Reading Troubles
I don't know what's relevant context, so sorry if this is too much. As the English-as-a-second language son of an immigrant, I married an immigrant (different part of the world), and we both felt it important that our daughter be multilingual and bicultural. She attended immigrant community preschools where no English was spoken, and almost always spoke with my wife and her family in their native language. By the time she was 4 years old, she could speak fluently in 4 languages. I don't speak 3 of them, including my wife's native language, which is fine. We moved from Berkeley when she was 5, just before Kindergarten. She was in 1st grade when COVID hit and the public school's response gave the 1st graders iPads and had them watch the (just rolled-out of bed) teacher on their iPads. This was hard for all of them because Kindergarten had few responsibilities, but now they were suddenly expected to be responsible for things without an adult being present. Despite TV-viewing being rare in our house she did fine. This was a dual-language program -- half the day taught in English, the other half in another language (word-based character language, one which she knew). When we signed up we were told that usually dual-language learners have a dip in performance in 3rd grade, but rise again. We experienced this, but she was still doing OK, basically C in ELA. After 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades the school offered us 4 weeks of free summer reading camp, which we did the first 2 years. In the 4th grade the kids were assigned no homework so it was difficult to judge progress. Capitalization, spelling, punctuation, letter sizes and straight sentences and other things that I'm sure I learned well before that point were not enforced. My daughter was still having trouble with 3/E, 6/9, p/g/q/d. She was usually the last person in the class to turn in in-class assignments, but the teachers were not concerned at the scheduled conferences. Her performance was the usual mix of A/B/C, with ELA the C.
This year, 5th grade, she moved to a private school and capitalization, spelling, punctuation and other things are very enforced (perhaps also this year at the former school?). ELA has been pretty hard for her and she's been consistently getting Cs verging on Ds in it. The teachers aren't making a fuss about it yet. She seems to have sorted out the 3/E, 6/9, p/g/q/d, though there's sometimes a hesitation when she encounters them before she writes the right character. This school has homework which lets me see how she's doing.
I love recreational reading, and always have, even collecting books. My wife does not, and neither does our 10-year old. She avoids reading. She chooses the thinnest, easiest book she can get away with when selecting a book. I know she and I are different, that's fine. Last night as I helped her with some ELA, we were alternating reading paragraphs of a story aloud, and she read "26" as "62", and another similar character-swap misreading. I thought again of dyslexia, and this morning did some cursory research. I trust the Mayo Clinic website, but she never had any of the preschool symptoms, and only "avoiding reading" and "slow to finish" from school-aged. Her spelling is as good as the other kids. An acquaintance's daughter is dyslexic and he gave me the clinic info they used for diagnosis -- but aren't they biased to finding an issue? Does this sound within the realm of normal for 5th grade or should we be actively be doing something more?
Parent Replies
Hi Jerry--I was just thinking about this the other day. My ten year old is in a private school as of last year and loves to read and write. Spelling and penmanship weren't emphasized at her previous school (actually, they aren't at her new school, either) and her handwriting is terrible and she still mixes up "your" and "you're," for instance. I think that's all very normal.
That's not quite what you describe, but I wanted to give you context for the answer I wanted to provide, which is that I ALSO notice her switching letters and numbers. I think she does it mostly when she's being careless--and she's often careless in writing. And DEFINITELY careless in math. Just the other day I mentioned to my husband that watching her I think it's possible that "dyslexia" is a spectrum. I hope I'm not offending anyone by typing this decidedly un-researched opinion, or maybe there's another word for it...but I mean it to say that she's a great reader and a great writer and still swaps stuff without noticing. But it's not a problem, nor do I think it will grow into a problem. I think it's just a very busy mind--and with four languages in her brain and a new school and--for Pete's sake, am I feeling THIS one--the developmental age of ten years old...that makes a lot of sense to me.
I've decided not to worry about it. If you decide not to worry about it, we'll consider that our deal. :)
LOL I had never read the Mayo Clinic's list of 'symptoms' for dyslexic preschoolers until now, but, as the parent of a dyslexic teen (and also a neuro typical teen) I can share that neither did my kid have any of those. If it were me, I would 100% have my kid tested, if for no other reason than to make you feel better, as this seems distressing. I don't know about any clinics, but you can contact any child psychologist who specializes in psycho-educational testing to do that for you, no strings attached. And the school district should be able to do testing for you as well if you don't want to pay, albeit not as thorough.
Just one thought, and maybe it's the 2nd language issue, but dyslexia and other neurodiversities are not diseases that need clinics to cure, or 'symptoms' to look for, they are different ways people are wired. Your daughter may or may not be neurodiverse, she certainly sounds like a bright kid, as are most kids who are neurodiverse. Just some food for thought as you move forward. Good luck.
It might be a good idea to get her tested. Perhaps start with visual processing through the binocular vision clinic at UCB. Cal’s psyche department does thorough testing. The multilingualism should not have a substantial impact on her ELA performance. Cs/Ds are rarely given in most K-6 classrooms , and usually indicate that a child is trying but not getting it.
If you read your daughter a story does she enjoy it? Does she understand what is going on and able to answer questions about it? There is a big difference between decoding text (sounding out words) and comprehension. If she can understand stories that she doesn’t have to read yet she dreads picking up a book on her own and is stuck on sounding out bigger words it does make me think that she could be dyslexic. Schools hate to give the diagnosis of dyslexia because then they are obliged to do something about it. So far it seems like most schools do not have the funding and/or the ability to help a child with dyslexia very much. I am talking both as a current elementary school teacher in OUSD as well as a parent of a dyslexic daughter in Berkeley High. I think you should get her tested. Write a letter requesting that she get tested for a learning disability. It can’t hurt, but, it might not help that much either. I think schools are doing a little bit better to try and help kids with dyslexia, but not great. I think it is good to try and address this and see if you can get additional support from the school or school district in the next few years. There is no help for this in high school. Good luck.