What does dyslexia look like?

The behavior looks like SID to me. I suggest researching Sensory Intergration/Processing disorder. The Out of Sync Child is great. Your school district MUST evaluate her. Request it in writing that you want an OT, PT, Speech evaluation. You may as well reqest them all. If her school cannot provide therapies, your district MUST find a suitable school that can. The first place to start would be your school district's CPSE/CSE office. Ask for the contact info for an advocate. Dont' take no for an answer. I forgot about the dyslexia - does she realize she's she writing it incorrectly? If she realizes it, she's average. If she doesn't, she may be dyslexic.

My daughter is 7 and has many of the same issues. I am a Special Educator so I have known for some time that we would have problems in school. She has recently been diagnosed with Sensory Intergration Disorder. We had her seen through our local rehab with a referral from her pediatrician. She is receiving therapy there and we are also working on certain things at home. We opted not to have her tested through the school district yet. She is bright and currently passing so I wasn't ready to get the school involved. Q's mom is right on target, however. The school MUST test any student when a parent requests it. The school counselor should have the necessary paperwork to get the process started. Once you have made the request the school has a certain amount of time to complete the testing. In our district it is 60 days. We also made the unpopular decision to try medication for her ADHD. I really struggled with this because she has many health problems and I wasn't sure adding one more medication to the mix would be a good idea. For her, it was the right decision. I have found some really good websites if you are interested. Pm me and I will send them your way.

Thanks, everyone, for your comments and suggestions. I completed an online symptom checklist and my A met the following: HYPOSENSITIVE TO TOUCH: 1 (needs to touch everything and everyone...Note: She's always "underfoot"/nearby and was called "hypervigilant" by her previous therapist, but that was attributed to her anxiousness during an unstable period) POOR TACTILE PERCEPTION AND DISCRIMINATION: 2 (difficulty w/fine motor tasks, especially buttoning; difficulty using scissors, crayons, and silverware). HYPERSENSITIVITY TO MOVEMENT: 2 (difficulty jumping...jumping rope, especially, hopping, balancing on one foot. Can ride a bike, but only with training wheels at age 6. Probably due to inexperience, as last summer was her first time on a bike!; loses balance easily & appears clumsy) HYPOSENSITIVITY TO MOVEMENT: 5 (loves fast, spinning movement, but not sure that she "craves" it; loves being tossed in air/spun around; always running/hopping/tripping/"prancing", but will sometimes walk evenly and slowly when I'm holding her hand.; swings legs under table constantly kicking anyone sitting opposite her; likes sudden movements...Dad thought it would be fun to weave the van on an empty road when the girls were arguing in the back. They all squealed with delight, so this is standard procedure now!) POOR MUSCLE TONE & COORD.: 10 (the only ones I DIDN'T check had to do with baby stages, school behaviors, and the ambidextrous one--she's definitely right-handed). PROPRIOCEPTIVE/SENSORY SEEKING: 2 ( enjoys bear hugs and rough-housing). DIFFICULTY W/GRADING OF MOVEMENT: 3 (doesn't regulate pressure and breaks pencil tips and crayons; written work is messy; constantly breaks toys). HYPERSENSITIVITY TO SOUNDS: 1 (often startled by sounds, but seems to relax quickly). HYPOSENSITIVE TO VISUAL INPUT: 5 (reverses letters/symbols/words; reverses letters (and numbers) when copying; inconsistent spacing and letter sizing (also uses capital letters in the middle of words!); difficulty cutting and tracing a straight line; constantly bumps into objects/people). Wow! Looking back over this list, it's clear that my A has "poor muscle tone and coordination" (of course we already knew that!), but maybe also HYPOsensitive to movement AND visual input. Hmm...worth investigating, wouldn't you think?

Hi! I think anytime you have concerns they are worth investigating. I would agree that some of those areas are worth looking into. It is great that you are doing so much research to help your daughter! We had to push a bit to get our pediatrician to refer our daughter for testing through the rehab but it was worth the effort. Keep us posted on what you find out. mj'smom

Just saw your post. I have dyslexia... didn't know I had it until I was 35 yrs old! I also have Irlen's syndrome (usually put into the dyslexia catagory). This is where you see kids using colored over-lays (paper sized colored plastic sheets). I wish someone had noticed when I was struggling in school with spelling, writing things backwards - letters and numbers, and bright light hurts my eyes. My mom always dismissed my mixing up letters as "everybody does it". It's not all true! I noticed T (1st grader) had dyslexic symptoms within 24 hours of placement. I had to push and push to get him tested (they just wanted sp. ed because he's so far behind in reading, and a few other things, but they wouldn't put him in the dyslexia pull out class). He can tell you just about anything orally, but not written. He has it severe. Then I had his older sister tested since she was showing some signs (covering her eyes when reading, slow reading out-loud, poor spelling, poor handwriting skills, complained of headaches when reading and yet had 20/20 vision tests). She had it moderately. J is the oldest and is more like me. He can get straight A's, but it's a struggle. I'm still pushing the school to finish the testing (he's only had Irlen's). He doesn't like to use his over-lays and we're looking into glasses (his color is yellow-green and all I've been able to find are "girly" glasses!). His hand writing is horrible! He will write a word down mis-spelled and not even know. He will even spell it back (while reading it) correctly, but that's NOT what's on the page (I do this one too). Some other things kids might say that have dyslexia are: the paper moves, the letters swim or run or move or bubbles and a whole lot of other things. I always thought my allergies were making my eyes tear and turn red. Not all of it! Irlen's does this too! Something else to look for. Like I said, I always thought I was just dumb when it came to spelling (I've learned how to switch vocabulary words to get the same meaning and a word I can spell at that moment). I think of all the tears I shed from K to 6th grade, and then again in college (had to repeat freshman english because the instructor had 30% of the final grade from a spelling test -- 1000 commonly mis-spelled words by college freshman, and THEN he'd put 4 words in a row and we had to tell if any were mis-spelled (max 1) and then spell it correctly. By the time I was half way through the 100 question test, they ALL looked mis-spelled! Oh how aggravating! If you haven't already, ask the school for testing. If they say no, then submit it in writing and keep on going. Good luck!

