AS and Dyslexia

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This week has been filled with laughter and smiles and fun lil quirky moments that i'm sure i'll not easily forget! Thank you to all who gave advice, insite and perspective.. taking everyones thoughts and using them to streamline and change things has really really made a difference.

This week I also discovered that my william has dyslexia as well as AS this is really important because it explains the difficulty he's had with reading, writing and spelling and in turn explains a lot of the low self esteem ie. i'm stupid that we've dealt with for so long. (btw there are types of dyslexia that affect only the ability to eccel at math)

It surprises me that schools do not even test for this since it's really easy to spot the warning signs if you know what your looking for... why isn't there some kind of flyer sent home "hey parents watch for this stuff it might save your child some years of discouragement or pain and make learning a lil bit easier"... It breaks my heart to know that not only has he been suffereing the inevidable social crap from the AS and the terrible sensory input and miscommunication with teachers....but also the stuff from the dyslexia.

This is somthing that could have been caught back in kindergarden there were signs that were noticable and he could have been monitored for it and then diagnosed early in 1st or 2nd grade. If he'd been diagnosed a simple change in the way reading is taught would have allowed this child who can pick locks, take things apart fix them and put them back together and who can design and build facinating wonder full things from his brain.. to be able to keep up with the rest of the kids and not have to feel 'stupid' in the face of already feeling like an outcast:(.

Ok so the early speech issues like difficulty with L,R,M,N were present from the age of 3.. some of these are normal untill a child can form the letters but they are supose to fade at some point before school starts. Once he entered Kindergarden these phenome issues coupled with his difficulty tying his shoes and telling Left from Right would have been enough for a piliminary diagnoses.. add on The odd grip on his pencil and his difficulty reading with the repeated phrase "it's too hard", go from there..

He has as it turns out more than 28 of the 38 warning signs for dyslexia and yet nobody in the school system caught it... most of these 28 signs were obvious and have been documented over all these years with the speech therapists and the teachers. It really pisses me off that somthing as serious as dyslexia would be ignored by the medical community because it's a 'language issue' and ignored by speech because it's a 'reading issue' and ignored by the school because they dont even know what it is. GEEEESH!! !

Is it no wonder that our kids struggle. Ok so I could rant on for an hour about how angry I am this was missed but in the face of it I feel hopeful. This bright child of mine will not be destined for nothing but mcdonals lol he will have choices and wow.

I watched a seminar online about dyslexia because by accident trying to find a sample letter for a child on the suppport group I came across one a parent had written requesting a hearing and it mentioned orton-gillingham which i then looked up , brought me to the seminar and the rest is history. Watching that seminar so many emotions went through me, anger, frustration, sympathy, empathy OMG!. but in the end I found hope and a desire to find some way to make schools test for this or at the very least pass on the information to other parents who might be seeing or have seen some of these early signs...

I always thought dyslexia was simply switching letters or numbers around it turns out it's a whole lot more involved and starts with the basis of language in general and how the American system of reading is set up. While phonics is great for most kids.. kids with dyslexia it turns out will hit a wall in 3rd grade and be unable to progress untill a different way of teaching it is started.

I think every teacher and parent should see this seminar it's really amazing it's not already somthing watched by our educators!

well i'm done ranting for today lol Sorry.

I am glad you've caught it!

I've come to accept that so many things are difficult to diagnose at certain ages because so many of the warning signs are actually perfectly normal. Much of what you mentioned could also be warning signs for hypermobility or other issues ... or just a kid slightly behind on the developmental chart. I think schools don't want to panic parents and kids until the need is obvious. And, OK, they are also trying to keep their resources applied most efficiently, but ... letting parents and teachers get overly anxious is no solution, either, as we're seeing in our area with the current sheer panic over early signs for AS. So, we're left to needing smart, instinctive educators and smart, instinctive parents who know when to look and when not to bother. Yeah, I know ... not a very good safety net, but for the average child still struggling with reading in 2nd grade it actually will resolve itself before 4th grade.

I still can't tell my left from my right. I have to visualize the table at my mom's to get it correct. Wierd, isn't it?

ANYWAY, I think your son is lucky to have such a smart, instinctive, mom. Knowing what causes the issue is definitely half the battle!

And rant away. I know how frustrating it is. Don't we all in one shape or another?

Left hand: thumb sucking hand. I'm 33, haven't sucked my thumb in decades, but that's how I still remember it, so don't feel bad
I'm happy you caught your son's problem , now he will get the help he needs and that must be such a relief...You have every right to be upset but hey, what's done is done, at least now you DO know, and that's what matters!

