What Dyslexia Looks Like

Well, we have officially decided to homeschool Cooper.  Casey wants to participate in teaching Cooper Science.  In essence both of us will work to educate him.  Will, however, will remain at public school a while longer.  I have worked long and hard to get him an IEP and want to be sure he has a chance to function in the school setting with proper supports before I make any decisions about home schooling him, not to mention he is quite the EXTROVERT, and I don't think he'd thrive at home.  I would like to keep him in a classroom setting for as long as possible.   However, given his dyslexia and giftedness I am open to finding ways to allow him to co-learn at home.  I am after all the most qualified professional in his life to deal with his complex educational profile.  On some levels it just stinks that I am his mom.

Anyway,  today I really wanted to show my readers what dyslexia LOOKS like.  I talk about it, but unless you see it you have no idea.  My hope is that this little exposure increases awareness, after all this was my passion long before my son was diagnosed.  In fact he may still be un-diagnosed if this weren't my passion.
Below is a letter he wrote to us.  As you can see from his teacher's comment, this is an example of his BEST work.  You will find a translation (corrected spelling, but not punctuation- lack of awareness of punctuation is a part of dyslexia) at the end of each page of the letter. Oh, and he is nearly 9 and in 2nd grade (He should be in 3rd grade.  I demanded that he repeat 1st grade, long story.)  For those of you who don't know him, he is INCREDIBLY bright.  We thought he'd surely be in the gifted class, as he was putting together large puzzles with no difficulty as a toddler.  He is articulate, creative, and can execute math problems far above his grade level.  He frequently discusses theological and philosophical ideas that most adults cannot grasp, yet this is his best writing.

"Once there was a person that wanted to be mean and called me a fatty and when I got. Home I felt bad so I worked out a lot until I was as skinny as a ???? my friends helped me feel better but it still did
         Not work the next day I woke up and kind of showed my muscles and the person called me fat.  I just walked away and made a club called (no mean club) so when. The person came I let him in checked for any mean tools he had none so I kept an eye on that guy."

"and then he. Then tried to hurt kids so I telled him to get out but he said "no" so I throw him out of the club.  And to never come back so he did what I said.
                  and never came back.  I felt happy that I stopped the person from being mean to other people and meand he never ever was mean to anyone again.  And that was that and that person was never mean again and I also stopped that person from being a bully and he started a new life and was nice and not mean so he became my friend and I reminded him not to be."

Again, this is some of his best work.  As you see there are reversals, but the reversals are a symptom.  You can put cute little "b","d","p","q" visuals up all you want, but it won't help.  That, in and of itself, is akin to learning by osmosis for him and any other dyslexic for that matter. The bigger picture is his lack of awareness of the functioning of letters, phonemes (which are letter combos that make certain sounds like "th"), and sentence structure.  His brain is not only NOT hard wired for this information, it is wired counter to being able to understand these concepts.  This means manually inputting this information into his brain and reconstructing his synapses.  Yep, Call me brain reconstructor.  He doesn't understand the squiggle that looks like "q" makes the "qua" sound or that the little symbol that looks like "p" makes the "pee" sound.  Which is why he reverses them.  He doesn't get the idea that a "." means the end of a written idea.  The correlation between spoken and written word doesn't exist for him or other dyslexics.  This is a kid that at 8 could add and subtract 2 and 3 digit numbers, gets general concepts of things like the "string theory" and frequently asks deep theological questions.  He is incredibly bright.  Dyslexia occurs only in people with average, to (more often than not) above average intelligence.  Einstein and Edison come to mind.  Yep they were dyslexic.

One thing I fear about him in public school is that like the two men I just mentioned, my son will be cast off as being of below average intelligence because of his poor spelling and grammar.  Worse yet, if he doesn't receive proper interventions he will continue to learn to read far after the school has him reading to learn.  He will lose out on information needed to build his basis of knowledge in subjects like social studies and science, not because he CAN'T learn it, but because it isn't delivered to him in a fashion that is efficient for his brain.  He will fall behind and be placed in lower track classes.  I saw this far too often as a teacher; kids who fall grade levels behind, but are as intelligent, if not more intelligent than their peers.  This one little dirty word is why.  It isn't recognized by IDEA or NCLB as a disability in and of itself.  Instead it gets classified as "written expression" or "reading comprehension"  and schools treat the symptoms and not the problem.  I have worked with several kids one on one to "reconstruct" their synapses so that they might, when they were done with me go out on their own WITHOUT an IEP or a crutch and be able to function to their IQ.  Heck, I taught my son to read, I had to pull him out of school to do it.  I still work with him on spelling, but these brains need intensive sessions.  They need to be pushed to the point of hurting, literally, which is why it's a curse that his mother is his best resource.  I guess I hope that this gets out there for two reasons: 1.) so parents who think there is something just not quite right with "johnny" or "jane" can look at this and say, that's my kid.  Then they'd have a place to start looking.  2.) So myths that educators cling to can be debunked and students' true issues can be addressed.

Also, wasn't his letter BEAUTIFUL!  What a beautiful little lion of a soul he has.  If I didn't have so much practice reading this kadiwompus writing I may never have decoded the hidden message.  He is a writer, an author, with important things to say.  It is OUR responsibility to be sure all kids are given the tools to communicate their messages to the world!

P.S. WORLD, he is built like an ADONIS!  He could be the son of Hercules or Beowulf.  He is about as much of a "fatty" as a Hanes underwear model!