off on pursuing tutoring or extra supports and instead see how your child does in kindergarten reading instruction.
This surprises me, too. I've been told that first grade is the earliest it makes sense to evaluate. I was concerned about my daughter's reading in kindergarten and part of first and she began getting pulled for reading intervention. I asked about an evaluation and they chose to wait - I'm glad they did. Reading "clicked" for her partway through first grade with the reading interventions. I'm glad I didn't get a private evaluation because she may have been misdiagnosed because it really was just too early to tell.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 16:40
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
What are your child's goals/services for speech? That may also address some of the phonological processing issues.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 16:35
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Someone diagnosed dyslexia in a five year old who hasn't started kindergarten yet? That is incredibly concerning. I would hold off on pursuing tutoring or extra supports and instead see how your child does in kindergarten reading instruction.
I know you mean well, but you are wrong. Dyslexia is neurobiological. You can identify a dyslexic brain in an FMRI at 18 months. The core deficit in dyslexia is phonological, basically the ability to hear and separate individual sounds in the unbroken stream of speech. It is such a tiny thing, but it is essential to reading. If you can teach that skill before the child is taught phonics they have the possibility to learn to read “normally”. If they go into phonics instruction with the core deficit unremediated they can’t learn phonics. You need to be able to segment the speech sounds before you can’t map them to letters.
No, I'm not. For background, I am a psychologist and diagnose learning disabilities. First, just because something is neurobiological does not mean it can be identified at any age with brain scans. While there are certain neurological differences that we can see on scans, these differences are not diagnostic. This is true for many diagnoses (e.g., autism, depression). Second, phonological processing is core to dyslexia. However, early deficits in phonological processing may indicate children who are at risk for dyslexia, but are not enough to diagnose dyslexia. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in reading. If someone is not yet at an age where they can be developmentally expected to read (and have also not been in school yet), they cannot be reliably or validly diagnosed with dyslexia.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 16:15
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
My child had a speech delay due to multiple ear infections causing prolonged intermittent hearing loss. He was in speech therapy and could not blend or rhyme at age 4. Reading research I knew he was at a huge risk of having trouble learning how to read.
The most important thing I learned was he needed daily intervention. It wasn’t going to be enough 1-2 a week or even three times a week of intervention. And because we couldn’t afford to pay for hundreds of hours of tutoring AND there is a limit of how much a 4-5 year old can sit there and do work.
We ended up buying several reading/spelling programs. Then I sat down and worked with him every day -7 days a week for a year. I wrote it down on a calendar and it was 360 out of 365 days. Even if it was only 5-10 minutes it became like brushing teeth something you do every day.
And to motivate him because it was hard work he got stickers and earned prizes every Friday. We went to target and looked and Amazon so he was always working towards something. Days that were really hard for him he got candy/smoothie after reading (I put a gummy or mm chocolate on the periods so as soon as he read a sentence he got the candy.
I bought 100 easy lessons to start because they have some great say it fast say it slow
Exercises to work on blending. I bought All About Reading and All About Spelling which is an OG program (I just tweaked it so we skipped the short e words because 100 easy lessons works on long e first)
After 360 days he was 5 and reading. He had no problem blending orally when a year before he could not orally blend words or do any phonemic awareness activities.
I continued buying different curriculum throughout early elementary. The one to one really made the difference.,
The most important thing I learned was he needed daily intervention. It wasn’t going to be enough 1-2 a week or even three times a week of intervention. And because we couldn’t afford to pay for hundreds of hours of tutoring AND there is a limit of how much a 4-5 year old can sit there and do work.
We ended up buying several reading/spelling programs. Then I sat down and worked with him every day -7 days a week for a year. I wrote it down on a calendar and it was 360 out of 365 days. Even if it was only 5-10 minutes it became like brushing teeth something you do every day.
And to motivate him because it was hard work he got stickers and earned prizes every Friday. We went to target and looked and Amazon so he was always working towards something. Days that were really hard for him he got candy/smoothie after reading (I put a gummy or mm chocolate on the periods so as soon as he read a sentence he got the candy.
I bought 100 easy lessons to start because they have some great say it fast say it slow
Exercises to work on blending. I bought All About Reading and All About Spelling which is an OG program (I just tweaked it so we skipped the short e words because 100 easy lessons works on long e first)
After 360 days he was 5 and reading. He had no problem blending orally when a year before he could not orally blend words or do any phonemic awareness activities.
I continued buying different curriculum throughout early elementary. The one to one really made the difference.,
Anonymous
08/17/2025 15:23
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Read ‘Overcoming Dyslexia’ by Dr. Sally Shaywitz.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 14:29
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the club, OP! Your daughter is going to do fine, and it’s going to take some hard work on both of your parts.
Have you read any books about dyslexia yet? The classic is Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shawitz and it is still accurate and supportive and a best first step.
