6 Year Old with ADD and Dyslexia

Hi D.,
For the ADD, I live by Pycnogenol - antioxidant(marine tree bark of europe). It is a natural alternative to assist in all kinds of aliments and conditions, in which have won a Noble Prize. Check out www.pycnogenol.com, it may be benefical in more ways than one (for the whole family). This is not a MLM ... *wink* (as some may be reluctant to view).

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Family Connection is a group of parents and families that provide support to families that have members with disabilities. Call them, they can set you up with a support parent and other support resources.

http://www.familyconnectionsc.org/
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My daughter doesn't have dyslexia, but she does have ADHD and used to suffer from anxiety. Chances are that the low self-esteem is making the dyslexia worse. I found a really good book that I used in addition to counseling. The book title is: How to Develop Self-Esteem in Your Child: 6 Vital Ingredients, written by Bettie B. Youngs Ph.D, Ed. D. It's an older book, but a lot of the tips and advice are still very relevant. I can tell you from personal experience that getting that anxiety and self esteem issue under control will pave the way to dealing with the rest. And the advantage to using a counselor is that they are likely to have a lot of valuable advice that would be more appropriately tailored to your daughter's individual needs. Chances are, the school can make one available to you as part of her educational plan. Good luck to both of you! Hang in there.

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Try Brain Balance in Peachtree City. I know a lot of parents that had great results using their program. One of my friends had a 10 year old that started the program not being able to read much because of the dyslexia, but after doing the program reads all the time now. If you want more information I am sure my friend would talk to you about it, just let me know.

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Dear D.:
Everyone here has wonderful answers to you question, but no one addressed the "WHY" your child has these disorders to begin with. I too have a daughter with ADD and she was on numerous medications and nothing helped her. The side effects seemed to make her worse at times. Then I did some research on how chemicals in our everyday products can cause ADD and ADHD. I found out about Formaldehyde that is in so mnay of our products as a perservative, under trade names of course, like Q15. It is used in toothpaste, baby shampoo, soaps and many other everyday products that we use on our children and ourselves.
I found a company that has only 100% natural products for the home and self and it completely changed my life and my daughters for the better! Slowly, I began to see a difference in her attention and behavior. Now at age 12, she is in the talented and gifted program at school. Now, I am not saying that this company will end all of your child's disorders but used in conjunction with the school's I.E.P system and other wonderful information you received from ohter caring Mom's such as myself,it should make a big differnce in the quality of life for you and your family.
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Check into the Skank school. They are dedicated to dyslexia and as far as I know it is imperative to help them now. The Skank school is very expensive, but they have all kinds of financial aid. Hope this helps.

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Don't know your location or anything, but some neighbors of our switched their son to The Schenk School (http://www.schenck.org/)for dyslexia and it's really made a difference for him.

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You daughter will need an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) If she is in a public school, they are required by law (I think its called the "no child left behind" law)to provide special services..i.e. tutoring, smaller classes, an aide to help her in the class, etc. If they can not provide these services they are required to pay the tuition, including busing, to a private school that can. My nephew has dislexia and an anxiety disorder and depression as a result. He was also recently diagnosed with ADD and is also on Focalin. He lives in a small town that was ill equipped to handle his needs and for the past 2 years they have been forking over 35K a year to send him to a private school that can. He is now 12 and has made vast improvements. They're goal is to move him back to the public school system eventually. Whether of not this is the route you choose to go, you will need a good ed advocate to go to school meetings with you. You can ask your doctor to refer you to one. They know how and what to ask for. They do cost money but it is so worth it in the long run.

I am also a parent of a child with disabilities, I know how hard it can be to watch your little one struggle and sometimes you will have to be her champion and fight for her. Hang in there. Its good that you are looking for a support group for parents of children with similar issues. If nothing else you can get great tips for handling certain situations or network to obtain services your child may need. Ask her doctor, phsychiatrist, or psychologist to refer you to one.

Good luck.