DW- thing is that altho the few things i mentioned were things that can yes be normal there were so so many more lol and if the few things like trouble tying shoes made say a teacher say ok i'm gonna watch this one lil closer .... they could have watched for other signs when the picture started to develop and DS still wasn't improving they could have said hey is there any family history of Dyslexia? which there is lol....

it just really shocked me how very little schools know about it and that when they have a struggling child instead of checking these risk factors (would take less than an hour) they change the reading program when that isn't succesful they change it again lol They could have saved a whole lot of time and money and in the long run a lot of pain for that child.

I remember asking about it in Kindergarden when he was writing half his letters backward and upside down lol course at that time a lot of it would have been normal which is what i was told but they never said lets watch out for this a year or two from now if it's still present we'll look further.

I am tho thrilled to know and now to be able to move forward with him. I showed him 2 of the language rules they had on their demo (using yellow tiles for vowels blue for consenants) and then once he understood closed and open words and how it affects the sound of the vowel every single time he was popping out 7 letter words he wouldn't have even attempted before hahahaha and he was excited about it.. i can't imagine how exciting learning all of the rules will be for him i'm just stoked!! !

lol so cute.

We think my 8 year old Aspie has dyslexia. They are going to test him. He can sound out some letters (in french and English) and has learned a few words but he tends to forget them if we do not work on them every day. He still can not read and his writing is odd....sometimes he writes very well and other times very large and sometimes very small, he is still reversing letters and numbers. He also had speech issues and had to go to speech therapy. I have an older daughter with dyslexia but we thought it came from her fathers side of the family (my X husband). My son father is my current husband. I have dyscalculia, the dyslexia with numbers that you were referring to so I guess it is possible that it comes from me. I excelled in reading and grammar when I was a kid but could not and still can not understand numbers and read double digits back wards. I noticed the other day when my son was playing his reading game that he is inverting letters. The word was wish and he peeked at the spelling (there is a cheat thing on the game to help). He looked at it quickly and typed the word as shwi. We were thinking dysgraphia at first because he says its painful to write and he has a lot of fine motor skill issues. We will find out what is going on soon but I agree that its difficult. My son, like yours, already has serious social issues...having serious academic issues on top of that just makes things 10X worse. My husband and I have read to our children every night. My, nearly 6 year old autie, is already reading but my son just cant. Im hoping that he can get the help that he needs and he will someday be able to read.
I did see a documentary about a man who had dyslexia and he managed to get himself through law school by using a computer program that read things to him and having special help with tests....some things read orally to him. He said he realized that he could never actually work as a lawyer because of his problems but he is happy that he did it and he accepts himself now and he now helps teens and kids who have dyslexia.

http://www.webcastgroup.com/webcast/window_new/frameset.asp?wid=0680831062670&n=&e2=&c=&nf=&nl=&r=&i=

That is the url to that seminar I watched. She had said that if there is a family history the child has a 50percent chance of having it.. If while reading they substitute words like horse becomes pony, speed becomes fast.... she can almost guarntee it. she also explains why these issues and risk factors happen and why it's difficult for them to read. But the happiest thing is that if given the proper instruction ... an ortan-gillingham based reading system (theres' a bunch) they can learn to read like any other child and can go on to be successful in school or life with respect to reading, writing and spelling.

Thank you very much tskin for providing that link. I'm finding it very informative and interesting, albeit somewhat confusing as she keeps mentioning things that I always thought everyone did as being signs of dyslexia... yet I can't see how I could be dyslexic despite all those things applying due to my deep abiding love of books and reading.

I'm glad that your son has that dyslexia diagnosis now. My sister didn't have one until she was an adult and her school years were horrible because of (among other things) those issues. Knowing she has it has made a big difference, but of course there's always that question of how much easier things would have been if the diagnosis of dyslexia had been there while still in school... It should make it much easier to have the diagnosis.

your welcome

it could be that yours is so mild that you were able to live with it and still get out of reading what some can? My mother used to talk about how reading could take you to other countries and situations that you'd never have a chance to visit. She could read and imagine herself there. I could never do that so things like history and geography were way boring for me:(.

your right any of these things we dont find out till later are unfortunate because so much pain could be avoided

I think you may be right there. I think maybe it was also pure need for some escape driving both her and me to read. There were books everywhere, but growing up we had such limited access to music just due to where we lived (1 radio station that played anything other than classical, we didn't get a station that played current music all the time till I was 12) and TV (1 state run station with 1 hour a day for children's shows). So combine that with the AS making it difficult to interact with other kids and being clumsy enough that athletics weren't an option either and it really was books or nothing. I certainly know that a lot of what was mentioned in that video applied even more to me as a child, even though I did read a lot back then but it still seems like I would be a far more borderline case, while my sister would be a more classic case of dyslexia.


