We have an official diagnosis! … after waiting years for an assessment.
My intelligent, rounded, multi-lingual son has Dyslexia.
Over the last 5 years Hugo has been learning to read, it’s been a huge mountain to climb.
This journey has not been a straightforward one and I thought I’d share it, in the hope it helps others see the signs, get a dyslexia or dyscalculia diagnosis sooner and interventions implemented sooner.
Starting the reading journey
I know they say, don’t compare siblings or peers because each child is different. However, a parent inevitably does. Hugo’s older sister , Angelina, struggled to get the hang of reading for about 2 years. I remember her class teacher chasing me down in the reception class playground (me frazzled, by traffic and difficulty parking for the school pick up and the size of a whale, pregnant with Max) and giving me a lecture about how I should be reading every day after school with her.
My response:
“She doesn’t want to read, she’s tired and needs to play after school… besides the fact that we are running between ballet and music and swimming lessons. I will not force her to read and make her hate reading.”
Her teacher was red in face as she turned on the heals and stormed off.
We read at bedtimes. My main goal was to instil the love of books and the magic the words can bring alive. It seemed to work for Angelina because, then the penny just dropped and she discovered the beautiful world of words. She’s now a bookworm.
This was my benchmark.
Not the same with Hugo, time didn’t help him. At the age of 7, a good 2 years into his reading journey he was still flipping numbers and letter back to front, struggling to read even numbers, let alone Bs and Ds and Ps and Qs. He was showing classic signs of dyslexia!
However, it is important to note, that lots of children, who aren’t dyslexic, also go through phases of flipping letters and numbers!
The distinction is in how quickly, or not, children steer onto the correct path of reading and writing, seeing and being about to decipher numbers and letters into sounds and words.
Hugo was very slow at reading, struggling. We’d decipher the word castle on the first page of a book with just a couple of sentences on each page. Two pages later, he was sounding it our letter by letter again.
The struggle to read was evident
We moved country and I asked his teacher to keep an eye on him, be mindful of his challenges.
Living in Sweden, attending bilingual- English and Swedish- classes, Hugo had a lot of leeway in his development. He was being assessed against children who started learning to read and write at the age of 6 and weren’t required to be fluent till they were 8 years old. The school didn’t feel there was a problem yet, as Hugo was “coping” ok.
…and that’s when we stepped up and demanded help:
We knew our child!
He is intelligent, conscientious, yet struggling to read.
We started intervention over a year ago.
Documenting the start of the journey in how to help a struggling and reluctant reader.
The tech invention was useful, but still it was a little too guided. Hugo is a smart child and found ways around the difficult problems of reading, without actually solving them.
We had a referral to a specialist speech and language therapist for assessment. That was a waiting game as we joined a very queue for wider linguistic special needs assessment. The school’s special ed teacher, who is over-stretched, was supposedly doing intervention work with Hugo, but she didn’t think there was much of an issue.
At the end of last term, I got an email from Hugo’s English teacher about him not doing his homework and failing spelling tests. This is also a teacher who didn’t believe Hugo had a problem. It felt like she chose to just lump him in the “lazy” category, with us in the “incompetent” parents category.
During the summer we made progress: Hugo fell in love with reading.
The solution came in the form of the Tom Gates books from the amazing author and illustrator, Liz Pichon.
These books are fun, topical and easy to read with playful illustrations and varying font sizes.
Hugo felt a real sense of achievement when he finished his first big, proper book. We were super proud of him and made a huge deal of it.
He was so keen to move on to the Harry Potter books, but just a couple of pages in, after struggling on and off for days, he gave up. Saying it’s too hard to understand. My heart broke for him, then, to cheer Hugo, and myself up, I ordered the whole Tom Gates series on Amazon. 😀
School started again after the summer, Hugo was offered a very last minute place in another school. We accepted. Soon into the term his assessment with the speech and language therapist finally came around.
Because nothing is ever straight forward in On the brink household, the dyslexia assessment happened on a day I was travelling abroad.
The Dyslexia assessment
Hugo spent a long morning with the speech and language expert. She tested his reading, his writing, his understanding of concepts.
“Pub time …Let’s celebrate! Mammas, it’s always worth fighting for your child. If you feel something is not right, then go with that instinct!
Finally, … , he saw specialist with 20 years experience. She sounded surprised as she gave a preliminary view:
he’s quite smart (we knew that),
he’s very good at maths (yes, knew that too),
he’s got a very good vocabulary, even with 4 languages under his belt (nothing new, though I think I gain a new appreciation for how this is not so normal),
and he really struggles with reading… even in English (no sh*t Sherlock!, Why do you think we are here?!)
Yes, he probably has some form of dyslexia. . YES!
I’m not a crazy, hallucinating mum, he’s teachers who labelled him a bit slow, lazy even, the deputy head who said he was (and I quote): “coping ok” can all take a hike!
A child should not be coping at school, but thriving!
Now starts the journey to help him find his way to full literacy…”
The real journey to read begins
We sat down with Hugo’s teachers and the Language specialist discussed the results of the test, giving us some proud parent moments, like he’s understanding of language and grammar are that of a 12 year old.
First, we are going to concentrate on the speed of reading through:
- Using some sort of flashcards for sight words… 3 times 10 minutes each week
- Hugo is getting a dedicated laptop at school
- From the success he’s experienced with the Tom Gates books and the legibility of the fonts, we will trial installing Dyslexie font on Hugo’s laptop. This special font developed to help dyslexics with more pronounced visual queues for letter recognition.
- Combining reading and listening- Hugo will be accessing some of his social- and natural studies lessons via audio materials to accompany his reading materials for the subject.
Hugo’s current reading speed is that of 7 year old.
We will sit together with his teachers in 3 months to assess his progress and decide on the next steps.
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