Dyslexia

My eight year old son is a genius. I've known it all along. J is talented in drawing, creative thinking, music, math, puzzles and has a great appreciation for art and beauty.

Sure, he didn't begin to speak until he was three years old, but when he did, we suddenly discovered he was able to count and recite the whole alphabet... as if he had been waiting to perform for us until he had it down solid.

He created his own language. Only close family knew all of his made-up words, gaga for milk and at least twenty others. His favorite toy was a three-dimensional block brainteaser puzzle that he loved to take apart.

I read to him every day and as a toddler he memorized his favorite books. I have a video of him 'reading' (reciting pages from memory) to his baby brother at age three. His attention span, as a toddler, amazed me. He would easily sit through 5 books and ask for more.

When coloring, he would use either hand. If the crayons were closest to his left hand, he would color with his left. I started teaching him how to write his name very early, one letter at a time. I taught him how to hold a pencil with his right hand and it eventually became his dominant hand.

Once he could write his name, however, he would often begin writing on the right side of the page. When he did this, he wrote each letter from right to left, in order, in perfect mirror image. I discouraged him from writing that way but was simultaneously amazed that he was even able to do it. All I had to do was to point to the left side of the page, tell him to start there and then he would write his name correctly, each letter in order and facing the right way. As a second grade teacher, I had seen many students reverse bs and d's or other letters, but never a whole word in perfect mirror image.

I was, and am, astonished at how well he can remember events but equally puzzled when he will not recall people’s names. My younger son could always tell me his Sunday-school teachers’ names and other children’s names while J seems uninterested in this type of information.

In Kindergarten and first grade, J was in the higher reading groups and did well. Sometime between first grade and now, however, I feel that his growth in reading has plateaued, stagnated.

I wondered if he had become lazy and I really began to get on his case about guessing at words, substituting words, and his overall inconsistency in reading. At the same time, I noticed how poorly his performance was in spelling and how it was becoming increasingly worse, despite my efforts to help him at home.

After exhausting all the ways I knew to help his spelling, I searched for alternative methods online-- that's when I came across information on dyslexia.

I was beside myself. Many things that J does are actually signs associated with dyslexia.

It seems to me that J has been able to compensate for his difficulties, until recently, with his excellent memory, but they are catching up with him.

I believe that Josiah's trouble with hearing individual sounds, speaking, decoding, and spelling are symptoms of an underlying and related cause. Inability to decode new words in isolation (or nonsense words) is one of the larger indicators for dyslexia.

After debating all week about whether I really want to put him through the testing and identification process, I still don't know. There are two things that I fear... I would rather help him at home than have him pulled-out of class often and I would not like our expectations for his performance to be diminished on the basis of some diagnosis.

I spoke to his teachers at school and, though they have noticed some of the things I witness at home, they do not seem to be worried about Josiah’s progress. J is, after all, getting–by fairly well by general standards and he is exceeding expectations in math, behavior, and other areas. One of his teachers also mentioned that in the current financial crunch, even some students that ‘really do need special assistance’ aren’t receiving services.

In the meantime I’m coming up with ways to help him myself. I already read to him everyday, and he reads to me. We already spend time each week studying his spelling words, writing them many times over. Somehow though, language does not come intuitively to J. From the information I have gathered so far on dyslexia, it is clear to me that J needs explicit phonics instruction. Even as a credentialed teacher, I do not feel competent enough to teach my child phonics in a systematic way without the assistance of an already-made program. “Whole Language” reading instruction made a lot of sense for me when I read about it at school, but would clearly fail someone like my son.

For now I’ve ordered the book titled, The Everything Parent's Guide To Children With Dyslexia: All You Need To Ensure Your Child's Success (Everything: Parenting and Family), and am anxiously waiting for its arrival. While there exists various phonics programs for dyslexic children, I searched harder for something I could obtain for free to get me started. I came across, www.thephonicspage.org. I am ecstatic! The website provides free phonics lessons in QuickTime movie format, 32 lessons in all—about 15 hours of pure gold! J and I sat through lesson one yesterday and it was more than wonderful. The lesson included spelling instruction and even incorporates the bible into its lessons. I sat next to J, paused the movie to give him extra time, and praised him all along the way. Along with this, I plan to continue to read to him selections beyond his reading level. I read to him and E (5 year-old) from The Book of Virtues by William Bennet, daily Bible devotions and we are on chapter 8 of the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia Books series. I do this for a couple of reasons; to instill the Word of God in my children’s hearts, for their vocabulary development and because we all love this time together. My youngest son, who is equally a prodigy, is a reader, he often says, “mom, I love to read!” My challenges with him are of a different nature, which I will venture into at a later time.

Any advice as to J’s suspected dyslexia? Is this dyslexia?