It was hard for my sister as she's quite dyslexic but she's working on her second BA so she's had, well, more academic success than I have despite being far more dyslexic. Also her unique way of seeing language has made her a fixture in the local paper as she writes word puzzles that are now quite popular and she meets every month with her fans to walk them through some of the puzzles. So it's not been all bad for her even though of course it's been harder for her only getting the diagnosis fairly late into adulthood. But it's made me very happy to see how she's been able to turn her different way of seeing words into a strength with those puzzles.

that sounds sooo cool! word puzzles yay! you know my sister is an odd one she will get those books of number finds and sit for hours finding them haha she used to race me and kick my butt each time. She also can remember any number said to her at one point she was the manager of a credit union and when people would come in she'd already have their account open based on their number hehe very cool stuff. i can't even remember my own number geeezzz

I have a daughter with Dyspraxia and some Dyslexia but otherwise she is NT although just a bit different. She has a problem with maths, sequencing, being disorganised..the usual problems. She has an official diagnosis with a learning disability, but is an excellent reader and also apparently 'gifted' and in the gifted and talented stream in school due to other strengths she has (mainly ideas). She has lowish muscle tone and is a little bit clumsy, apparently all of that together is not uncommon in Dyspraxia.

The biggest improvement for her we have found has been getting her into physical activity which we encourage, we make her do swimming and athletics and ballet and so forth. That all followed on from PT and in particular the mysterious (to me anyway) 'crossing of the midline'! She is not good at athletics apart from throwing a Vortex, but is a pretty handy swimmer. Also tumbling activities are great for co-ordination and arm and shoulder strength (which helps learning in class as they don't get fatigue and slump as easily) so I'm always complimenting her on her cartwheels and handstands to encourage that.
Physical co-ordination and the condition are intrinsically connected with Dyspraxia so I encourage anyone with a kid like this to get them into these sorts of activities, and just be gentle and persistent and encouraging with them. Also good for their self esteem when they achieve of course!
This is not something I dreamed up, its what the PTs put us onto

Edit: As an aside, anyone read "The Gift of Dyslexia" by Ron Davis? Its a bit of a controversial book, in that he had severe debilitating Dyslexia to the point where he couldn't learn the alphabet at 12 IIRC. Then he reckons he worked out what was going wrong and came up with a way to learn and teach. He groups Dyslexia and Dyspraxia and Autism together as variants of a learning disorder. He deals with hand-eye co-ordination in his book and has a series of exercises as one of the fundamentals. Problem is his method doesn't work for everybody.
But when I read his book there were hints (to me) of very powerful truths in what he says and he's onto 'something' I feel even if maybe not right on it, or maybe onto something that at least applies to a portion of people, particularly how he describes a learning disabled childs very early development and learning. I guess I understand because I'm an example.

my cousin had the dyspraxia type dyslexia wasn't untill college they diagnosed and treated her for it .. (relearning) she works for a bank now. (so even with issue in swapping numbers) she is succesfull now she also went on to earn a degree in college.

with my son there isn't any coordination muscle issues thankfully altho he isn't interested in any sports aside from golf swimming is a good sport:)

that video and seems like i did list it goes through all the risk factors putting it into an easy to understand format very interesting. Lots of the things show up before school ever starts and area really noticable by kindergarden/1st grade , lots have to do with speech delays

your right tho she did say most kids or adults with dyslexia are gifted with somthing else that a lot of the famous athlets have dyslexia some are great in music or art. so very cool.
my son is gifted in the art of escape!! ! lol from a very young age he could pick any lock , safty gate or door. perhaps he'll be a world famous burgler some day hehehe

well an update on this front... it turns out when DS was re evaluated two years ago he was found to have dyslexia. I asked the psychologist why it wasn't written in her report she said they dont seperate out the learning disorders they just list them all as SLD (specific learning disorder) I asked her when they planned to share with us what they'd found because we could have gotten him the right help.... anyway long story short she doesn't really recognize dyslexia as anything more than a learning disorder.. she then went into a long explaination of how his frontal lobe is abnormal and causing dysfunction and she feels that even if we found a program that worked it would be short lived and he would eventually refuse to do it.

nice to know the schools have already given up on my son before giving him the proper instruction and chance to succeed

At any rate are looking into organizations to help fund a reading program and we'll simply teach him ourselves.