I think my son (8) is Dyslexic - how do I talk to him about this?

pollypenny

Mojisola wrote: »

You didn't know the teachers.

I doubt the Ed psych knew them that well to comment on their IQs. :cool:

betsie

When my daughter was first diagnosed, an elderly neighbour with the same condition said to never say to her that "she is dyslexic" as it does not define who she is or what she can be.

When you talk to your son about it or tell other people tell them "he has dyslexia". Tell him he can get help to make it easier to deal with the condition and teach him techniques to manage day to day.

Mojisola

betsie wrote: »

When my daughter was first diagnosed, an elderly neighbour with the same condition said to never say to her that "she is dyslexic" as it does not define who she is or what she can be.

It depends how sensitive you are. Would you not say "she is tall" because her height doesn't define her?

neverdespairgirl

My son's the same age as yours, and is relatively severely dyslexic. He was diagnosed by an educational psychologist at Easter time last year, when he was 7.

We were straight-forward with him about it. My son (and I bet, yours too) was perfectly well aware that he was behind his classmates in reading and writing, and was already trying strategies to avoid having to write, or avoid demonstrating his difficulties.

We told him we thought he was dyslexic, and explained that to him. And when he was diagnosed with it, we went through some parts of the report with him, and as well as the bits that said he was behind his age in reading and writing, pointed out the bits that said he was years ahead of his age in conceptual thinking and various other things. We talked about how people are good at different things.

We've also had several discussions over the past months about why his remedial lessons (hourly after-school sessions, thrice-weekly) are important, and why reading and writing matter. He told my Dad over Christmas that he had to work hard to get his reading to match his thinking, so that he could read books he found interesting, instead of having to read boring books for little children.

Being diagnosed with dyslexia gave Isaac a massive confidence boost, reassured him he wasn't being thick and half-witted, and showed him that he might need to work harder at it, but that it wasn't just a brick wall to bang his head against.

Emmylou_2

My husband is *hideously* dyslexic (btw, why is that such a hard word to spell...it's unfair ) and has just completed a Masters.

He was only officially diagnosed in the past three years - before that (going through a good private school and Russell Group uni) he was told that "he was too intelligent/read too well/read for pleasure so he couldn't be dyslexic" (*insert baffled smiley here*)

When he was assessed, his report says that he is on (roughly) the 97th percentile across all areas EXCEPT reading speed and reading comprehension, which are about 45th percentile. Since diagnosis, it's been fabulous - he's had extra time when doing his exams for his Masters, was allowed an extra rewrite on his dissertation, and gets extra support now he's applying for jobs when it comes to assessment centres.

His handwriting looks like a drunken spider fell into an inkpot and danced across the page, but he *does* read for pleasure and has just got a Masters (the sticky-foot :rotfl: arrived today) so it's not the end of the world. I only wonder how different things would have been for him had he been diagnosed at primary school rather than when he was turning 30!

Mojisola

Came across this yesterday -
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-is-dyslexia-kelli-sandman-hurley