My 7 year old daughter was diagnosed with vowel specific, visual dyslexia, auditory sequential memory delay, and scetopic vision. That means her mind struggles to keep written letters in their proper order and associated with their correct sounds, particularly when vowels are involved. Also, when she hears a set of instructions she will confuse the order or mentally eliminate instructions from the set. Finally, as she reads black print on white paper the print will move, swirl, blur out, or blank out, making it impossible to follow all the text. This diagnosis answers a lot of questions. It presents many more.
Is this why she has been throwing tantrums about doing her homework and going to school for the past 7 months? When I have been nagging her to get chores done have I been giving her instructions that she can't remember or fully understand, and then blaming her because she didn't do it? Is this difficulty a lifelong companion that she will take with her everywhere she goes? Yes, yes, and yes. So what do we do?
A light filter on the page when she reads will help reduce the visual distortions. Tutoring can help re-teach her mind to put sounds and letters in order. We need to give instructions only one or two at a time. We'll have to inform the school about all of this...
Driving home from the assessment testing, words and their meaning are prominent in my mind. Read, letters, see, sound, challenge, hard, stupid, hurt, can't. All of those words fit a different context for me now. Finally I'm glimpsing what she has been up against and how hard she has worked to perform what was expected of her, when in fact some physical impediments made it impossible for her to do so. Sad, sorry, clarified, optimistic. Those words are part of how I feel. There are new words: Erlen filters, normalize, multi-sensory, Wilson program. I don't know what they mean yet. And a pile of books for me to read. Which do I start first? How do I fit in learning about all of this when I am focusing on helping her learn? How do we provide help for her without making her feel more self-conscious and embarrassed? Love, support, encouragement, hope, believe, accomplish, non-threatening, calm. These are some of my favorite words today.
We've made some changes. The job chart, with it's horizontal rows and vertical columns and black lettered words on white paper, is gone. It's been replaced by colorful graphics hung to form a "guided pathway" from the bathroom, down the hall, to her bedroom. The visual aides prompt her to brush her teeth, make her bed, pick up her room, and turn out her light, so she doesn't get confused about what comes next as she gets ready in the morning. We swathed a corner of the basement floor in painter's canvas and covered the walls with paper to create an art studio. This provides a place where she can indulge in her favorite passion and expend her creative energy whenever and however she wants - no straight lines, no particular order, no phonological awareness required. There are light filters in every room and the books of her choice are within an arms reach. They are usually read while wrapped in a warm blanket and sitting on someone's lap.
Reading fluently is possible for her and it will come. I don't know when, or what getting to that point will require, or how it will change the little girl who deals with it. What I do know is that we are in this together and for the long haul. We'll put in the time and make the effort and I fully expect that in the end, this challenge will create opportunities for her, for all of us, to expand in ways that we otherwise wouldn't. If reading is always a bit of a struggle for her that's ok. She can find success in her efforts to read and when the burden is too heavy, we'll read to her. We love her. We believe in her. We'll help her, and we'll make sure she can read that, loud and clear.
