If you cannot afford testing, do what this mom did. My son had always struggled with reading. I knew something was not quite right but never could figure it out. I asked his first grade teacher if it could be dyslexia. She assured me it was not, and she was not worried about his reading. She was concerned about his lack of focus. But at the beginning of 3rd grade, one of the items on my son’s school supply list was an NIV Bible. I bought it . . . and cried. I knew he could not read it, not even close. He could not even read the children’s Bible we had at home. He was CLEARLY far behind, and it was much more than just being distracted. So I started to do some research on the computer. Why could he read a word in one sentence but not the next? Why were all his words missing vowels? Why couldn’t he sound out words? He had plenty of phonics instruction. Why did a clock baffle him so much? Why was he still reversing letters and had handwriting that looked like he was just learning to print? I found your website. There it was! I could check off about 95% of the symptoms. My son had dyslexia!! Yet when I shared this with my son’s school, they were skeptical and encouraged us to get formal testing because they did not think it was his issue. But the cost of professional testing was high. We had to decide which was more important: get a diagnosis (knowing his school did not have the right type of help) or skip that and go directly to the solution. We chose to get the Barton Reading & Spelling system so I could tutor him myself. We have now been using it for 2 years, after school twice a week, and we are half way through Level 7. Recently, we had to miss church. So I encouraged my boys to read a Bible story and I pulled out our children’s Bible that I knew my son could now read. Instead, he pulled out his NIV Bible, that same Bible I wept over 2 years ago, the same one I feared my son would never be able to read. He opened it up and read aloud while his 3 younger brothers listened. He enjoys reading now, and his fifth grade teacher has never mentioned “lack of focus” or “not being prepared.” Instead, she talks about my son’s amazing “writer’s voice,” and his grades are all A’s and B’s. My son embraces his dyslexia. We do not romanticize it or deny that it makes things hard for him. But he knows that the brain differences that gave him grief with his reading and spelling . . . are the same brain differences that created his amazing imagination, his fantastic building skills, and his love of music. Thank you, Susan, for the work you do. It has clearly changed my son’s life. To hear this read aloud by Susan Barton, or to share it with others, go to: susanbartondyslexiastories/2013/01/27/if-you-cannot-afford-testing/
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:30:00 +0000
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