This is a post I wish I’d read years ago!
It might be helpful to someone.
In our house we beat the odds.
One in ten of the population have dyslexia.
50% of my children have it!
My second and fourth child.
One boy, one girl.
Thats two out of four in case you have dyscalculia,
Both of mine have that too!
The following is an interview with a mother of dyslexic children.
I cant give her name but she is really good looking!
Is it so bad?
Well I wont say its great but there are worse difficullties they could have.
I don’t see it as a disability.
What were the early signs?
My eldests speech was delayed.
Everyone said “Oh thats just boys!”.
If I asked him “Milk? Do you want milk?”
He would vigorously nod his head and say “Ye,ye”.
That was as much as we got really until he was three years old.
My fourth child, who also has dyslexia, had no speech delay of any sort!
My eldest found learning colours impossible.
He hadn’t a clue.
We would say, “This is blue”,
“Blue” he would happily repeat.
“What colour is this?”, (one second later, pointing at blue).
“Red” and then he would clap!
Eventually he knew colours but not as we do.
He’d say “that is a lovely grass shirt” instead of “green shirt”.
My fourth child, had no issue with colours!
My older boy couldn’t remember nursery rhymes.
“Humpty Dumpty on the wall,
Fell off,
And the men…(pause)
together!” More clapping.
My fourth child was super with nursery rhymes!
Then it came to letters of the alphabet.
His first teacher was very helpful.
She suggested we put up one picture, of a letter in the alphabet, on the wall,
and leave it there until he could recognize it.
Great idea….. unless your dyslexic!
The picture was of an “S” in the shape of a snake.
“Sammy Snake” we would say.
Every time he would pass he would shout,
“Hello Annie Apple!”
We gave up eventually.
My fourth child also did not seem to see her letters as we do.
This was our first warning sign from her!
In my heart I knew from the time he was two years old,
that these difficulties were not because he was a boy.
(What a sexist thing to be saying anyway!)
I knew his intelligence was normal.
I just could not put the pieces together.
I worried.
No one listened to me.
What was the problem?
Then one day I saw a small article in a newspaper.
Could your child have dyslexia?
Ten points were listed.
If you scored 6 or over your child might have dyslexia.
My son had 9 out of 10.
Maybe this was the answer.
Now what to do?
If you are reading this and have concerns I’d say the first thing to do is not to panic.
Gather as much information as you can.
Then seek a diagnosis.
In time I may write about,
the mixture of panic and relief I felt,
How we went about helping them learn their way.
What worked for them,
and what was a waste of time.
Suffice to note at this point that the eldest is doing extremely well in school, and is hoping 
to enter college next September. He sees no limits.
The younger one is at the stage where she needs help still, but is greatly encouraged seeing her brother manage.
I no longer see dyslexia as a big deal.
The lighter side of it is we get the best cards written phonetically by my youngest.
The only one who can read them easily is my son!
I couldn’t imagine either of them any other way.
Dyslexia does not define them.
They are who they are and they are both magic!
photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/whatdavesees/2529101826/”>WhatDaveSees</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/”>cc</a>
photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwulff/17892243/”>David Wulff</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>
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