My DS(5) is an Aspie and I think he's also dyslexic. I haven't spoken to his pediatrician to get a referral to find out for sure yet, but his old PS teacher, his therapist, our child advocate, and I have seen many signs in him that leads us to believe he probably is. One of the big struggles we have is him telling the difference between b & d and sometimes even p & q (unless the q has a tail). He seriously does NOT see what's different about those. Admittedly, I know very little about dyslexia and helping with those problems, so I need advice if anyone has any. I just don't know how to make him see the differences in many of these letters so we're kind of stalling on reading, and he's getting frustrated. Anyone?
You'll have a hard time finding anyone to take you seriously until he's 8. It's normal for a 5 year old to mix those up, so even though you know him best, they still probably won't test if insurance is involved. If you can afford to do independent testing, there are tests you can do, but still, they may not be completely accurate just yet.
Yep, what 2littleboys said. ALL of my boys (who have no LDs) mixed up those letters at 5 years old. My 6yo still does. He has no clue how to tell the difference. But the older three outgrew it and I'm sure my #4 will, too.
Yeah, I know it's normal for them to mix them up. It's more than just that that makes me think he's dyslexic, but I'm not up for typing it all out. It honestly doesn't matter to me anyway because I'm not interested in putting him through more testing and such since we just went through the Asperger's eval and he was evaluated for his therapies, so I'm not too worried about it right now. My older DS(10) had troubles distinguishing, but it's different with my little guy because he truly doesn't see the difference. I can't figure out how to get him to see it. We've tried a little rhyme about line then circle, circle then line to help him, but he looks at them and says, "That isn't a b, it's a circle then line" when it's not. He usually gets things so quickly, he's getting really discouraged with this. ~Jeri
I don't know if this would help, but I've heard of this method helping children with dyslexia. I might try having him write the confused letters in something like rice or sand to give him tactile feedback. It may help his brain distinguish between the different letters. If not, it might just be a little fun anyway
There was a time when we thought my ds might have dyscalculia (the math form of dyslexia). After thorough testing, we know he doesn't, and his Asperger's is to blame. However, back then, this book was recommended to me, so I'll recommend it to you. http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Dyslexia...5667/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328930856&sr=8-1 I never got around to buying it, but if I had, I'd send it to you. Sorry! *shrugs* I have the follow-up book, The Gift of Learning, which is more appropriate for my son. I just haven't read it yet. (I have a stack of books I haven't read yet, actually! LOL)
For a b, you can say "first the bat, then the ball, b" and for a d you can say "first the doorknob, then the door, d". Encourage the writing of b as "pull straight down, retrace up a little, then around" while d would be "around and up to the top, then retrace down" - without picking up the pencil. You can show him that if he puts his fists together in front of him with thumbs extended up, the left one looks like b and the right one like d. We read from left to right, and b comes before d in the alphabet. If you write bed the b and d come in order, and make a picture of a bed (headboard and footboard). Don't ask me about p and q, because I'm still working on those with 6yo dgs. So far we've gotten to fists together with thumbs pointing down, p comes before q just like b comes before d. I encourage the writing of p with "pull down, then retrace up, then around" while saying "first the pothandle then the pot", but it's far from perfect. Anyway the idea is not to allow "a ball and a stick" but rather a straight-part-then-a-round-part or a round-part-then-a-straight-part. Once they start with a ball, then they have to remember which side the stick goes on and that's hard. After all, if mommy stands on her head, or lies down, or sits up, she's still mommy, right? If this chair is lying on its side, or upside down, it's still a chair. But if we turn a b upside down now it's a p, or flip it sideways now it's a d, then flip that and it's a q ... To their way of thinking, "object permanence" prevails!
Lindina, Thank you so much for what you wrote! I am working with our unofficial grandson on the same problems with b,d,p.... and your idea will make sense to him! I can't wait to work on that with him Monday afternoon. Beth
Thanks! I'm looking up those books right now at the library. I'm not sure if it's the Asperger's with DS or if it's dyslexia, but either way he's frustrated with it and I need to figure out some way to help. I'll definitely read those books.
That is great advice! I will be working on all of that with him. I like the bed one and I think he'd get it that way. The fact that it looks like a bed might help him to distinguish them. I appreciate you answering!
That actually might help. He is very big on tactile feedback (Aspie thing) so if we use the techniques Lindina suggested along with this, it might do it. I had also read somewhere about using sandpaper to cut out letters for good tactile feedback, so we may do that too. Thanks!
This came up a few months ago, and the advice that Lindina gave was posted. I hadn't even thought to ask the question myself, but realized I needed help too. I started with ds (7) and it has helped. I have him make the b and d on his fingers and b comes before d. It helps him. He has no learning disabilities, but still always confused them. He still has to stop and think about it (especially when writing), or I have to point it out. It also helps to have the letters up in order (a poster or something) for him to take a peek, and see which one it is. Good luck finding some help.
My daughter with dyslexia could not learn the sounds of letters, particularly blends. She has never swapped d's with b's but my others all do. She tended to have several letters in the middle jumble. She had a great first grade teacher who was able to teach her to read and although it was painful to listen to her read aloud, she had excellent reading comprehension. She has horrible memory skills and always has, which can be part of dyslexia, the inability to bring up information, particularly that is in the opposite hemisphere from her strong one. She was diagnosed in college to be able to have ADA apply (note taking by computer, testing taking proctored so she had longer to complete the test, and the ability to have her tests done on her computer, since she can type like 110 wpm but writes about 2 wpm), but so dyslexia is far more than seeing letters backwards. I would recommend Dianne Craft and her brain integration therapy. She has several manuals, learning to read curricula, etc. We are using some of her techniques for our ADHD 11 yo daughter (undiagnosed officially (and purposefully) but confirmed by my pediatrician who is content with the therapies, etc we are doing at home). I think they would have really helped my oldest.
ps I read The Gift of Dyslexia and enjoyed it, but found that Dianne Craft's therapies are very, very similar and are better explained and demonstrated as I realized we were doing a few exercises wrong.
