results from testing

[Gwenny]

I was pretty sure this was the case, but I had my 11 yos (12 in June) tested with a psychologist. He has dyslexia and dysgraphia. He was very low in the reading and writing, spelling the absolute lowest and she recommends some OT because he really did poorly on fine motor skills testing. She has other recommendations, but I won't have the final written report for a couple of days to see what else. So, it has definitely given me more to think about and now I can try to plan out how we continue from here. I LOVE HOD, and will definitely continue, but I need to make things work for him--it won't be the way most kids can do it--doing the independent things the way it's planned.

I know some of you have dealt with one or more of these things--and beyond! Just wondering if anyone has some advice.

My son was ecstatic to get the "official" word that he does have dyslexia! He is glad there is a reason that he can't do what he sees everyone around him doing--and he works so hard.

Blessings!

[LynnH]

Nancy I think you know my son deals with dysgraphia. There are several things I have done to adjust things for him, but given the age of your son a few things right off the top of my head are 1. Focus on typing this summer, there is software that works for those that have dyslexia and dysgraphia that is word prediction software, but I think it helps if he has a basic knowledge of the keyboard first. Also google docs has very good voice recognition built in now. I know my son and I are going to focus on figuring that out this summer. 2. I feel like karate and the parkour my son has done has really helped his brain. There are lots of programs out there that advocate crossing midline, working on balance etc that in turn help those with dyslexia and dysgraphia. Feel free to pm me for those if you don't know of them.

We started with Preparing and HOD is totally doable for my son as long as I make some tweaks along the way. Next year he heads into the high school US History 1 guide.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I agree with Lynn. Typing is key. My ds 13 has dysgraphia and dyslexia. I didn't realize that about google docs and we will have to explore it as well. I also second karate. It really helps. I also wanted to say if your child is musically inclined or would enjoy learning music that piano and reading music crosses the midline as well. I do recommend Diane Craft's Brain Integration Therapy for a year. It really does help. We did some OT when we first got our diagnosis when ds was around 10. We did not do it long as our insurance did not cover it though past a very minimum monetary amount per year. A friend recommended Diane Craft and I will say it is a big help. One of the things that we do that I think I have seen Lynn mention in her review posts is to have our son listen to audio of books after reading them or alongside reading them or watch a movie version after reading. It seems to help with comprehension and connecting all the dots. This will sound odd but texting has been the biggest thing to improve spelling for our son. He got a phone when he went to boy scout camp this past summer and his spelling improved when he started texting us.

[Gwenny]

Those are great ideas. Interesting about karate. He tap dances and is really quite good at it and he has been taking piano for about 5 years now. It's hard for him, learning the notes has been a struggle. He loves to do things by ear and he would rather compose his own music rather than following what someone else did. I'm questioning how long to continue it. He really doesn't enjoy it at all--but I've always had my kids do piano until they are 18. I'm trying to be better about looking at what is best for the individual though and it's tough to determine--"they will thank me later for making them do it" and 'it's really not their thing".