Better Books for Dyslexia

Children with dyslexia may speak later or have difficulty pronouncing words clearly. My son did not talk until he was 3 1/2. at 5 1/2 he started speech therapy because I could still understand what he said only about 50% of the time. 

This can indicate challenges with phonological awareness (the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds).  Usually, rhyming is fun and easy for most kids, but to those with dyslexia, it can be too difficult. I noticed with my son that he never seemed to grasp the idea or pattern behind rhymes. He can do some rhymes now at almost 10, but it is still not a strength. 

This was a big one for my son.  Even years later, on a bad day, he will revert to mixing up b and d.  It is one of the most common problems. Usually early readers with dyslexia have difficulty recognizing or naming letters, (e.g., confusing "b" and "d" or "p" and "q").  Later on spelling is usually difficult too. One strength that I noticed with my son is his ability to remember and follow rules, so I explicitly teach spelling rules and that seems to help give him a grounding among the phoneme confusion. 

Difficulty remembering the order of familiar routines or concepts, such as days of the week, the alphabet, or steps in a process. Very early on my son struggled to classify and remember color names and days of the week. He called his favorite red blanket "old blue" and couldn't seem to remember that we went to church on "Sunday." 

Remembering the alphabet, what each letter looked like, and the sound they made was hard. It took a year.  During which I noticed he never remembered people's names. But I encouraged myself by focusing on his strength: he could remember the names of all the dinosaurs. So I took faith that eventually he could learn the alphabet. Memorizing sight words and a lot of other info, like the months and days of the week, has been challenging as well. 

From an early age, I noticed my son wasn't interested in books like his brothers. He didn't like to hear me tell stories and he didn't like to sing songs. I was so disappointed because I thought singing songs was a great (fun) way to help him remember stuff. I eventually learned that he was a huge visual learner instead. He learned basic preschool information better from learning videos that he liked to watch. Now his language skills have greatly improved as he LOVES listening to audio books. He even likes it when I read to him. However, he likes to be read to alone, rather than with all his brothers. 

With the exception of a mildly dyslexic child with a great working memory, most dyslexic children read later than their peers. I can't stress enough that children can and will learn to read when given the right support. Dyslexia does not mean an inability to read; it just means that one might have to learn how to read differently than most. 

This is something that is common with a lot of different problems. It is not something I personally associate with dyslexics. However, I can look back and see even now that my son struggled in this area too. 

This seemed to hit my son the hardest around age 6, when all his friends were reading and writing, and he was just mastering basic preschool phonics. I always tried to celebrate his success no matter how small and shorten lessons when he was having a bad day and not making progress. Educating him about dylexia as he got older helped a lot. I always tried to portray it as something to overcome, not a handicap. Something that came with gifts not just struggles. 

For all you moms out there looking for hope and help. I want to mention that I'm a firm believer in diet makes a huge difference. There is a gut-brain connection and my son's diet determined whether he could eventually recognize b from d and remember his sight words. He's had a ton of success and I don't think it could have happened without prayer and God's guidance of researching and including diet as part of his plan.