The day before my daughter’s 7th birthday, my husband and I had an appointment to discuss the results of her reading test. For the past few months or so, we had suspected that something was not quite right with her inability to read. It seemed to be more than a child who was waiting for an “aha” moment. This led us to having her tested for a reading disability. The reading specialist confirmed that we did the right thing by bringing her in for testing. She also assured us that the final results would be ready in a few days. That day finally came and my husband and I headed to her office.
The results did not tell us anything we did not already assess for ourselves save one aspect. The aspect we were uncertain of was the severity of her disability. As it turns out she is fairly severe with two issues: phonological awareness and phonological memory issues. She also scored very low in rapid naming. Due to her reading difficulties her reading comprehension was low but her listening comprehension was through the roof. She tested to be a very bright girl who has a fairly severe form of dyslexia. Since it is a spectrum disability and only time will tell her progression there seemed to be no way to say much more than fairly severe. She is a seven year old girl who knows every letter of the alphabet if she can see it but forgets letters if she has to say it on her own. Rote memory and rote sequence also presented challenges for her. She also scored pretty high in math with only having difficulty in memorization of math facts. If it did not relate to phonological awareness or memory she scored well above her grade level. The disparity in her high areas and her low areas indicated her journey to reading would be long and arduous.
The next step is tutoring and finding resources and curriculum to help her on her road to reading. I did not reveal to her the test results since we were too busy celebrating her birthday. We held our celebrations on that day since daddy was home. The next day, I talked to her about her rest results. I gently told her that she was dyslexic and what to expect. Hours later she walked up to me and said, “Why did you have to tell me I was dyslexic on my birthday?” and walked away. She is funny like that. I actually didn’t think of it as her birthday since we celebrated all afternoon the day before.
So the journey begins….