It is my hope that this website will help other parents and children with Dyslexia. The last 4 years have been such an emotional time but I feel we have come so far and learnt so much.
At times I feel like we have made huge strides and then at other times I am hit with the enormity of the situation and realise, again, that there is no fixing this Dyslexia.
One such time occurred when my daughter was coming up to the end of year one. She had been doing tutoring for coming up to two years. We knew things were not quite right in her learning but despite hours of google "research" I still hadn't got a name for it. I would sit in on the tutoring sessions, which primarily focussed on phonics and phonemic awareness. (Letters and sounds) Together we would 'work' together at home practising what she had learnt. I was so happy as I could see the progress and how capable of learning she was . Then one morning as a am taking her into her classroom I see displayed around the room stories that the children have written. As I worked my way round the room reading what the other children have written, a feeling of complete dread quickly envelops me. I am shocked and horrified at how well they were all written. As I find my daughter's writing hanging up there along with all the others I experienced a dramatic revelation - yes she has been making progress with the one on one remediation but her peers had moved so much faster and made so much more progress and left her so far behind.
At times I feel like we have made huge strides and then at other times I am hit with the enormity of the situation and realise, again, that there is no fixing this Dyslexia.
One such time occurred when my daughter was coming up to the end of year one. She had been doing tutoring for coming up to two years. We knew things were not quite right in her learning but despite hours of google "research" I still hadn't got a name for it. I would sit in on the tutoring sessions, which primarily focussed on phonics and phonemic awareness. (Letters and sounds) Together we would 'work' together at home practising what she had learnt. I was so happy as I could see the progress and how capable of learning she was . Then one morning as a am taking her into her classroom I see displayed around the room stories that the children have written. As I worked my way round the room reading what the other children have written, a feeling of complete dread quickly envelops me. I am shocked and horrified at how well they were all written. As I find my daughter's writing hanging up there along with all the others I experienced a dramatic revelation - yes she has been making progress with the one on one remediation but her peers had moved so much faster and made so much more progress and left her so far behind.
... her peers had moved so much faster and made so much more progress and left her so far behind.
It was this day that I realised that we do indeed have a problem! Despite the teachers trying to convince me for the last three years that she is "fine" and that 'all children develop at their own rate' and that we should not be comparing them at this age I knew I had to start listening and trusting myself.
"Houston. We have a problem."
I cried all the way to work. Keeping my sunglasses on as I entered the building I made a bee line to my office where I felt an array of emotions: Anger - at myself for not having realised that this really is a problem, for listening to the teachers over the last three years who were trying to placate me, tell me I was just an anxious parent. Devastated - for my beautiful girl who has such confidence and an exuberant personality. Frustrated - I did not know what this problem was, how to fix it or even where to go for help.
In hind sight I think this was this day that I finally realised that it was probably Dyslexia that we were dealing with.
Now, 2 years later, it seems so obvious. How could I have not known? We have a family history of Dyslexia. My father, despite being a hugely successful businessman, has difficulty with spelling and ticks all of the Dyslexia checklist boxes and my 14 year old nephew was diagnosed at around the age of 8. My cousins' all four daughters are Dyslexic, although at the time I only knew one was. Now knowing so much about Dyslexia I can definitely see I myself have many of the characteristics. However, the family history is another story for another time.
In some ways my emotional roller-coaster resembled the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. And it is a kind of grief. It is the loss of what you imagined for your child, the realisation of the hardships they are going to face, of how their life just may not be everything you expected it would be and finally you just don't want them to hurt, to struggle.
I hope that by sharing our story with other parents they will find solace, that there is hope. I read books about the positive side of Dyslexia and gifts that these kids have and I am so excited to one day see my daughter grow into an incredible adult. She really is quite incredible and extraordinary. I would just love to fast forward 15 years and see the happy ending, or beginning!
In some ways my emotional roller-coaster resembled the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. And it is a kind of grief. It is the loss of what you imagined for your child, the realisation of the hardships they are going to face, of how their life just may not be everything you expected it would be and finally you just don't want them to hurt, to struggle.
I hope that by sharing our story with other parents they will find solace, that there is hope. I read books about the positive side of Dyslexia and gifts that these kids have and I am so excited to one day see my daughter grow into an incredible adult. She really is quite incredible and extraordinary. I would just love to fast forward 15 years and see the happy ending, or beginning!