Has anyone had a child that was dyslexic? How did you catch it? What learning techniques did you use to help the child?
My daughter is in first grade and struggling with her reading. They did some testing and although they agree that she is behind she is not behind enough to qualify for extra reading help. The moment they told me they wanted to test her, I started doing my own research. After watching her closely and taking close note of her struggles I think she shows at the very least a number of dyslexic tendancies. I have e-mailed by concerns to the reading expert at the school, but while I am waiting to hear back from her, I thought I would throw it out here.

Can't help with the dyslexic diagnosis, Jennifer. I would like to suggest you check out Sylvan Learning Centers tho. They've done a fabulous job with my nieces, one of whom has a learning disability and the other is autistic. They help kids learn how to help themselves in a normal school setting. Every kid can benefit from that type of one-on-one guidance.

Good luck with your daughter.

P.S. Some kids take a bit longer than others to click with reading too. She's just in first grade so try not to get too worried about it. Kudos to you for researching and staying on top of it!

Back when I was in grade school... there were some children who had trouble reading properly...as they would see the letters backwards and such. I remember the teacher issued us all these little magnifying sheets to put on our pages... and it seemed to help those who read backwards. We thought it was so cool to have those sheets, never once thought it was because a few children had a reading disability. Since I've been studying in education... I think it was very smart of the teacher to invovle the whole class and not isolate one or two children.

I was dyslexic, one of my sisters and my daughter is. I've grown out of it, I'm 32, for the most part...I'm still terrible when I'm tired, stressed or on cold medicine. My sister still has trouble, being in a rush or put on the spot (tests and reading out loud in front of people) are almost impossible for her. My daughter isnt as bad, she's more like me. We caught her turning numbers and letters around consistantly towards the end of first grade (up until then we didnt think much about it). We had her eyes checked to make sure there wasnt a problem there. She did go to an inshcool and after school reading tutor beginning in second grade up through fourth. They worked on the 5 reading strategies...like getting your mouth ready to say the word, re-reading the first part of the sentence, chunking (looking for a part of the word you recognize), and I've gone blank on the other two...maybe crashing (guessing) and looking at the pictures to see if the word makes sense. She got good at them and now in 6th grade shows very little signs of it. I've found that she has the most trouble when tired (a lot like mom)...so we made sure she was getting lots of sleep at night and spaced homework out so we werent sitting there struggling for hours on end. It worked for us.

Thanks for the responses. I am a little disappointed in the school right now as they have taken a wait and see approach, saying that many children have these tendancies early on. They pretty much suggested that I wait until 3rd grade to have her tested for dyslexia. I know all kids have some issues with letter reversal, word recognition, confusing the letters b and d, relying to heavily on the guessing strategy.
My daughter has all of these issues and is behind in her reading level.
I don't want her to struggle for a couple more years and fall even further behind.

From my point of view at this point, it can not hurt her if I overreact and try to work with her more and try to find new ways for her to learn. In this case, I think it is better to be proactive rather than reactive in a few years. So much of life depends on reading! Thanks for being a sounding board

I would suggest some extra time at home with you helping her... praticing the letters and numbers she is confusing and such... maybe writing them and saying them aloud. Anything to help her recognize a difference between the two is better than waiting until 3rd grade. Reading is a vital part of everyday living.

At the end of first grade they were still giving me the "wait and see" but suggested the professional eye exam to rule out any trouble there. After second grade started the general reading test scores were low enough they put her in with the special tutor. So it doesnt sound like you're schools "out of line" but I dont think I'd wait until 3rd grade.

I'm sure you've heard it, but spend tons of time reading together. To keep her from getting tired let her read one page and then you read the next with her following along. Also, having a discussion after about the book really seemed to bring it all together for both of my kids (and it gave me a good idea of how much she was comprehending). We read fun stuff as much as possible. At that age the Mercer Mayer Little Critter books were a favorite.

I'm no expert, but it seems that 3rd grade is a little too late. In 2nd and 3rd grade I worked with kids in the schools reading recovery program only because they couldn't get the funding earlier. I was a volunteer. Fortunately my kid was reading at a 6th grade level in 2nd grade so I figured we, at home, must be doing something right and I could help kids that didn't have any other issues (for that you need the experts). Anyway, I have a cousin that is dyslexic and was not diagnosed for years. His sister was a teacher and decided to ask him how the "stop" sign was spelled. That was their clue and he was finally given help, but he was much older. This was many years ago.

