How do I sift through all this Dyslexia and ADHD Information?

The response from my recent posts about ADHD and Dyslexia have been overwhelming.  I am happy to share our family's story if it helps just one more child get the help they need to make school an enjoyable place to be.

Several questions I have been receiving I covered earlier in the summer, so instead of covering them again, I will put links to all the posts here.

My son has struggled with reading since first grade.  After lots of searching and help from friends we got an answer to the question Is it Dyslexia? Is it ADHD? Help!!

Then we had to figure out How does one deal with an ADHD diagnosis?

Everything started to fall into place with a trip to the Alltech Symposium where they posed the question What if We Could Eat Our Way Out of ADHD?  Then later in the summer we saw the results of using ADHD and I had to make myself ask the question Did That Really Happen?

 After a summer of reading tutoring and adding an Omega 3-DHA supplement to his diet, I needed a way to document the changes and not just what I thought I could see happening I needed real numbers.

If you are wondering what the signs of Dyslexia are and why we had our son tested please remember that 1 in 5 kids are born with Dyslexia and there are a number of signs not just flipping numbers and letters.

Pittsburg State (Pittsburg, Kansas) has an amazing Center for Research, Evaluation, and Awareness of Dyslexia.  If you are not lucky to leave close to Pittsburg State University or you leave close to a Dyslexia testing facility, but have been told it would be 6 months before your child could be tested, know that Dyslexia testing can be done anywhere there is internet with a great online testing tool that only costs $25!!

I have a friend in California that did lots of research and decided to bring her son to Kansas for a week of testing and tutoring.  She shared her story about what she found.

I hope this puts everything in one place where you can find what you are looking for.  If you have further questions, please let me know and I will continue to update this post as I have 3 guests posts about dyslexia next week already scheduled.

-A Kansas Farm Mom

1 in 5!

Did you know that 1 in 5 kids is born with Dyslexia?

That is 20% of children!

Parents across America struggle with children they know are intelligent, but can't seem to grasp school work especially if it involves any reading at all.  In honor of October is Dyslexia Awareness Month, I will be sharing some of the things our family has learned to deal with and the testing and tutoring center we have found to help us.

While many in the education field would like you to think that Dyslexia is the eyes or brain switching the order of letters, it is so much more.  Often poor handwriting, poor spelling and slow reading are all signs of dyslexia.  Often the letters don't look the same to them.  I know my son struggled tremendously when reading books where harder words were replaced with pictures.  I think he was trying to find the letters in the pictures.

Often students are diagnosed ADHD by teachers because they appear to not stay on task.  It isn't that they don't want to do the task, it is that they can't.  They simply can't read.  They can't read at the speed of their peers and they can't read the directions or word problems on math worksheets.

Why is Dyslexia a concern to me?

For the past 2 school years, my mom instinct was telling me that there was a reason that one of my boys had a difficult time in school.  He wasn't "just a boy" as a couple of teachers told me.  There was a reason why he had more homework than his classmates.

We had his eyes checked.  They were fine.
We had his hearing checked by an audiologist.  He could hear things most people couldn't.

After discussions with other moms and detective work by a great friend and college student, we found the PSU READing center.  The detective friend was hired by the center to tutor our son, so we didn't have to travel 2 hours for each session of tutoring over the summer.  We would have traveled, but he worked so well for her that we didn't have to.

We still have a few struggles, but he is not the same student that finished school in May.  Homework has all but disappeared from his backpack.  When he does have homework, I have been told that it is easier for him to do it by himself than with me.  What a relief!  The hours of homework he brought home last year stressed the whole family.  He still reads slower and probably always will, but he does have the tools in his head to sound out words and think it through.

Definitions are still hard for him to copy out of the glossary, but they are getting easier.  If I read them once for him, it seems to be a bit easier.

I finally have a son that doesn't feel dumb when he goes to school.  He is a student that feels like he fits in with his classmates.  Nothing could make me happier.

Do you have a child that struggles in reading?  I highly recommend the Pittsburg State University READing and CARRD programs.  The testing is thorough and priced for everyone to afford it.  The fees are based on your income level and are very affordable for what you are getting in return.

 I have donated to CARRD, Inc. and have been wearing the following necklace  to show my support and to help spread the word about Dyslexia.  I hope you will consider donating and wearing one as well.

 I am hoping to share some other family's stories of how they have dealt with Dyslexia.  I would love to share teacher's stories of things they have used in the classroom for their students with dyslexia.  I have a couple of posts lined up from others already and hope to get some more.

It takes a village to raise a child and sometimes that village is online.  Feel free to comment here or to contact me on my contact tab.  I would love to hear from you.

-A Kansas Farm Mom