Prior blog on this subject is located here. I saw an article last week, which flashed me back to November 2004 when my daughter was diagnosed with Dyslexia.


I was enraged that my daughter had to endure some really sucky life experiences... because of her language based learning disability (dyslexia). It wasn't something that she could make better by trying harder.


I was angry with myself and the school system and her language therapist for missing this.... for being so slow at diagnosing her disability. She had attended school for 2 years before this was spotted.


Natasha's self esteem was damaged by her school experiences. She thought that she was stupid. She knew that she was different then other children.


Anyway I arranged for Natasha to be tested by the local public school system. I explained the testing to Natasha very simply. She was going to talk to a lady and answer some questions. The lady was going to help us figure out why Natasha had problems with reading.

At the time Natasha didn't have a diagnosis of ADHD. She wasn't on medication. And she was set up to fail the special education testing in a spectacular fashion.


I am not saying that I set my daughter up to fail. It just sort of happened. I wanted an testing appointment just as soon as possible.


The testing was scheduled for 2pm and her morning had been very exciting at school. Icing on the cake, Natasha was very worried about the testing. Her self-esteem was poor. And at this point any mistake was greeted with over reaction.

So, Natasha spent most of the testing under the table. She refused to try many questions because she thought that she didn't know the answer. Or rather she answered many questions with "I don't know". Natasha's motto at this point was:

Better to not try, then to get the answer wrong.

Finally the tester was able to get Natasha out from under the table... Natasha fidgeted like crazy. Lean to the left and fall off the chair. Lean to the right and fall off the chair.

Natasha's score was horrible.



YEAH!

Because Natasha was 7.5 she could not have a learning disability according to the United States government. She got an IEP for developmental delay.

When she was 8.5 years old her IEP was written for her short term memory issues.

I am going to dig up the various symptom lists for language based learning disabilities. It turns out that Dyslexia shows up first in verbal communication.