Dyslexia - Boise,ID

Yes, I've been through it. My son was possibly the brightest child in his class in kindergarten. By 1st grade he began to struggle and shut down completely.

My son has dyslexia. That does not mean he sees backwards. Dyslexia is just a term for reading disorders. We had our son tested professionally after first grade. The school's criteria isn't quite the same as private. If they find a child has "issues" then they are required to help that child, but they don't always have the manpower to do so. We had our son tested privately and privately tutored. We moved him to a private school for kids with learning differences. He changed over night.

All kids get b and d's mixed up at first but some kids have what is called "position in space" issues. They see a line and a circle and have trouble distinguishing. Once tested a private tutor experienced in your child's learning issues can give you tips to help him. One is to use a ruler when reading. It can be overwhelming seeing the line below.

Ask around. Ask your pediatrician. Call the local hospital. Find a good tester. This could be a simple fix with just a few tools. It could make a huge difference in your sons self-esteem.

one more thing...... my son with dyslexia will graduate college soon!

Our daughter has dyslexia and says the letters come out of the page and some are farther away, sometimes the lines "dance". She also hates when there is little contrast between letters and non-white paper. We have been fighting with the school for 3 years and finally got our daughter on an IEP for her dyslexia. Our daughter is very bright so the dyslexia was getting masked by her intelligence. They kept saying she is just fine, she is making A's and B's, but she was miserable, HATED school, and would cry most days. We had her tested by the school and they claimed she had an anxiety disorder - this for a girl who dances and skips everywhere and was fine anywhere but in school. Since we disagreed with their diagnosis, we had her tested privately by a neuropsychologist who diagnosed her with dyslexia and inattentive ADD and superior-to-very superior intellect. His website has a great "parents guide" that you should probably read before starting testing. There is another great website about dyslexia that has early warning signs, how to test for dyslexia, recommended classroom accommodations, things that do and don't work for dyslexics, in lists as well as videos. We ended up hiring a special education advocate after trying for 2 years on our own to get the school to help her. The advocate helped us get our daughter onto an IEP so that she now gets Orton-Gillingham tutoring in school as well as writing instruction (she can read fairly well in context but all her deficits - spelling, organization, structure, physically writing- come together when asked to write) and extra time for tests, etc. A good place to start is to write a letter to the principal listing your concerns and asking for a full evaluation (sometimes called full core testing) of your child. This sets into motion legally required timelines for the school to respond and have your child tested and give your results. Be prepared that the school will find that everything is just fine - the reality is that there are no budgets for extra help and even though there are laws the enforcement of the laws is on the backs and pocketbooks of the parents.
Here is the parents guide from our doctor on the right hand side under "quick jump to":
http://drmoldover.com/
Here is the website with lots of helpful info on dyslexia:
http://www.brightsolutions.us/
Here is the website for the advocate we hired which has some links to articles that may help:
http://www.margolis.com/practice-areas/special-education-...
If you need more details, feel free to contact me directly.
Finally, there is a short but insightful book by an adult dyslexic called "the secret life of the dyslexic child" which might give you insight on how hard your child's life is on a day-to-day basis, and that he is actually working much harder than the average child who can read linearly, and you may recognize your own child in his descriptions:
http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Life-Dyslexic-Child/dp/15795...
Good luck.

Take him to an eye doc who does testing for eye disabilities. Ours does it and a lot do nowadays. It used to be that you had to go to a different kind but as I understand it the younger eye docs are doing extra training so they can be better able to serve all the needs of their patients.

My oldest grandson had been neglected by his dad and needed glasses without anyone ever taking him to be examined. His brain had almost shut down processing information from his right eye.

Once he was in foster care the mom realized he has something wrong with his eyes and got the eye doc to evaluate him. She went through and was given exercises to do with him each evening. He read through a pair of glasses that looked like the ones from National Treasure that Nicholas Cage wore to see the hidden symbols.

He also had a colored sheet of plastic to read through at school. It helped the lines of text to not waver while he was reading. It also helped his brain use different parts to process the information. It tied in the color processing parts along with the reading processing parts.

It worked miracles with him, he doesn't even wear glasses anymore. If they had just taken him to a regular eye doc he may have been legally blind in his right eye but because the doc figured out how to fix it my grandson is fixed.

Call around and ask the different eye docs if they do evaluations for eye processing disorders and find one that is going to take good care of your child's eyes! Good luck!!!

Have you had his eye sight checked? Greg doesn't get head aches with his dsylexia. So I would talk to an opthamologist to see if there is a problem with his eyes that are causing him to strain to read.

We went to a specialist. There was a battery of tests Greg went through. And when I say battery - I mean - 3 sessions of 1.5 hour tests...they don't use "dyslexia" they use the politically correct term - learning disabled...

Find a tutor to help him with reading.
Get his eye sight checked as well.

The confusion with B and D and P and Q are common. But just because they have the confusion doesn't mean it's dyslexia.

My youngest did not read even in 5th grade. I placed her in a private summer school where the teacher was a reading expert and today she has a university degree.
I am dyslexic. I reverse numbers when I look at them. The only thing that remains a big bother is that I am unable to learn another alphabet than the one we use.
Most of the world's most brilliant people are dyslexic so don't worry too much you have a genius on your hands.

