How can I help my son with reading when he suffers for dyslexia?

I have tried so many things and I feel like I am running out of options, he just has no interest in reading. I have tried game, one on one teachers, Video flash card, bribes, drilling it in. I am at a loss.

Dyslexia is actually a group of conditions that make it more difficult to read or to understand written words.

My daughter has dyslexia which we have known since she was 5. We took her to a psychiatrist who specializes on learning and developmental delays and after a battery of tests she gave us specific recommendations to help her learn. I think we did pretty well because now at 8 instead of struggling to read she now reads well above her grade.

I’d recommend doing the same thing, have your son tested by a psychiatrist who specializes in learning and developmental delays to find out how you can best help your son.

Good luck!

Thank you, I have had him tested, but with boys unlike girls, I feel there is less drive or desire to do things that are not comfortable for them. I also notice that even boys that do not suffer from anything are less likely to do as well as the girls in school. He can saw the words, and verbally he is a very fast learner, but when he read stories he has trouble grasping the meaning because of he struggles. Also in both math and science for the test we have taken he is above average.

My daughter’s dyslexia caught us by surprise, we knew she had ADHD and was getting a battery of tests because of that. She was slowly learning to read and we attributed this to ADHD. We learned that even basics like being able to remember writing goes left to right and top to bottom was difficult for her. Every time she looked at a page it was like a puzzle to figure out how the words went.

One thing to remember is that things that seem simple to us take hard intellectual effort for those with dyslexia. To them reading a simple sentence can be as demanding as doing a difficult calculus problem is for us (me anyway). Sometimes asking dyslexics to do something that seems simple to us like finishing a page is a monumental task to them.

School is more demanding than it used to be. Kindergarten used to be largely social and for the child to get used to going to school; now Kindergarten covers what used to be covered in 1st grade. Since girls mature faster than boys they are more likely to be able to handle this. The original idea behind red shirting or starting boys a year later was so they would be bigger, stronger, and more coordinated their peers for sports but now it is becoming a strategy so they will be ready for their coursework.

Lots of times kids with challenges in one area will have gifts in others. Many famous and successful people are dyslexic to the point where some people even talk about it being an advantage.

The problem comes when schools expect kids to learn in lockstep where kids who learn differently from their peers fall behind and loose confidence and self-esteem. We homeschool so we can let our daughter learn at her own pace and we won’t have to battle with schools to get her the help she needs. I realize this isn’t an option for everyone though.

I agree with what you are saying, and while home school is not a option for us, well at this time there is no way we could afford for one of us to stop working, how about private schools, are they better equipped for this or is there another type of school he can go to.