when to worry about dyslexia

[A home for their hearts]

I'm starting to notice a few things with my ds7 that may be signs of dyslexia. I am dyslectic so I don't know if this is something that is past down or not. Today, when my ds asked me how to spell his cousin's name when he should it to me to make sure he spelled it right, he had written it backwards. I had spelled out T-O-R-Y-N, he had written N-Y-R-O-T! When I had spelt it for him I just gave him the spelling and he kept repeating it until he had it writting down. I didn't say T and then waited until he wrote T to give him the next letter. What do you think? Should I be concerned?

[elizam]

That's something I worry about also! I have a 13yodd who seems more and more dyslexic; it's the only explanation for her reading and writing issues! My younger ds shows signs as well. Today he spelled "your" "Y-R-O-U". When we tried PS, all they wanted to do about his reading was hold him back a grade and they told me how wonderful it was to "Redshirt" kids so they'll have an advantage in sports and socialization later on. :rolleyes:

[LibraryLover]

Spelling is a huge issue for my 15 yr old. There is something so basic missing. I kept thinking she would 'catch up' and at this point I feel a lot of guilt about 'letting it go' for so long. I was always aware, but everything else is there for the child; a great vocabulary, cognitive understanding of what she reads, the ability to discuss literature etc. The spelling is a mess. I've come to beg for guidance.

[Herding Cats in NC]

Is your ds a leftie? My two lefties occasionally did that when they were that age, although they actually wrote all the letters backwards, too. Talk about freaking me out! I don't have any experience with dyslexia, but I do know that it's common for kids to reverse letters, even in 1st grade. Does he do this often? Could he have been so focused on spelling the name correctly that he just forgot to start in the right place? Sorry I can't help more. I hope you get some good answers.

[prairiegirl]

Are there other things that you have noticed that would make you think dyslexia? How is his reading? Does he usually spell things backwards? Dyslexia is genetic. But I if this is the only instance, then I wouldn't be too worried about it. If this is yet one other characteristic, then maybe you should have him tested.

Julia
mom of 3 (8,7,5)

[Claire]

What you have described is a sequencing and directionality skills problem. Dyslexics tend to have weak sequencing and directionality skills, but it isn't necessarily all that makes them dyslexic. Sequencing is order (for the poster whose child spelled "your" "yrou"). In your example, the sequencing is okay but the directionality is reversed. (Directionality involved up/down/left/right.)

Cognitive skills training programs work on these skills. Currently the only home program on the market is Audiblox (http://www.audiblox2000.com). A better program, called BrainSkills, was discontinued last year. A new program called Cognitive Calisthenics is likely to be very, very good but it is not expected to be on the market until later this year. The only problem with home-based programs is that parents do not always provider the consistency and persistence necessary to get good results.

There are also provider-based cognitive skills training programs. We did PACE (http://www.processingskills.com), and it helped my dyslexic dd enormously. Provider-based programs are expensive, but this one was worth every penny for us because it did what my dd needed at the time.

[Laurie4b]

Dyslexia does have a genetic component. The basis of dyslexia for the vast majority of dyslexics is a problem in the area of phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the brain's ability to "get" that spoken words are made up of individual sounds. People with good phonemic awareness can easily tell that "bath" has 3 sounds (segmenting) or if given the separate sounds /b/ /a/ /th/ could "hear" the the word was bath (blending.) Difficulty with rhyming is much more of a red flag than is reversal of letters or reverse spelling. Reverse spelling is an issue of directionality: writing from right to left, instead of from left to right. It's a cultural convention; not all writing is done this way. It's learned. Kids can forget, or that can indicate other more foundational problems in the brain's wiring.

Dyslexics also have difficulty with spelling. It's part of dyslexia.

The best book that I have read on dyslexia is called "Overcoming Dyslexia" by Sally Shaywitz. It's out in paperback, so is affordable. There is a free online publication called Put Reading First. Just google it. You can also get a hard copy. It's excellent material on what research has shown to be the key pieces to good reading instruction.

If your child is not having trouble reading, and the directionality problems continue, I would recommend an evaluation with an occupational therapist. They are the profession that works most with that issue.

[A home for their hearts]

Dyslexics also have difficulty with spelling. It's part of dyslexia.

I'm not sure about this yet because we are still struggling with reading, so we really haven't started in on spelling yet.



If your child is not having trouble reading, and the directionality problems continue, I would recommend an evaluation with an occupational therapist. They are the profession that works most with that issue.

Would I need to see my ped about getting referred to an occupational therapist? I would hate to have to call our public school.