I too have dyslexia- repeated the 1st grade. It was found early. I still am horrible at math- cause I say and write some numbers backwards. B's and D's are mainy the only letters I still have to write on the side of my paper to try to pick which one is correct- then still choose the wrong one sometimes. With lots of help and patience it will get better for both of you. My mom used to have be practice writing- i had a very bad handwriting, shed make it fun

I have a 15 year old son who has both dyslexia (primarily dysgraphic) and ADHD, Inattentive type. I STRONGLY suggest a thorough evaluation by a good pediatric neurologist. Your daughter is young, so it's an excellent idea to find out what you are dealing with early. That way you have plenty of time to find the right combination of therapy, school accommodations, etc. for her. I also highly recommend the use of an advocate for dealing with the school system, if you can find one and can afford it. (Please note that you may be able to deduct the cost from your taxes as a medical expense.) They know EXACTLY what to ask for in an IEP and the school districts become amazingly cooperative when they realize they have an expert on the case. Good luck and feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Robin

my son is now 12. He started that way. He was diagnosed with delayed fine motor skills. When he writes, he looks like a kindergartener (actually I think some kindergarten kids write better). The writing problem was diagnosed as dysgraphia (inablilty to write). He is also dyslexic. I taught special ed and you do see a lot of children writing numbers and letters in reverse. Is it an every now and then thing or continuous? I would have her tested for dyslexia. With delayed fine motor skills, anything that involves use of the fingers in an articulate manner is delayed. He just learned how to tie his shoes last year at 11 years old.

Being a school psychologist and currently working with neurologists and oncologists in the medical setting, I would strongly recommend that you take your child to a neurologist to rule out any significant neurological issues. Some of the issues you desribed could be more neurological in nature. Please don't wait!! Prancing on her toes and being wobbly is really not a good sign, especially the first sign. How is her gait (walk)? How is her expressive speech? Yes dyslexia does affect fine motor skills but there are some other signs that are quite alarming to me.

Update: We did have A evaluated for OT (and later PT) by two different therapists. The first also had me fill out a SID questionnaire, similar to the one I posted above. This therapist said that her trunk muscles are weak, and A is always running or "falling" as she walks (so it seems like she's running) because she can't support herself with her trunk muscles. She also said these muscles (gross motor) are needed to support the fine motor muscles, which explains why her hands tremble and she grips her pencil so tightly. (She also has an odd pencil grip, not the typical "tripod" grip. The OT said she was weak and was trying to stabilize her grip, and we needed to buy her some pencil grips to correct this.) We were waiting for M-Plan approval to begin her therapy, but they wouldn't cover it since it was a "pre-existing condition." :grr: So we had to find a new Medicaid provider, and she's now in PT therapy and seems to be getting better. She still "falls" into a room rather than walking, and she does still write some letters and numbers backwards, but she IS able to catch herself when she says compound nouns backwards. I'll give her a surprised look and say, "Don't you mean...?" and she'll finish my question, "Yeah, I mean't pineapple, not apple pine!" Hopefully this was just developmental delay and the muscle weakness, but I will be watching for other signs, too, as well as searching for a pediatric neurologist in our area, just in case! P.S. re: her gait, she's OK when holding our hands walking after we bark, "Settle down!", but by herself, she skips/bounces/trips. I don't think I've ever seen her "walk" any distance by herself in the year that she's been here! Then again, she has a hard time sitting still!! Her expressive speech and receptive speech are both fine. In fact, she'll pick up on things (vocabulary, sentence structure) alot faster than her 8-yr-old sister! I'll correct K once or twice in a day on something, and A will get it. I'll continue to correct K for days/weeks/months, and A will get irritated and begin correcting K herself (A is nearly 2 years younger).

My son does that noun thing in his speech too. I never really gave it a second thought. He doesn't pick up on it. He said something the other day that was so funny, I had to laugh and ask him to say it again. He repeated it wrong several times. But for the life of me I don't know what it was. Today he asked for waterlemon. He calls pineapple, apple pie. Melon is lemon, obviously. These are the ones I can remember. He gets OT X3, PT X1, SLP X2 - no one seemed to mention it to me. HMMM, will have to bring it up at next CSE meeting.

Ha, those are great! Amazing how the brain works, isn't it?! Today I heard, "valinna milk" (vanilla). That's a new one! :rolleyes:

Where do you live? My son always wants valinnda ice cream. Could it have been him? He wants me to pack waterlemon in his lunch for tomorrow. But I think the best is Birginga - which is Miss Virginia. My brother in law was unca dentis for a long time. Now it's just UNC.

No, I meant that I heard it from one of my girls! :cool:

OK, everyone - are you ready for this. There is a local restaurant 'chain' here. It's called Hot Dog Heaven. My son wanted to eat at God's Weiners! I nearly drove off the road laughing. How you get from point A to point B is amazing!