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I have a 9yo boy that I'll be getting tested soon. I'm waiting on the insurance. Anyway, I believe mine is ADD, APD and possibly dyslexic. But, I have remedied most of the dyslexic as far as writing because I have him do cursive. If you teach your daughter how to do cursive the right way, she'll eliminate a lot of reversals with letters. That will help a lot in that area.

I homeschool, so I use a program that is wonderful for dyslexic kids. Actually, it was developed for that purpose, but it was found that regular students would benefit greatly from the same program. I use it with all of my kids. But, hopefully your school system has materials that will help kids with this situation.

We use herbs, and that eliminates the ADD. But right now I have him off of it hoping for them to see the real him soon. Boy, it's tough to wait for that. I am so ready to get him back on the herbs!

As I mentioned up above, having her learn cursive will help out a lot. She could also be given a big confidence booster to be writing cursive at her age. My boys are 9 and 10 and I now know how important it is to teach cursive first. I will be teaching my 2yo daughter when the time comes, cursive first. Of course I'll teach her manuscript too, but cursive will be first.

I'm sorry that I haven't helped too much.

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I am sorry I don't have an answer for you. I was wondering how you were able to dx the dyslexia? We suspect our 6 yr old son has it but have been unable to get help. They say testing will not begin till he is 8 (7at the earliest). He was tested for a special needs class but does not meet the criteria. He is really struggling in school and his teachers are recommending retaining him. We also are trying to figure out the best way to help him. Right now he memorizes things to get through, but when the order is changed he gets it all wrong. I can't memorize full pages of info so I know he is trying. I have searched the internet, but you have to subscribe to a program that costs money to get the details, everything is very vague. I will be watching to see what others have to say. D.

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I had a friend in school( long long long time ago)with the same issue. They put her in tinted glasses. They were neon tint but it was enough that the color made it to where she could see the letters in their correct form. Maybe this will help your daughter

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Hi D.,
I am a mother of two girls, one will be 5 in may and the other 2 in July. I have dyslexia, and have an "anxiety disorder" due to low self esteem. I did not receive the proper treatment as a child and I am having to deal with it now as an adult, but I am getting better. I am glad to see that you are getting your daughter the help she needs now. One piece of advice I must give you is make sure you reassure her that she is smart and she can do what ever she puts her mind to, do not push her to hard. Sometimes if you push to hard and the child feels that they are not "smart" enough, they will just give up. Practice is the only way that I got through school with the dyslexia. I was unable to do mathmatics the way they showed you on the black board at school, I would read the instructions in the book when I came home to do my homework. I did really well in math and science in school. I had a different way of learning, and with my families support, I excelled. Reading was difficult, I loved to read when I was by myself and did not have to read aloud. Even today, when I read to my children, it is hard. But the more I read aloud, the better I get. The neat thing is I can read almost anything when it is upside down and/or backwards faster than anyone else. Any type of game that makes her read something, whether it is words, letters or numbers is good for the dyslexia. It needs to be interesting to her, let her pick out the books she finds interesting, even if it is a simple Doctor Suess book or a smaller childs book. The better she gets, the better her self esteem gets, and she will eventually want to read harder books. She will need your praise and reassurance everyday. I hope I have helped and I know she will be an amazing person with loving parents like you.

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hi
I had a similar problem with my son, he is now 21 years old. i did research on my own and figured he could and did learn better by learning phonetically; by sounds and repetivness. with the self esteem issues I found something he enjoyed and let hin pursue it and when those episodes came around I had that special THING that he could do better than anyone and asked questions about it and would have him to show me diffrent aspects of his speciality. The one thing I never did was treat him ant diffrently than my other children. He is also a lefty. There are all sorts of books concerning left handed persons,one in particular is a book of famous lefties.
B.

