Your Child Has Dyslexia: Now What?

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If your child has just been diagnosed or identified as having dyslexia, let me be the first to welcome you to the club and assure you that not only are you not alone, but you are in good company. According to LD Online, it is estimated that “14.5 to 43.5 million children and adults” have dyslexia in America. If you have just received the news, or you have your suspicions and are waiting for a proper evaluation, you may feel lost or worried about what to do next. As a mom who has had to watch her son struggle since Kindergarten, I wanted to put together this post to help you find resources and support!

dyslexia

My son was identified by his school and finally qualified for specialized services in school last year. You can read a little about that story here. We also have a suspicion that my husband has undiagnosed dyslexia but was able to cope and learn ways to work around his difficulties as an adolescent. This didn’t really help us know what to do, but it did give us hope for our son’s future.

Nothing is more heartbreaking than to receive report after report from your child’s school of all the ways he is behind his classmates and how he “is in danger of not meeting grade-level requirements”, but also be told that he is too young for intervention.

Once I had my suspicions that my son’s struggles stemmed from a learning disability, specifically Dyslexia, I dove into research and finding others who could relate. This helped me immensely when we received roadblocks within the school system and all of the red tape that is in the way of getting help for your child. That may be why you are here: one google search and it can become overwhelming.

My first suggestion for anyone that is new to a learning disability diagnosis is to find support. I found that it is easy to find online groups where I feel comfortable asking questions or getting advice from more experienced parents.

Dyslexia Support – for parents of dyslexic children– this is a really big Facebook group that is international. This is interesting because you can see ways that others all over the world have the same struggles as your child also the ways that laws differ.

Neurodiverse Learning– This is a page on Facebook that you can follow that covers a lot of different Neurodiverse issues including dyslexia.

Discovering Dyslexia – Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas – I recently discovered a whole lot of Texas groups, there is this really small group from here in the Coastal Bend.

And if you can not find what you are looking for exactly, it is really easy to start a Facebook group of your own, and find a few friends to help you moderate!

Finding resources can be a double-edged sword, you can easily become overwhelmed if you try to go too quickly or dive into too many things all at once. My suggestion is to find one book, podcast, or blog and take an entire month to look at that one resource. Below are some of the ones I have found most helpful.

Websites:

Homeschooling With Dyslexia – “Kids with dyslexia learn differently and therefore need to be taught differently. I’ll show you how! My mission is to provide reliable, research-based, and highly useful information to families and teachers of kids with dyslexia.”

International Dyslexia Association – provides so many resources and information for families.

Dyslexia the Gift Blog-We provide training and information about the methods pioneered by Ronald Dell Davis, as described in the book,  The Gift of Dyslexia.

Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities– This site covers a wide range of learning disabilities and articles to help, including Dyslexia.

Books:

Teaching A Struggling Reader: One Mom’s Experience with Dyslexia

Blueprint for a Literate Nation How You Can Help

The Math Handbook for Students with Math Difficulties, Dyscalculia, Dyslexia or ADHD: (Grades 1-7)

The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning

Once Upon An Accommodation: A Book About Learning Disabilities

Podcasts: 

The Dyslexia Quest podcastElisheva Schwartz

Dyslexia Is Our Superpower PodcastGibby Booth Jasper

Dyslexia ExploredDarius Namdaran

Smart Child Bad Grades? Liz Weaver

Dyslexia Coffee TalkThe Dyslexia Initiative

The Truth About Dyslexia Podcast 

Dyslexia Explored

The last thing I will leave you with is a little hope! I promise it is not all doom and gloom. You will have many days ahead where you feel lost, or like you may never see light at the end of the tunnel. Then one day your sweet child will look at you and read something that they have never been able to read before. Or they will write you a sweet note with almost all the words spelled correctly and you will realize all your hard work is paying off.

Here is my advice: there will be a lot of time spent focused on things that your child has not mastered yet. When you are at home spend time focusing on the things they HAVE mastered!

For our son, bike riding is not his thing, but he LOVES his scooter, so we bought the entire family scooters and we often go for rides together, letting him lead the way!

Another example: Recently our kids elementary started Club Fridays – offering things from coloring to cooking. Twice a month they get to spend the last hour of school on a Friday in their chosen club. Our son picked a Chess club, and is really excelling – he even made the UIL Chess Puzzle Club!! I am so excited to see him grow and learn with this new interest and am happy to get some supplies to help him at home gain confidence and knowledge!

We have told our son from the very beginning that being dyslexic is his superpower! And we are so proud to have some more superheroes on the journey with us!

dyslexia

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Jennifer
Jennifer is a Coastal Bend Native, born and raised in Ingleside. She began contributing to the Corpus Christi Moms Blog in 2018 and stepped up as the Community Engagement Coordinator in 2019. She is happiest when she is crafting, writing, or doing anything artistic. She loves music, especially ANYTHING from the 90's, and is often seen dancing around the kitchen to Nsync while cooking dinner. She is married to Derik and has two kids, Connor and Keeley (pronounced Key-Lee). Jennifer still feels like a novice when it comes to parenting and enjoys letting other moms know they are not doing life alone. She also admits she watches copious amounts of Netflix, but balances that out by reading to and with her kiddos as much as possible each day.