Husband, son and grandson are dyslexic/
Husband has PhD, taught in medical school and did research.
Son is MD
Grandson (12) just inducted into an honor society at school.
It takes enormous handwork to deal with dyslexia.
It helps to be super bright. It's the kids who aren't given the right help and are not super strong intellectually who suffer the most.
My son is the one is I worked the most closely with. There are language tests given at age two that will show up the oral/aural problem. He didn't 'hear' things they way they were said, so he didn't 'say' them the way we expected him to.
He cannot carry a tune or even recognize changes in the tune from one line to the next, for example in a song like Jingle Bells.
Both husband and son have problems speaking very long fluent sentences, and finding what they want to say really quickly.
My husband, as the oldest of course (almost 73) has the most persistent problems because he didn't get the right help early on.
My son did much better because of the programs in school, but in college he was still reluctant to tell his teachers that his spelling was so terrible because of a disability.
He had a surgical residency supervisor (a surgeon) who told him to quit med school because he was obviously careless, lazy or too stupid to spell correctly!
It is hard because we equate good spelling with intelligence, education and effort.
Neither of them read for pleasure.
But the third generation, my grandson, is an avid reader, and a great speller, so perhaps his disability was less (tho it seemed far worse to me, having seen both my son and grandson and little kids), or the help he got was better.
There are many many versions of dyslexia and related disabilities.
The key is once you KNOW, you can stop thinking that you are doing something wrong or aren't trying hard enough.
It is still very difficult, however, to go through life with these differences.
Most kids find their strengths and go with them. And as we're older we get to choose to some extent the arenas that we compete in, and choose friends that accept us.
Hope you get some resolution WildThing!
Keep us posted.
Hugs
Elaine
