question for those who have a child with dyslexia

[April]

I have concerns that my five year old has dyslexia. I know she's young. I took her to an eye doctor because she said it looked like the words were moving on the paper. She was diagnosed with having double vision. She is going to need vision therapy. My youngest has apraxia and when I had her that the neurologist he said that my oldest probably doesn't have double vision but dyslexia. When my daughter is reading a word like pan she will sound out all the letters and then say nap. She does this almost 90% of the time. Should I get the vision therapy and see if that helps, this will cost about $100 a session and we are not sure if our insurance will cover this. I'm just not sure what to do. How young were your children when they got diagnosed and how did they get diagnosed.

[Kathleen]

April,

I can't help you at all - but I have another little question about dyslexia. (Hope you don't mind if I tack it on here. ) My dd who is 4 was a late talker. When she did talk, she said everything "dyslexic". At least that's the way I described it. She consistently switched ALL the first and last sounds of words. This lasted a LONG time before it straightened itself out. "Mom" and "Dad" came out all right ...but she said cut, "tuc" and carrot, "tarrac". Jump, was "muj"...don't ask me where the "p" went. She called her baby brother Garret what sounded like Derek - but honestly I think that she was switching "g" and the "t" and we thought it sounded like Derek because not too many people name their child Tarreg. I could go on with more illustrations...but I guess what I'm wondering is if anyone else has had a child who did this. I think she's ready for a little bit of phonics, but I haven't tried that yet, so I guess in the next year I'll probably be able to see if she struggles with learning to read. Oh, she also will write her name as a perfect mirror image and not notice the difference from the "right way". (Although that's become much less frequent in just the last couple of months.)

Kathleen

[Mommamo]

I would love to hear other people's answers! I was just thinking about this tonight. My dd is doing the same thing. She'll read "Sam" and say "mass," "help" and say "pell." She sounds it all out fine and when she goes to say it it's backwords. The words she's read a lot and memorized she says fine, but the new ones she says backwards. I'm anxious to hear what others have to say.

[Kathleen]

Can anyone help April?

[Carrie]

Sorry ladies, I somehow missed this thread! Dyslexia is one those things that is VERY difficult to diagnose accurately. It also has many other issues that can be rolled up within the problem that can make it look like a child has dyslexia when it really may be a different eye-related issue instead.

5 year olds will often do just what you ladies are describing when they're reading. They are working so hard to hold the sounds that each letter makes in their head, and then blend them together, that they will often say the last sound they read and work back to the beginning after decoding a new word. My own child is doing it right now at age 6. I always make my kiddos run their finger under the words from left to right as they say them. When they get to the end of sounding out a word, I'll have them quickly run their finger under the word from left to right again as they blend it. This is a simple exercise that helps with tracking and with strengthening their eye muscles. It is also a reminder to go from left to right.

Mazes are another excellent way to strengthen eye muscles. Have the kiddos use their eyes to make the path from beginning to end first. Then, have them do it with a pencil or marker. You could easily do this daily and quite inexpensively with good results. Phonics Pathways has a Pyramid book that is also good for strengthening eye muscles and for tracking practice as kiddos read words in a pyramid formation. It can be used separately from the Phonics Pathways reading curriculum, and only takes 5-10 min. a day.

It is always a good idea to have your kiddos eyes tested to make sure their vision is not interfering in their reading or their ability to track words on the page. However, many young children need time to develop and strengthen their eye muscles to be able to track a line of print properly across a page. It has much to do with age and maturity. I would always err on the side of giving a 5 year old several years to come along phonics-wise, tracking-wise, and writing-wise before worrying about extensive testing or therapy (unless it is a clear-cut vision issue or a different issue related to a disability that the child has).

I would not consider dyslexia to be a clear-cut learning issue to diagnose. There is not a formal test that clearly shows whether a child is dyslexic or not. There are many batteries of tests that can be given, but from years of experience in the public school system, I will tell you it is more a diagnosis that grows out of years of symptoms that combine to form the diagnosis of dyslexia (more than likely diagnosed accurately in older teens or adults). This is because adults who have discovered they are dyslexic can tell very quickly that they fit the listing of "symptoms", but a young child has a hard time conveying what they're seeing and often will give conflicting symptoms that sound dyslexia-like but aren't necessarily so. Even when dyslexia is the diagnosis, there is not a certain prescriptive way to fix it. While some spelling programs and reading programs are better suited toward a dyslexic child, overall kiddos often learn to cope on their own and learn strategies that help them overcome it as they go through life.

So, long story short, if your insurance pays for vision therapy, it would be a good thing to do (as it certainly wouldn't hurt your child in any way). But, since they are unclear on the diagnosis (double-vision vs. dyslexia), if your insurance does not pay for the therapy, I would see how many sessions they are recommending your daughter would need and what the expected outcome would be. I would also ask if there is anything you could work on at home to help with this. I would be more inclined to wait and see how she progresses without therapy, since your daughter is so young. I would also check with your opthamologist to see if any kind of glasses, prisms, etc. could be helpful in your daughter's case. If you haven't already been to an opthamologist, this is a step up from an optometrist, and would be well worth your time in getting an opinion.

Blessings,
Carrie

[Mandy in TN]

I have concerns that my five year old has dyslexia. I know she's young. I took her to an eye doctor because she said it looked like the words were moving on the paper. She was diagnosed with having double vision. She is going to need vision therapy. My youngest has apraxia and when I had her that the neurologist he said that my oldest probably doesn't have double vision but dyslexia. When my daughter is reading a word like pan she will sound out all the letters and then say nap. She does this almost 90% of the time. Should I get the vision therapy and see if that helps, this will cost about $100 a session and we are not sure if our insurance will cover this. I'm just not sure what to do. How young were your children when they got diagnosed and how did they get diagnosed.

I apologize for not responding.

I have a 17yo dyslexic ds. He was officially diagnosed when he was 7. He had a complete pycho/educational evaluation at that time.

Dyslexia runs in his father's family. His father's aunt is a special ed teacher at a private school and tutors dyslexic students. Her ds is also dyslexic. He ended up attending a boarding school in New York state for high school.

Anyway, the point of all that was to say, that even given the family history and with a dyslexic ds of her own, this aunt strongly discouraged any testing until age 7. She pointed out that a teacup is a teacup no matter which way you put it (with the handle on the left, with the handle on the right, upside down, right-side up). A young child who is just learning written language is trying to decode a series of circles and lines. No matter whether they go from left to right or how they are placed in relation to (in most cases) an unwritten base line, they are still just lines and circles. In addition to decoding which letter the lines and circles represent and which sound to associate with that symbol, the child also has to remember to move from left to right on each line and within each word. Whew, that’s a lot of work!

Between kindergarten and first grade ds’s great-aunt tutored him. This was a long time ago and I can’t remember what all she did, but I know that in addition to phonics she worked on tracking and used colored strips for something. At Christmas of his first grade year, we moved ds back to kindergarten. In the spring we had him tested.

So, agreeing with Carrie, I would get a second opinion on her eyes from an opthamologist. That is the first thing I would do. If there is an agreement that she would benefit from vision therapy, then I would do it- especially if insurance ends up covering it. I would hold off on testing for dyslexia until she is older.

HTH-
Mandy