My Magnificent Boy!

Asking my son to read a paragraph is torturous. It's not that he doesn't like reading or books. The issue lies in the way he sees words. Although he hasn't been officially tested for dyslexia, I have complete confidence that this is the reason for his reading difficulties. Dyslexia is a very interesting topic for me. I find it fascinating that these kiddos are so intelligent, inquisitive, and imaginative, but when it comes to the written word, they are lost.

My son's struggle in reading began as early as he saw his first letter. In kindergarten, he struggled to recognize all the letters in the alphabet. As he moved into reading those letters as they made up words, the struggle continued. Dyslexia is so much more than seeing letters backward. In fact, many people with dyslexia don't see letters any differently than you and me. One reason for this is that each word has phonemes, which is a cute word meaning sound. The word "cat" has three. Each letter has one sound. But a word like "phone" also has three phonemes because "ph" is one sound and the "e" doesn't make a sound. (Hmmm....I wonder why our language is so difficult to learn.). All of those phonemes connected to letters just doesn't make sense to our kids with dyslexia.

As my son entered first grade, he knew maybe 4 words. FOUR WORDS! At this time I had started my first year as a special education teacher. I began to notice that he was learning to read at a much slower pace than his peers. His teacher noticed too. She is a phenomenal teacher and helped me so much during the difficult time of figuring out what was going on with my son. Also, during this time, my husband was deployed to Afghanistan. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. When a parent thinks something is "wrong" with their child, it is so frustrating, and the feeling of helplessness is ever-present. What kept me up at night was that I knew my son was a smart boy. He had an excellent vocabulary and spoke well, but he couldn't read.

People that have dyslexia often have an average or above average IQ, and excellent vocabulary skills, which makes it difficult to identify them in a classroom. But when you are sitting across from your child, and you know they are smart, but can't read, it's obvious something is amiss. As I moved into my second year of teaching, and my son's second grade, I became more convinced that he has dyslexia. He was in intervention and then qualified for special education under the disability "Specific Learning Disability" in reading. Since his IEP (Individualized Education Plan) was developed, a new law has passed allowing the word "dyslexia" be added to IEPs. (see law: Say Dyslexia http://www.saydyslexia.org/).

Now in 3rd grade, my son is reading better, but still not anywhere close to grade level. Knowing, though, that he has dyslexia, has helped tremendously in determining how I can help and encourage him. In my classroom, I also have students with dyslexia, and I am excited to teach them every day because they are amazing kids! I've introduced them to famous people of the present and history who had the same struggles they have and became successful adults.

I'm still learning a lot about dyslexia. I've found some great books and podcasts which I'll attach to the bottom of this post. The most important lesson I've learned is that I have to be confident in my ability to provide my son with the tools he needs to succeed. The most important of these tools is self-advocacy. I believe it's important for him to be confident in asking for help and telling his teacher when he would rather listen to an article or book rather than read it.

In my opinion, the purpose of reading is to gain knowledge. I have students who read very quickly and fluently, but when asked what they read they can hardly provide one detail. If my son and my students can acquire knowledge by "listening" to an audio book, or watching an educational program about the material, there is no harm in that. I would love my son and students to pick up a book one day, read fluently, and comprehend what they read, but until that day comes, there are other means of gaining knowledge.

Reading a paragraph may still be torture for my son, but he has learned to relax, and not be so hard on himself when he stumbles over a word. He knows there is more to intelligence than reading well, and I hope I have taught this to my students as well. I'd love to write more about reading, but this is about my son. My magnificent boy, who amazing me every day with his determination, curiosity, and wit.

Say Dyslexia
The Dyslexic Advantage
It's Called Dyslexia
Overcoming Dyslexia

Introductions

Hello! I'm a Resource teacher in Tennessee. My goal for this blog is to inform and support homeschool moms using the strategies and knowledge I've gained as a Resource Teacher.

First, may I explain what a "Resource" teacher is. When I was starting in special education, the teacher showing me around the school pointed to an office and said, "That is where is the Resource teacher works." My first thought was that the Resource teacher was someone who provided resources to the other teachers. I started out working with kids on the Autism Spectrum in a self-contained classroom, so it wasn't until I moved to another school that I came to understand the role of the Resource teacher.

The Resource teacher is a special education teacher who meets the needs of students who have learning disabilities, ADHD, and at some times behavior disorders. For the most part, we work with kids who have reading disabilities.

My students come to my classroom for intensive intervention for about an hour a day. They are in small groups of 3 or less and are otherwise in their regular classrooms. I also go out into regular classrooms and assist my students, as well as others by helping teachers differentiate instruction.

Most of my work is in reading. There are five reading groups that take place in my classroom. My two instructional aides help with the reading groups as well to keep the group size low.

What I will share in this blog are some tips and tricks I've learned along the way including real-life situations/ problems and how they were solved/ approached.

Please contact me with your questions! And thank you for visiting!