I wanted to chime in with the importance of intervention and support.

My child is in upper elementary and we recently changed schools. Just this week he shared how much he was teased at his old school (Public School in DC) because of his dyslexia. He shared that classmates made fun of him because he could not read what others were reading or due to his spelling being so bad.

Here is an interesting article:
https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2019/04/people-in-prison-are-way-more-likely-to-have-dyslexia-the-justice-system-sets-them-up-to-fail/

My wife was mildly dyslexic as a child and now reads all day for her job and several hours each night for pleasure. It all depends on what mild means, how motivated the reader is, and the availability of suitable treatment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, people with dyslexia go to college. My son has profound dyslexia and dysgraphia and he is currently a senior in college. He is currently applying to graduate schools. He is at a top 20 school for his major.

You need to ameliorate the dyslexia to the extent you can. Accommodate what you can’t. For example, my son gets audio textbooks and uses a software program that reads PDFs as well as uses word prediction. He has an electronic reader for tests.

You also need to support your child’s strengths, because that is how they find their niche.

Sally Shaywietz’s “Overcoming Dyslexia” is a great place for you to start.

This is very encouraging, and thank you for this information. Would you be willing to post the name of the software program your son uses? Is the electronic reader for tests through the school, or something that you also purchased? My HS senior was diagnosed with dyslexia in 10th grade but refused any tutoring or intervention. We are in MoCo and with distance learning, it is becoming apparent to him that he needs some help and seems more willing to accept the diagnosis. Hopefully he eventually will agree to a tutor or other personalized help, and I thought that maybe starting with the software would nudge him towards this. I am just now starting to look into software like Dragon, but any recommendations from personal experience would be really helpful.

There are other more up to date software, but my DC uses Kurzweil. It was provided by FCPS from the end of 6th grade through the end of 12th grade. Now, his college provides it. Dragon did not work well for him. He also uses Word- spell check and word prediction.

The pediatric neuro-psych doc who diagnosed by child has dyslexia and ADHD. Her school's psychologist who holds a PhD has severe dyslexia. One of their teachers has dyslexia. I know many, many professionals who have mild-severe dyslexia.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, people with dyslexia go to college. My son has profound dyslexia and dysgraphia and he is currently a senior in college. He is currently applying to graduate schools. He is at a top 20 school for his major.

You need to ameliorate the dyslexia to the extent you can. Accommodate what you can’t. For example, my son gets audio textbooks and uses a software program that reads PDFs as well as uses word prediction. He has an electronic reader for tests.

You also need to support your child’s strengths, because that is how they find their niche.

Sally Shaywietz’s “Overcoming Dyslexia” is a great place for you to start.

This is very encouraging, and thank you for this information. Would you be willing to post the name of the software program your son uses? Is the electronic reader for tests through the school, or something that you also purchased? My HS senior was diagnosed with dyslexia in 10th grade but refused any tutoring or intervention. We are in MoCo and with distance learning, it is becoming apparent to him that he needs some help and seems more willing to accept the diagnosis. Hopefully he eventually will agree to a tutor or other personalized help, and I thought that maybe starting with the software would nudge him towards this. I am just now starting to look into software like Dragon, but any recommendations from personal experience would be really helpful.

Yes, my sister is severely dyslexic, has an MD and runs her own highly successful medical practice now. Took years of remediation and accommodations when we were kids, but she is very stubborn (a good thing in this situation), super hard working and disciplined, and extremely smart. She even had some "advantages" associated with her dyslexia in terms of her spatial reasoning, which is dramatically better than most people's, and that has been useful in her medical career. She also has great people skills, which has also helped her. However, had her dyslexia not been addressed she would for sure be illiterate.

So so so many examples as PPs have stated. My Dyslexic DS has his father as an example. Undiagnosed dyslexic who went to law school, clerkship, big law, in-house and now makes nearly $500k a year. It is possible!!! That said, DH cannot learn a foreign language, and never ever reads for fun. He loved audiobooks and watches TV but finds reading exhausting.

Dyslexia didn’t keep former Colorado Governor now Senator-elect Hickenlooper down nor these other luminaries - https://dyslexia.yale.edu/success-stories/

Anonymous wrote:There is a long list of highly successful people that have not only held careers, but have made a profound impact on society (Albert Einstein, Andy Warhol, Henry Ford, Charles Schwab, etc. And don't forget Jennifer Aniston). Just google it. Also, MIT is full of dyslexics and NASA actually seeks them out (over 50% of employees are dyslexic). Get your child a certified OG tutor and if you can afford it, 4-5 days a week. It's a lot of upfront money, but if your child is young enough consistent OG tutoring will remediate. In addition the Sally Shaywitz, read "The Dyslexic Advantage." When my child was first diagnosed, I had tremendous anxiety about what it meant for her, but with a year of OG tutoring I see the light and I have also come to understand her dyslexia as a true gift.

The NASA thing is not true (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://twitter.com/nasapeople/status/236144765098409984%3Flang%3Den&ved=2ahUKEwif1OnM_PbsAhWbl3IEHSYAB2QQjjgwAHoECBYQAg&usg=AOvVaw0SrFUZKpAsRzcgQQ_qqHQr), but there are many awesome and brilliant people with dyslexia nonetheless.

Anonymous wrote:My DH has a JD and an MA, makes $200k/year. He’s also trilingual. So yes.

My DH, too, with two BAs and one MS in engineering. Foreign languages were the one area academically that he couldn't master (though I bet he'd do all right in an immersion environment, since he learns well aurally). He does attribute getting through school to the two years he spent in a high school specifically for kids with dyslexia. He was able to go back to mainstream school after getting that intensive help figuring out learning strategies. A big one he still uses now is that he dictates when he writes long things. And he sometimes "reads" by listening via "text-to-speech," mainly for efficiency. But he also reads lots of books on paper for fun.

People who don't know much about dyslexia are always surprised when my DH mentions that he has it. But they shouldn't be surprised. The list of successful adults with dyslexia is very long.

Anonymous wrote:Can dyslexic kids go on to college, fruitful careers and so on?

Yes, it’s quite common. Learn mitigating techniques.

- a teacher and I TAd in college and saw it constantly.

Oh yes. Google MIT disease

“ The ability to read has long been linked in society’s mind to intelligence, but dyslexia is surprisingly common at MIT, to such an extent that the founder of the MIT Media Lab and the One Laptop per Child Association, Nicholas Negroponte (a dyslexic himself), called it the MIT disease in his autobiography. Recent research has found that dyslexia is not related to IQ. It is, however, the most common learning disability, at MIT and elsewhere, affecting between 5% and 20% of the population.
The latest research is finding dyslexia’s roots in unexpected places, with unexpected consequences, disproving common misconceptions about dyslexia and learning disorders in general. We are beginning to find that dyslexia is not a disorder but a different way of experiencing and understanding the world around us, created by a different wiring and development of the brain with benefits as significant as its downsides.”
https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/dyslexia-at-mit1/

My DH has a JD and an MA, makes $200k/year. He’s also trilingual. So yes.

I have mild, but testable, dyslexia. I went to an ivy undergrad and a top 10 law school and I am successful in big law. I never needed accommodations at school. That said, I tested with a high IQ as a kid.

My DD has mild dyslexia, but high IQ. She is currently a junior at a T20 with accommodations for her disability.