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My 9 year old son is only mildly dyslexic, but we have found www.brightsolutions.us (by Susan Barton) to be very helpful. Our school has not helped at all. They said that since our son is getting good grades (even though he is struggling more than normal to do so), he is obviously not dyslexic despite the fact that he exhibits symptoms consistent with the most recent (last 10 years) research. So, I have taken to working with him myself at home (as time allows -- I work from home and have 5 children). I have been buying (and then reselling) the Barton System (for dyslexia tutoring) on ebay. It is expensive, but there is a good resell market for it. If you could get your school to use that with her, that would be terrific. It is the best one I have found. So far I've gottem my money back on the resell of each one. Susan Barton is the most knowledgeable and caring expert I've found. She even answered each of my emails personally. She offers a lot of good info on the website I mentioned above, plus her learning system materials and seminars. Since her system only deals with reading and spelling, she referred me to www.hwtears.com for handwriting and www.touchmath.com for math (as well as some other good sites). I would start by reading through her site. She has a lot of great info plus videos you can watch online. I have compiled a lot of info for my own use as well. I'll be happy to pass it on. Send me a private message with any specific questions you have or if you want to chat. Although my son is at the other end of the spectrum as your daughter, I may be able to help by sharing what I've learned. Take care. P.S.- I'm so glad you got her diagnosed by first grade. The earlier she gets intervention the better.

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Hello I am an adult living with Dyslexia and I am also left handed. While I was reading your entry I felt like it was a flash back to my parents trying to understand the complexity of this gift/challenge/disability/ability thing that I have. First let me say that I was diagnosed when I was transitioning from another school and I did repeat the second grade. (I later skipped the 11th grade and graduated on time)

There are two major hurdles that you will face: first your child is left handed she is right brain dominate which means she is lead by her emotions, her intuition and her ability to absorb very complex thought patterns. Secondly, overcoming the stigma and her perceived thought that she is less than her peers due to her Dyslexia.

As a child I played memory games with my family to help me with letter recognition, I wrote books (even if the words were misspelled) and I had a tutor. I recommend having a tutor even if it’s just for a short time because she was insistent that I would be a successful person. She fostered my confidence and encouraged me to be creative and was able to identify the specific areas that I had to work on. Diet and sleep was also a key to helping me to work with my challenges. If was overtired and stressed I couldn’t focus and it would be reflected in my day at school. Too much sugar and I couldn’t balance out and my emotions would be out of control. Even friendships were challenging at times because I was always wondering why I felt so different from my peers. My mother put me into dance class that was not with my friends to help me establish a sense of self apart from them. I painted, learned how to play an instrument and was always allowed quite time to be alone.

Your child is gifted she just needs support to find her rhythm. You have to look at her mind as this magnificent sponge that can absorb everything but it can be very difficult to retrieve stored information out of it. There will be times when you will have to give her tough love, do not let this be something for her use as an excuse because she has the tenacity to navigate through her mind she but she needs to know that she will be loved though the process.

I hope this helps you on with your daughter. Hang in there, it’s worth it!

You should pick up these two books: Drawing on the right side of the brain & The Gift of Dyslexia

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You go to the school your daughter goes to and demand that someone gives you advice on dyslexia. There is someone there that can give you information on dyslexia. If no one will help you go to the school board someone there should be able to give you help. If that fails than go to sylivan learning center it cost but that will help to.

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Are there paticular letters or numbers she mixes up? I had a boyfriend a very long time ago, he was also dyslexic- he always mixed up b and d, and 6 and 9- so every desk he sat at had a piece of paper taped to it that had "bed" written on it- the idea was that the word makes a bed- complete with headboard and footboard. the headboard comes first, so he knew it was a b- because b is before d in the alphebet. he also had "69" on the same paper, for the same reasons. He always said it was the only way he made it through elementary school.
If you can figure out which letters/numbers she has issues with, then you can come up with a "visual clue" for her to refer to.
Good Luck, and never underestimate the power of a childs mind.

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Dyslexia Institutes of America
L. Miggins, Director of Education
6145 Barfield Road Suite 100
Atlanta, GA 30328
###-###-####; ###-###-####
Email: ____@____.com
Web: www.dyslexiaga.org
Assessment and therapy backed by years of groundbreaking research into the treatment of dyslexia.

