2 out of 3

I got my final confirmation tonight. I've suspected for a long time. Mother's intuition. But after this school year, it's become more and more obvious.

Courtney is dyslexic. Just like Christopher. 2 out of my 3 kids who are reading age are dyslexic. It makes me wonder: how many of my kids will have to struggle with this?

I noticed it back when she was 3 years old. She is very visually-oriented. When she looks at books, she would only look at the pictures. Me following along with my fingers under the words bothered her and hurt her eyes. She begged me to stop it. When she looks at words, she doesn't perceive them as individual letters making up a word, she she's it as a whole...as a picture, which to her doesn't make any sense.


Even though she knows all the letter sounds and can sound out simple words, she will wiggle and jump in her seat and cry rather than try to sound out a word. She wants to guess the word. She is very good at reading memorized books and guessing what word comes next, but figuring out and reading a word for real feels like torture to her. She complained about it hurting her eyes so much that we took her to an eye doctor in December. Dr. Johnson told us she has perfect vision, and that it's just very natural for a kid her age to struggle with reading. Their brain just isn't fully developed in that capacity until they are 8 years old.


Courtney showed many signs and symptoms similar to what Christopher did...and still does. They tend to go right to left instead of left to right. She makes her letters and numbers backwards...almost all of them. The only way she makes progress with her letters and numbers is LOTS AND LOTS of repetition and tactile input. (writing in sand, in salt, making letters with play dough, writing with chalk, etc) Which is fun, but messy and takes a lot of energy. Even when copying a letter that is right in front of them, they will look up and ask, "Is this the right way?" And they quickly get discouraged with erasing and redoing all their work.

I wonder: are all dyslexic kids just wired differently than the other half of us? If they were reading a language that went from right to left, would it be easier for them? I joke with Scott that it's too bad we don't write in Hebrew. Written Hebrew really uses no vowels, and that's how Christopher writes....All consonants, no vowels.

I've read many books about dyslexia. Back when I married Scott, he told me he was dyslexic. So are his father and many of his siblings. I didn't know anything about it, and so I thought I should research it some. I need to do more reading on it! I've heard a lot about how dyslexia can be a gift, it's a different way of thinking, an out-of-the-box way of perceiving the world. I do know that Scott, Christopher, and Courtney are all very gifted with visualization and understanding how things are put together. They seem to intuitively register how things work. Whereas Dorathy and I, who are both very verbal, seem a bit more clueless in that department!

I began homeschooling Christopher when he was 3 1/2. He was reading by the time he was 4 1/2. Part of the reason he became an early reader is because he was my first child and I had lots of time to dedicate to teaching him. He got one on one tutoring with me for 2 or 3 hours a day. We always started out reading a Children's Science Encyclopedia, since he loved Science so much from the very beginning. That got him excited about learning, and it would carry us through the day. He was also interested in reading for the pleasure of it, and he wanted to please us, so he worked pretty hard at it. After years of practice in reading aloud and silently, Christopher has almost completely cured himself of reading dyslexia. He now can read on a college level. His writing, however, is a completely different subject. I have faith and hope that he will be able to overcome that challenge when he has the desire to do so. In the meantime, it is his biggest academic cross to bear.

Courtney, however, is my 3rd child and she would rather play than do school. She is happy to be in her own little world. She treats reading aloud like a punishment instead of a treat. After a year or so of struggle, she can now read books like Green Eggs and Ham, and Ten Apples Up on Top, and Go Dog Go (K-1st level). But she doesn't enjoy it and won't voluntarily try it. She is slowly learning to read and write better, and is making solid progress. She will tolerate about 15 to 30 minutes a day with me on school stuff. (Unless it's me reading aloud to her! She will sit still for hours and avidly listen to any literature on birds, fishes, or other animals. She is an incredibly gifted naturalist and loves all biological life! I can totally see her growing up to be a Marine Biologist, swimming with the Dolphins!)

The good thing is, she loves to draw. She has followed in her sister's footsteps in spending hours making and illustrating her own stories. This has given her wonderful fine motor coordination. She can also cut ANYTHING with scissors. I'm amazed at what her chubby little hands can do. (She has inherited my stubby short fingers) So her handwriting is beautiful, even when the letters are backwards! Even when she gets the letters in the right direction, however, she tends to write the word backwards.

Today she was writing a funny story. A snake is swallowing a girl, and the snake is saying "MUY!" I stared at it a while, trying to figure out if she was making the snake talk in a different language...then I realized that M*U*Y is Y*U*M* backwards.

The funny thing is, both Christopher and Courtney can read backwards words like that and it makes perfect sense to them. So they are both sitting at the table, writing this book together and laughing, and, it's all in their own private language. And they don't even know it.

It is so interesting to me that Christopher and Courtney who share many personality traits and talents are both dyslexic. They even look the most like each other out of my kids. They are both so intelligent and talented, and I hope that they can always find confidence in their strengths, instead of being discouraged by their weaknesses. I am grateful that I can homeschool them and teach them at their own pace. I sometimes wonder if I am doing them a diservice by not enrolling them in "intervention" or "special ed" classes to help them with their learning challenges. I have been very reluctant, however, to delegate any of my teaching and parental privileges away to the "experts". I'm not sure I want any government program with it's foot in my door.

So I wonder if because Angel tends to be more like Dorathy, and looks like her, if she will be non-dyslexic? Only time will tell. I'm not teaching her to read yet, although Angel has been showing some signs that she is ready to begin the learning process. It is very very possible that soon Angel will be reading and learning on Courtney's level. That is what has happened with Christopher and Dorathy. I must admit, it's easier teaching 2 kids the same thing instead of completely separate levels of school work.

If any of you out there know of good resources for teaching dyslexic children, please send them my way! There area lot of differing opinions out there on what Dyslexia is and what causes it/how to overcome it. It can get very confusing for me. If any of you have success stories of helping your children overcome learning disablities for reading/writing, please send them my way. And if any of you want to know what to get me for my next birthday/Christmas, please buy me some good books/resources for handling this kind of challenge!

Thanks!