Our son had issues with reading and writing from very early on. We read to him from the time he was born. We taught him letters and numbers before he started pre-k but it wasn’t easy. The cutoff for starting kindergarten was September 1st and he was born on August 14th. He was close to the cutoff and we had concerns, so we asked his pre-k teacher if we should hold him back one more year but we were assured it would be fine. So we started public school kindergarten as scheduled. We questioned our actions almost from the beginning.
I was not a big fan of his kindergarten teacher for many reasons and I was very active and kept in contact with her about all things related to our son. But to her credit, she did acknowledge that he needed extra attention with reading and did work to get him additional time pulled away from the other kids. We also enrolled him in reading classes with Sylvan Learning Centers during first grade into second grade. While I think it helped, hindsight being what it is, it was not the best use of our time or monies. They do not do the kind of testing needed to diagnose learning disabilities.
In 2nd grade, the school did some testing to evaluate any learning difficulties. The discrepancy between his IQ and the other scores was not enough to determine any real reason for his struggles. However, his second grade teacher told me that as a friend, if he was her child, she would take him for additional testing. Thankfully, she had attended some learning disability training with the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas and believed there was something else going on. So we talked to our pediatrician and he provided us with names of certified educational diagnosticians in the area. And because a doctor recommended it, insurance partially covered it and the rest was covered thru our FSA-Medical.
When you start your research online, and you should, you will see proper testing includes a lot of different kinds of tests. You want to make sure whomever you choose truly uses the full battery of tests to diagnose any learning disability. No shortcuts allowed.
We visited with a few different ones until we were comfortable with the methods of testing that would be used. It can and will be overwhelming to you as you learn more but imagine what this means to your child. As parents, we knew we had to figure this out for the future of our son. In choosing a diagnostician, another of our concerns was he was so young and this was an all day testing event. How would he react to this much testing? But we also knew the earlier we got a diagnosis, the more likely a successful outcome would be.
We finally decided on one. She was good and really made us and him comfortable with the process. She gave us instructions about how to prepare him (and us) for the testing ahead of time (discussions to have ahead of time, a good nights sleep, a great breakfast, his favorite snacks to bring to the testing, etc.) It was at her house and it was a casual, unstressful (as it could be) atmosphere. She allowed him plenty of breaks to enable him to keep his focus during the testing. We were not allowed to be there during the testing.
Honestly, we went to her expecting to find out we were dealing with ADD or ADHD. We had already been reading about treatments, including medication and diet changes, etc. She told us it was neither. What a surprise that news was. He was dealing with a moderate to severe case of dyslexia and a moderate case of dysgraphia (what the heck is that…we’ll discuss it in a later post). She also told us dyslexia was hereditary. I have to admit the diagnosis surprised me…I had no problem reading and loved to read books growing up. The summer reading programs through the public library were always my favorite. Accelerated reading programs were are part of my public school ciriculum.
But as my husband and I started discussing the diagnosis, he acknowledged he thought his dad had dyslexia. His father had passed away before we ever met so I did not know him at all. But in talking with my husband and his brothers, I am convinced he definitely struggled with dyslexia as well. And when I started really thinking about my husband, I realized he never liked to read. I even bought him a Sports Illustrated subscription one year for his birthday (sports fanatic that he is) and he very rarely read it. Just looked at the pictures. Needless to say, I never renewed the subscription. By the way, he’s also really good in math and science and is now a computer programmer by trade. Just saying.
In my next blog, I’ll tell you about the steps we took to make sure our son received the help he needed in order to be successful. Just remember who you are doing this for and it’s not for you!
#heyiwanttottrythat