You almost certainly are going to need outside tutoring. The most effective is known as academic language therapy, and you can either search for one (search Google for academic language therapist or CALT or go to ALTAread.org) or you can contact ASDEC, our local resource for academic language therapy.
Your school may also have a list of dyslexia providers. You’ll want to check credentials, though, and knowing what to look for can be confusing.
What did the neuropsych report specifically recommend/refer you to?
Thank you. Extremely helpful.
She recommended text to speech, reading intervention programs, such as ortho gillingham, as well as learning to type asap
Of these three, I would start with the reading intervention. She actually needs to learn how to read and write before you start text to speech or learning how to type. I would not rely on the school for this, you need to hire a tutor to work with her one on one at least twice a week. Get an OG/Wilson/Lindamood Bell-certified tutor (not just trained, but certified) to work with your child for one year at least. We were able to remediate with just this and DD doesn't need text to speech in middle school. She just needs more time to read things.
+100
You are so fortunate to have found out early! Start OG/Wilson/Lindamood Bell-certified tutor at least 2x week either in school or after. You will need to pay out of pocket - but it’s so worth it.
You can still pursue other support in school, but they will not (or will not be able to) provide the appropriately trained 1-on-1 instruction that your child needs to effectively learn to read and write.
It’s so sad that schools, both public and private are so deficient in being able teach dyslexic students to read.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 14:17
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Someone diagnosed dyslexia in a five year old who hasn't started kindergarten yet? That is incredibly concerning. I would hold off on pursuing tutoring or extra supports and instead see how your child does in kindergarten reading instruction.
I know you mean well, but you are wrong. Dyslexia is neurobiological. You can identify a dyslexic brain in an FMRI at 18 months. The core deficit in dyslexia is phonological, basically the ability to hear and separate individual sounds in the unbroken stream of speech. It is such a tiny thing, but it is essential to reading. If you can teach that skill before the child is taught phonics they have the possibility to learn to read “normally”. If they go into phonics instruction with the core deficit unremediated they can’t learn phonics. You need to be able to segment the speech sounds before you can’t map them to letters.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 12:38
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Someone diagnosed dyslexia in a five year old who hasn't started kindergarten yet? That is incredibly concerning. I would hold off on pursuing tutoring or extra supports and instead see how your child does in kindergarten reading instruction.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 12:37
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Welcome to the club, OP! Your daughter is going to do fine, and it’s going to take some hard work on both of your parts.
Have you read any books about dyslexia yet? The classic is Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shawitz and it is still accurate and supportive and a best first step.
You almost certainly are going to need outside tutoring. The most effective is known as academic language therapy, and you can either search for one (search Google for academic language therapist or CALT or go to ALTAread.org) or you can contact ASDEC, our local resource for academic language therapy.
Your school may also have a list of dyslexia providers. You’ll want to check credentials, though, and knowing what to look for can be confusing.
What did the neuropsych report specifically recommend/refer you to?
Thank you. Extremely helpful.
She recommended text to speech, reading intervention programs, such as ortho gillingham, as well as learning to type asap
Of these three, I would start with the reading intervention. She actually needs to learn how to read and write before you start text to speech or learning how to type. I would not rely on the school for this, you need to hire a tutor to work with her one on one at least twice a week. Get an OG/Wilson/Lindamood Bell-certified tutor (not just trained, but certified) to work with your child for one year at least. We were able to remediate with just this and DD doesn't need text to speech in middle school. She just needs more time to read things.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 11:10
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Special Ed programming for kids who are parentally placed in private non-special ed schools, including parochial schools, is handled by the district where the school is located, regardless of where you live. That is federal law. So MCPS is the school district you will deal with.
In MCPS, students who are kindergarten age and up are offered what is called a service plan. There are three services that can be covered under a service plan: speech, reading and math. It sounds like you had a speech IEP this past year, maybe because your child was a preschooler, but that will change if they are starting Kindergarten.
If you live in MoCo, I would ask for a meeting to incorporate the new information and shift fr an IEP to an ISP. If you live in a different district, I would contact the Office of Private and Religious schools and get the ISP process started. I wouldn’t focus on adding another eligibility category. Eligibility categories are broad, and dyslexia isn’t one of them. Older kids with dyslexia who qualify for services usually qualify under specific learning disabilities, but kindergarteners are more likely to get their services under either speech and language or developmental delay. What you do want is to add reading services, but a child can qualify for those services with any eligibility category, and for a kindergartener the primary reading intervention should be the same — highly structured phonics.
Once the ISP is written and reading skills are added there are 3 ways that it can be implemented.
