My Son had a Learning Disability: Need Advice

@giri
Have you considered seeing a Speech Pathologist?
They can work miracles.
Good luck,
Jake

Hello @giri I am Scott and it is nice to e-meet you here on Mayo Connect! Welcome! I trust you will find this online community to be as warm and welcoming as I did when I joined some time ago. I am sorry to read of your son's learning difficulties.

Our son is now older, but his learning difficulties were brought to our attention when he was in 4th grade. He was fine in some areas, but a very astute teacher noticed his struggles in others. She suggested we get him tested for dislexia. In his case it turned out he was not dislexic but did have a very significant learning disability in his abililty with oral cognition. If the teacher wrote instructions on the board or paper he was fine, but if she just gave the instructions orally he was totally lost. We made the decision to enroll him in a local school (now known as Groves Academy) for the special teaching they offered. After three years he caught up, we understood his needs, and he moved over to mainstream schooling again. He did well until college and then he failed significantly as the school was not wiling to support his learning style. Long story, but he ended up at a community college then a large state university where he flourished and now has a solid career going!

I know every case is unique, espeically when it comes to learning disabilities and things like dislexia. Our daughter-in-law teaches at The Roberts School, which is located on the campus of Florida Southern University and focuses solely on dislexic students. They might have some information online as might Groves Academy.

Our son was tested at a community nonprofit for a very reasonable fee. Do you have anything like that in your community?

I really appreciated for the response. No, I have not taken him to Speech Patholgist ? Just to Neurologist so far.

Hi Scott, thank you so much for warm welcome and sharing your son’s story that is inspiring. He gets evaluated by the associate of department of education and reported below the grade level. I asked to repeat him if needed but never detained. It is a charter school. May I should looking for public school before too late. I will follow your suggestions. I really appreciate you and MayoClinic.

This is an area I have some expertise in as my daughter also had learning disabilities. I have found, though this might not be the case for all, that it is hard to get services or continued services or to get a good evaluation from a school district alone. After being told numerous times the problem was at home and she was fine, I took her for testing myself which can be expensive but some insurance companies do cover it. She was diagnosed with numerous things but I felt the most helpful piece was when I took her to an audiologist who did testing for an auditory processing disorder. From there we found her a speech pathologist who helped her immensely. I think you have to pinpoint the problem first and work from there. I will tell you, my particular school district was not very helpful and I had to fight tooth and nail for services but it was so worth it. She is currently in college and is in the top 15% of her class. The way a child is taught with learning disabilities makes all the difference in the world. They learn differently, that's all.

As a learning disabilities specialist for 25 years, I consider this the gold standard of dyslexia to be the International Dyslexia Association website..
It's certainly NOT a medical diagnosis, but one determined by high quality educational assessment....is your son getting evidence based reading instruction i.e Wilson Reading, Orton-Gillingham...never heard of that specialized instruction in a charter school...only specialized schools & more & more in public schools..

@giri I know how heartbreaking to see your child not succeeding as much as you know he could. My son had ADHD, and my daughter ADD. Neither was able to do as well as they should have been able to. My daughter did learn to compensate fairly well but never did get the grades she was intellectually capable of. My son did not do as well in school but has an extremely successful career.
I think you have some great suggestions here. I hope you will be able to choose which feels right to you and get him the help he needs so he can succeed.
JK

Welcome to Connect, @joannerhodes. I noticed that you wanted to post the URL to the International Dyslexia Association website. Here it is: https://dyslexiaida.org/definition-of-dyslexia/
Thank you for providing the resource.

I am a former special needs teacher. He is not exhibiting true dyslexia because then he would be be reading bat for tab, etc. He is substituting one word for another. I would definitely get him tested by the school. Try having him "frame" the words as he reads them. Have him put his fingers around the word so that only that word shows. Then move on to the next word. If he is successful with that, have him try phrases. Also, have you had his vision checked?

Hi @giri I wanted to check in on how you and your son are doing. Was he diagnosed with dyslexia? Or a different learning disability?

I also wanted to bring @jeffbilsland as he has mentioned his son having reading troubles and see if he has found success in supporting and helping his child. How is your son doing @jeffbisland?