Comments on: When Your Kid Can’t Read …

By: amymiyamoto

amymiyamoto — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:26:39 +0000

Alexis,
I commend you for remaining open and willing to explore what Kaia’s teachers were sharing with you. As a former middle school teacher, I had the honor of working with a number of delightful and unique students. Some of those that touched me the most were those that persevered through learning challenges. I had several who were both highly gifted and also dyslexic or dysgraphic. This was particularly hard for me as a teacher – because I could see their brilliance shining through yet also witnessed their daily pain and frustration as a result of their learning challenge. They came to me already in adolescence and although I provided all the support and intervention I could, I always wondered had they received more intervention at a younger age – if school would have been easier and more enjoyable for them.

Again, I applaud you for giving your daughter the gift of a new set of skills which will serve her for a lifetime and open for her a wealth of possibilites!
Amy Miyamoto
On Twitter @amymiyamoto

By: maria bailey

maria bailey — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:59:39 +0000

I feel your pain, frustration and desperation. I am still trying to get someone to tell me what my gut tells me, “there is something wrong”. Instead I have teachers telling me she will grow out of it but she’s in the fourth grade. Now I’ve gone out on my own to find an answer. I will- I’m determined.

By: Heidi Alexander

Heidi Alexander — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:11:15 +0000

Thank goodness our optometrist ,Dr. Kapust of Hermosa Beach ,did a tracking test on our kids. We found out 2 of 6 have tracking issues – which also can be an effect of “easily distracted” behavior in class or even headaches. He offers a private session teaching parents tracking exercises to help them work with their children at home.

By: Darwin Stephenson

Darwin Stephenson — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:54:08 +0000

Great posting, thanks for sharing. My daughter doesn’t have dyslexia but she does have Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) and one of the things they test for is eye tracking. By having her follow the therapist’s finger from side to side or up and down, they watch to see if they child’s eyes track smoothly or have jumps, skips or swings. As you can imagine, when your eyes jump around like this it makes reading really hard because your eyes aren’t taking in the material to the right as you scan the sentence. Thus simple concepts like sounding out words become very frustrating for the child because their brain isn’t getting the input it needs to process.

The point of both of our postings is that getting your kids tested is critical when they’re struggling. If you know what you’re dealing with you can help. Otherwise you’re just having a homework battle and no one wins.

Thanks for posting. The more we share the more we can help one another.