I would suggest asking both your school and your doctor. I teach Early Childhood classes at a local community college and just had a student going through this. She asked me where to get her son tested because her son's school said the dr. did it and the dr. said the school does it! I would ask around your community (school social worker might be able to help you find resources on where to get tested) to find out how to go about getting your son tested. Good luck! :-)

If you are in a public school, they should offer diagnostic testing. If not, there are many diagnositicians that can help you. My dgtr went through exactly what you are describing with your son, she was "officially" diagnosed in 2nd grade, with the intervention offered through our school district she progressed and was able to discontinue her dyslexia classes by the beginning of 4th grade! She had an excellent teacher, so I cannot proclaim that all students will progress as quickly as mine did. My dgtr is now and the only accomodation she has received was in 5th grade for the science test. I was concerned that scientific terms with confusing spelling would trip her up and create wrong answers due to word configuration alone. Ended up, she aced the test and was an exemplary science student! It sounds to me like your child has a mild case, like my child. It is so easy to overcome, but they have to work so much harder on regular work than their peers. I constantly brag on my dgtr on days that I know she had to focus harder to keep up, and trust me, it is easy to recognize those days. Get the help your district provides and continue to monitor your child's progress and everything will work out okay! Good for you for being proactive and looking out for what is best for you kiddo!!

There are different aspects of dyslexia... the dizziness and headaches makes me wonder about problems with "Irhlen Syndrome" .... http://irlen.com/

I would talk to the school and really see if you can get him tested for dyslexia... it is best treated if you can catch it early. Talk to the counselor if possible, since it seems that the teachers may be ignoring it, hoping it will get better.

I will say, however, that a friend of mine, LONG ago (in the '80's), felt there was a problem with their son.... the school basically wrote him off, saying that not all children were destined to succeed at school! They had him tested privately, and sure enough, he was dyslexic! With the private evaluation, they were able to force the issue at school for proper accommodations.

As one who could NOT read well at all in 2nd grade, (keep in mind chldren did not labels at such young an age way back in the 60's) and who went on an acquired 2 plus graduate degrees---please know that my parents were given a choice when I was only 7 years old:
Either I was to held back a year or go to summer school and learn to read and catch up with the other students.
In summer school there was a teacher who gave me 1 on 1 instruction and I learned how to sound out words, how to read new words while also gaining understanding of the words read. Reading out loud I would stumble over some words as I still do today---hence I was not a failure as was projected by that 2nd grade teacher. Instead I simply got and get nervous when reading in front of a group.
However No-One had ever taken the time to sit down with me and teach me how to read------and although slightly Dyslexic I finally learned how to read simply because someone took the time to teach me how to read the words, get meaning from them and sound out the ones that were unfamiliar.

This teacher also taught me about the amazing wonders of a dictionary so that I may look up new words, what they mean and how to sound them out.
Hence spend time with your child, teach them, read to them pointing out the words, and get them a grade level dictionary for assistence. Dyslexia is a disorder yet can be voercome with dedication and perserverance!

I haven't been through it with my kids, but with myself. My mom asked my teachers when I was first starting school because I had problems reversing letters. A LOT of letters. THey said it was normal and I would grow out of it, which I did, but I still had issues with reading, handwriting, etc. I would ask, how is your son's handwriting? And does he seem clumsy? (bumping into things? And is he very busy? Dyslexia has to do with the eyes, not sight, but how your eyes focus and the message that sends to the brain. So while a normal person's eyes focus on the object they want to focus on, a dyslexic person's eyes focus slightly off...either just before or just after the object. So the message it sends to the brain about where that object is, is inaccurate. (I hope this makes sense...I've never tried to explain it without visuals) Imagine a V where the top points are your eyes, the bottom where your eyes meet to focus in on an object...that's a normal person's eyes. Now imagine an X where the top is your eyes and the middle is where your eyes meet, but put a dot somewhere above or below the cross point...that's the object you are trying to focus on. What that does is tell your brain "Here's the object you're looking for!" when actually, it's not quite where your brain thinks it is. This is why glasses don't help...it's not a sight issue, it's a brain issue. Some common, but not so wellknown symptoms of dyslexia are bumping into things because they are in a slightly different place than the eyes and brain perceive them to be, and being very active (a lot of kids are misdiagnosed with ADD/ADHD) because the world around them constantly seems like it's moving, and having poor handwriting because of the focal point being skewed. It wasn't until I was a junior in high school that my mom finally decided to get me tested herself since the school refused, because I scored really high on my ACT....except reading, which I only scored 20 on. I don't know if your school will pay for testing for your son, but if you are near a university with a psychology department, there are always students who need to do a number of psychological evaluations in order to get their degrees, so it's free. The evaluation also includes a dyslexia test. You may have to go through the whole entire psych test with ink blots and all, but if it comes out that there's a learning disability, at least you can finally get help. I did a LOT of research on it my senior year of high school and got some help from an organization that uses pennies in a sort of exercise for your eyes to help them to focus properly. Once I started doing those exercises, I retook the ACT and scored a 24 on the reading. (average is around19 or 20, 24 is considered good) So it really helped. I thought it was United Dyslexia association or something, but I can't find anything on it on google, so maybe I have the name wrong. You might look into it though.