Dyslexia

There I said it. I said Dyslexia or Dyslexic.

My son, R2 is Dyslexic.

That was a hard word for me to swallow. Kindergarten was supposed to be a wonderful year of learning and getting a good start for the beginning of great school career. To put it mildly, Kindergarten was a nightmare. While socially R2 was growing wonderfully but scholastically it was a daily struggle.

But with the help of a wonderfully experienced Kindergarten teacher, at the end of the last school year we had R2 tested for Dyslexia. There were several factors during the school year that lead us to this decision.

We did have him tested on our own because the school system in Texas does not test for Dyslexia until the end of First grade and I was not willing to wait that long. I had to step up and be the voice for my child. I had to step up and get him the help he needed now and not wait until he was so far behind and his self esteem plummeted.

I did research, and lots of it.

So what exactly is Dyslexia? I asked the same question. It's not just the reversal of letters or numbers in your head. It's so much more than that.

Dyslexia is a broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read,^[1] and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid naming.^[2][3] Dyslexia is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction. (taken from Wikipedia)

R2 has what is know as phonemic dyslexia. He has difficulty blending sounds to make words. An example would be take the word MAT. We would sound out the letters M and A and T and then put them together to form the word. R2 doesn't have trouble with every word he tried to blend together but more often than not he does.

During the summer R2 worked with a Dyslexic specialist, whom we call Gummy. At least that is what her grand children call her and she told R2 he could call her that as well. She was absolutely wonderful. I was so thankful we found her. The improvement just after the first session was amazing. We spent many days at her house.

And another bit of good news, R2's First grade teacher used to do what the schools call specialty pull out classes for reading before she became a certified teacher. His teacher is fantastic! She has been working on a few things with him already and the school year has just begun. Can you say prayers answered!

A year ago I never imagined I'd be writing this post. A year ago I thought my youngest child would go to school and learn everything just the way he was supposed to learn everything.

But here I am telling you my child has dyslexia. I'm shouting it, MY CHILD HAS DYSLEXIA. In the worlds of my best friend, he's fixable. He's going to grow up and be OK. And while the road ahead is a long one and sometimes the bumps will feel more like I have just been pushed off a cliff, I know things are better and they are getting better. With the help from one awesome kindergarten teacher, a fabulous first grade teacher, Gummy, Hubs, and me R2 is and will be just fine.