One symptom of an essential fatty acid deficiency is dyslexia. My son has the deficiency and must take EFAs every day. He was writing letters backwards, wanted to read right to left, etc. but after a few months taking the EFAs the dyslexia is gone. He reads above grade level now.

If it is true dyslexia then the EFA supplementation may or may not help. If it is only the EFA deficiency you may want to try EFAs for a couple of months. My son has taken Efalex for years, and we order on the Internet. PM me if you want more info. I can give you scientific studies and a couple of books about EFA deficiencies.

I am mildly dyslexic and didn't even know until I was in college. I wish I would have known earlier because I have always been a slow reader. Now I know why. I'm just extra vigilent to check my work.

This is interesting. My son is in 1st grade and often turns his d's and b's around. He struggles in reading so we put him in title 1 for reading. What are the other signs of being dyslexic? His teacher has never made mention of having him checked. Good luck Jennifer and please post what you find out. Thanks.

Turning around letters like b's and d's is one of the most common types of dyslexia. There are different degrees. Some children spell words backwards, write and read from right to left and a variety of other things.

Sawyer here are some links that you might want to take a look at.

Signs of Dyslexia in Preschool Children

Signs of Dyslexia in Early Gradeschool Children

Thank you all for the continued comments and help. It is so wonderful to hear other experiences. At this point my husband and I have learned of some different ways to practice reading with our daughter. We have decided to work on these new things for the next 6 weeks. We have notified her teacher that we are doing this and asked her to help us gage progress over the upcoming weeks. I know it isn't a long period, but we have decided that if we don't see progress in this amount of time it will give us time to have her evaluated further and hopefully get into a tutoring or special learing program over the summer months, to help prepare her for the start of 2nd grade. If this works we will just keep it up!

How we got here for those that have expressed interest.
Our daughter a bit behind already at the end of last school year but the teacher said she was very bright and there was nothing to worry about. In my daughter's case, I never thought she has a learning disability or dyslexia until very recently. In January of this year, well into the school year, they tested her on her sight words and became alarmed at how many she did not know. She had been reading these words for the first half of the school year. But in isolation she did not recognize them. We were given a word ring with the sight words on them and practice them nightly. The teacher has been adding words to the word ring on a weekly basis. After about 6 weeks of this, the teacher refered us for a reading assessment. She said that our daughter still seemed to be struggling with these words despite the practicing that we were all doing on them. I started doing some research on my own and came upon Dyslexia and much of what was happening with my daughter matched what I was reading. If it was just one thing like writting some letters backward or switching around the letter "b" and "d" I probably wouldn't be as worried. In our case she shows a number of dyslexic tendancies and is behind other children in her age with regard to reading. She has not been officially tested. Most of the tendancies I think were always there, but we chalked them up to learning something new, a lot of kids do these sorts of things. Now that we are watching more closely we are seeing distinct patterns in the "mistakes" she makes and we can see that it isn't just one thing it is a culmination of many different "signs". She "passed" the reading assessement. It showed that she is behind, but not far enough behind for special help through the title one program.

Our daughter was diagnosed as dyslexic at the end of the first grade. The first thing you need to know is that she grew into a wonderful woman who is an EMT and insurance agent and a wonderful teacher for incoming emergency medical techs in training. The awesome thing about dyslexics is that they may struggle with reading but they are great on their feet! She can mezmerize a room! We were told (and did) read with her a lot and concentrated on helping her to read words in groups rather than one at a time. It was also important for her to write a lot and we bribed her--the teacher called it positive reinforcement--by paying her a penny for every word she wrote and didn't turn the letters around. And be sure to let her know that being dyslexic isn't being dumb! It is a malfunction in the way her brain interprets. Don't know how old she is now but that may come up with classmates and friends. Build her self-confidence and practice, practice, practice with her!

I wouldn't trade my daughter for anyone! She is vivacious, funny and smart! She overcame and your baby will too!