1) An MCPS speech therapist and/or special educator can visit the child at their school to provide pull out services there. This isn’t something the school has to provide, and they generally do this if there are more than a certain number of kids. I know Lourdes has this, I don’t know about other Bethesda schools but the resource teacher will know for sure. Note that PEP and K-12 staff are different so the fact that the preschool staff came in doesn’t indicate the school age staff will.
2) You can transport her to either your local MCPS school, or the one that services the neighborhood that her school is in. This can be hit or miss. They don’t have an obligation to work around your schedule. But sometimes it works well.
3) There is a small fund of money that the county gives out to cover private therapy and tutoring. It’s not a lot of money, and it can be hard to find someone who is willing to do all the paperwork.
In MCPS, students who are kindergarten age and up are offered what is called a service plan. There are three services that can be covered under a service plan: speech, reading and math. It sounds like you had a speech IEP this past year, maybe because your child was a preschooler, but that will change if they are starting Kindergarten.
If you live in MoCo, I would ask for a meeting to incorporate the new information and shift fr an IEP to an ISP. If you live in a different district, I would contact the Office of Private and Religious schools and get the ISP process started. I wouldn’t focus on adding another eligibility category. Eligibility categories are broad, and dyslexia isn’t one of them. Older kids with dyslexia who qualify for services usually qualify under specific learning disabilities, but kindergarteners are more likely to get their services under either speech and language or developmental delay. What you do want is to add reading services, but a child can qualify for those services with any eligibility category, and for a kindergartener the primary reading intervention should be the same — highly structured phonics.
Once the ISP is written and reading skills are added there are 3 ways that it can be implemented.
1) An MCPS speech therapist and/or special educator can visit the child at their school to provide pull out services there. This isn’t something the school has to provide, and they generally do this if there are more than a certain number of kids. I know Lourdes has this, I don’t know about other Bethesda schools but the resource teacher will know for sure. Note that PEP and K-12 staff are different so the fact that the preschool staff came in doesn’t indicate the school age staff will.
2) You can transport her to either your local MCPS school, or the one that services the neighborhood that her school is in. This can be hit or miss. They don’t have an obligation to work around your schedule. But sometimes it works well.
3) There is a small fund of money that the county gives out to cover private therapy and tutoring. It’s not a lot of money, and it can be hard to find someone who is willing to do all the paperwork.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 10:41
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Since you have a 5 year old I will assume you haven’t dealt with any of the local school systems. As a jaded HSer parent- let me tell you that the services suck and you might as well just pay a private OG tutor to teach your child to read and write. It is expensive (like $20k) but you won’t find anyone in the public schools who can do this service. Also the private tutor will actually care about your child’s success. God speed OP
Agree with this, but it's really hard for young kids to have the stamina to work with a tutor after a long day of school. That's one of the reasons we switched to a SN private.
In ES, at a private elementary, it should be no problem to either arrange for the tutor to come to school or to pull the child out of school for the tutor.
I am a mom of dyslexic kid but in public ES, it is easy to sign your kid out for “therapy” 3 days a week. As long as the kid is doing OK in school, no one will make a peep.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 10:40
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Since you have a 5 year old I will assume you haven’t dealt with any of the local school systems. As a jaded HSer parent- let me tell you that the services suck and you might as well just pay a private OG tutor to teach your child to read and write. It is expensive (like $20k) but you won’t find anyone in the public schools who can do this service. Also the private tutor will actually care about your child’s success. God speed OP
Since OP’s kid is already in private school she may be able to have the tutor come into the school during school hours. Or have her leave school and hour early 3 x week, or arrive an hour late. Lots of options.
Agree with this, but it's really hard for young kids to have the stamina to work with a tutor after a long day of school. That's one of the reasons we switched to a SN private.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 09:09
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Since you have a 5 year old I will assume you haven’t dealt with any of the local school systems. As a jaded HSer parent- let me tell you that the services suck and you might as well just pay a private OG tutor to teach your child to read and write. It is expensive (like $20k) but you won’t find anyone in the public schools who can do this service. Also the private tutor will actually care about your child’s success. God speed OP
Agree with this, but it's really hard for young kids to have the stamina to work with a tutor after a long day of school. That's one of the reasons we switched to a SN private.
Anonymous
08/17/2025 09:07
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Since you have a 5 year old I will assume you haven’t dealt with any of the local school systems. As a jaded HSer parent- let me tell you that the services suck and you might as well just pay a private OG tutor to teach your child to read and write. It is expensive (like $20k) but you won’t find anyone in the public schools who can do this service. Also the private tutor will actually care about your child’s success. God speed OP
Anonymous
08/16/2025 22:32
Subject: Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Public school isn't going to give her any services for dyslexia unless you want to reenroll her in public school. Is that what you want OP?
I beg to differ. All students, regardless of where they are enrolled, have the right to certain services.
Thanks
The services available to students who are parent-placed in private schools are very limited and typically would not include reading remediation.
- special ed attorney