Dyslexia Masters
Scott Timm
146 Eagle Glen Drive
Woodstock, GA 30189
###-###-####; ###-###-#### (fax)
Email: ____@____.com
Web: www.dyslexia.com & www.dyslexiamasters.com
Facilitating the Davis Dyslexia correction program as it applies to dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, ADD/ADHD, and other related learning difficulties. Atlanta area and willing to travel.

Sometimes even if you can't go to the meetings you can join the online support groups they may offer.

My son has ADHD and Autism. I would be glad to meet with you sometimes. Sometimes it just help having someone listen and know kind of what you are going through. I am very familiar with school system legalities of it. I have been doing this for 5 years (son is 7) and also worked as a teachers aid for 2 years and have sat through many IEP meetings. You have to go to the school with your ideas, then listen to theirs. You are the captain of the ship when it comes to your childs education. Anything I can do to help feel free to email me privately at ____@____.com

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Well let me start by saying I know how frustrating it is. You are not alone. My son is 10 years old. Help from the school was next to impossible. I fortunately Ended up with a wonderful math tutor who looked up information on the internet and helped from there. She was a teacher at one time and had alot of know how to get things done, and pointed me in the right direction.One thing that sticks with me is she wrote the numbers and letters on a piece of sand paper and had Darian trace them with his pointer finger several times. Then he was to trace them in the air then walk out them out on the floor. Of course he would only do one at the time. But this seemed to help him a lot. His major issue was numbers and a hand ful of letters. We as well went to a specialist b/c we could not get any where with the school. He is not near as bad as he once was. But all the hands on work realy has done a world of good. Stick to your guns. You know your child better than they think they do. Don't give up. Again Search the internet there are lots of informative sites that can help.Don't be alarmed when they tell you your child has a learning disability and start talking special education. Make sure they are only recording it that way and are not placeing your child in this class unless you know thats where your child should be. Again Don't let them try to convince you in any way you don't agree. The state gets funding for the number of disable students in the school. Stay stong. Check out the following web sites and good luck.
> http://home.gforcecable.com/ldasc
> www.LDAAmerica.org (search this site for info on Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia I found that these fit my son In more ways than just dyslexia. We have found help with cross roads out of Columbia S.C. Again Good Luck!!!!!!!!!

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I'm not sure where you are located, but the Rollins Center for Language and Learning - attached to the Atlanta Speech School off of Northside Dr. is an incredible resource. Dr. Deborah Knight, the director of the Rollins Center is a very knowledgeable and has presented to the GA chapter of the International Dyslexia Association.

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Hi, I recommend taking a look at two sites....Schwab Learning.org and Davis Dyslexia learning. Ihaven't bought the book by Davis, so i really can't recommend it but it might help. I homeschool my dyslexic son. I have found that repetition cannot be stressed enough. he has poor memory recall.

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Have you asked your school counselor if anyone else within your childs school has dyslexia also? I know that they are not allowed to give you names for privacy reasons, but maybe she can put you in touch with the other parents through the school. A way to create your own help network that way. Another source would be to ask the doctor that diagnosed her the same question. There is a wealth of information online with support groups, advice and such. I can imagine that the ADD aggrivates the situation quite a bit, but I would be careful that the medication doesn't stifle her "want" or "care" to learn. I hope you find some good support through these channels!

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Talk to the Schenck School in Atlanta or another private school that specializes in dyslexia. Ask them for referrals to educational specialists who have expertise in that area. Having her in the right school will do wonders for her self esteem. Also, just personally, I've never heard of anyone on both focalin and strattera at the same time since they're both ADD meds, neither is for anxiety as far as I know. You may want to do online and find chat rooms for parents of kids with these issues, also there is an organization called CHADD for parents of kids who have ADD. Good luck! D. D.

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Well let me start by saying sorry this is happening to your family. Just wanted to let you know my hubby had dyslexia and the best thing you can do for her is keep working with her on the lessons, if something isn't right make her do it over. I just know that's what his parents did and he turned out wonderful. Good Luck!

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