Skip to content

News

Dyslexia and Adoption: Let’s Connect the Dots-Part 2

Where is the research about dyslexia and adoption? And, why isn’t adoption cited more frequently as a subgroup within the broader dyslexia community when adopted kids are twice as likely as non-adopted kids to have learning or attention issues (Morin, n.d.).   Would a specific subset muddy the global effort to help more people with dyslexia learn to read? Would fewer people want to adopt children if they thought their child would be at a higher risk of having a learning difference? As a parent of an adopted child with dyslexia, I’ve often struggled with the dyslexia community at large to understand what makes our kids more prone to reading differences. In my last post on this topic, I questioned the effect that sudden language disruption would wreak on a young child learning to read (Gindis, 2004). I still don’t know for sure whether sudden language disruption is the reason our daughter has a reading difference, but I believe it is a factor.  What I have since learned, is that there are tons of ideas why our adopted kids could be more prone to learning differences. Here are some of them: Poverty Stress Trauma Poverty, Stress, and Trauma You don’t hear a lot about poverty, stress, and trauma in the mainstream dyslexia community. However, they are really, really important factors to… | Read More »Dyslexia and Adoption: Let’s Connect the Dots-Part 2

Educational Technology: To Plug or Unplug & Other Questions to Consider When Your Kid Has a Reading Difference

“No more screen time, read a book.” Who hasn’t said that to their kid? However, what do you suggest when your kid can’t easily read for comprehension or pleasure? Go listen to an audiobook. Read an e-book with audio for at least fifteen minutes. Even with the educational technology that is available, my kid doesn’t like to read. Period. It’s a fact, and it may or may not change. Use it Or Lose It Everyone has to read. It’s not a debate. As a parent, I need to encourage our daughter to read.  As such, I feel torn about how hard to push technology when it comes to reading, and I’m not consistent. Sometimes I suggest reading a book or a print product, but who am I fooling. Of the books she owns, none have ever been read. Even the graphic novels. I can tell her that the more she practices, the easier it will become, but that still doesn’t mean she will want to read a book-ever! Listen to an Audio Book or an E-Book Print or words alone are a really tough sell. I get it. Reading the content takes all of her efforts, so there’s not much joy in the task. Therefore, I would argue that the time is now to promote e-books with audio or just… | Read More »Educational Technology: To Plug or Unplug & Other Questions to Consider When Your Kid Has a Reading Difference

Higher Education and Teacher Curricula in Reading: Why Can’t We Be Friends?

Reading wars, structured literacy programs, early screening, multi-sensory interventions delivered with fidelity, IEP, IEE, assistive technology. When I began to get my arms around what I define as the “dyslexia space” I had no idea how complex the underlying issues were, and all of the controversies! Good heavens. Many years ago, when we were told that our daughter had a reading difference and/or dyslexia, we had one goal in mind. Teach my kid to read. That is what I call this site, and that has always been our goal. All we have ever wanted is for our daughter to read. What we didn’t know then is how complicated that would be. Sadly, our story is not unique. There are millions of kids like our daughter, and some are not so lucky as to have our life-wrenching choices that at least offer some solutions. I have written in other blogs about the immense improvement our daughter demonstrated after she received services with fidelity at Camp Dunnabeck. As a friend often says, we peeled away a layer of the onion. Our daughter was happy, she was learning, and she was reading! Did we solve our challenges or come to the end of our story? Hardly. The journey never ends, even into adulthood where workplace challenges for dyslexic adults are starting to garner some attention.… | Read More »Higher Education and Teacher Curricula in Reading: Why Can’t We Be Friends?

Dyslexia and Adoption: Let’s Connect the Dots

It’s dyslexia awareness month. As such, I would be remiss in continuing our story without mentioning adoption, particularly international adoption. What about adoption and dyslexia, or learning differences for that matter? Where is the research, and why isn’t adoption cited more frequently as a subgroup within the broader dyslexia community? Maybe it would over-complicate a very challenging educational space, or possibly most people have no idea that such a high percentage of adopted children, especially those adopted internationally, are dyslexic. If only we knew. Statistical and Empirical Evidence of High Rates of Dyslexia in Adopted Children The first person who told us that our daughter would have a learning difference was our adoption attorney. Go figure. While preparing some adoption paperwork, she indicated that our daughter would not get through college in four years—if she went at all. I was insulted. How dare she stereotype our perfect child! Because she had worked with internationally-adopted children her entire career and since our daughter came to us at around the age of two, the attorney predicted our daughter would have some type of learning difference. We knew we would prove the attorney wrong, but sadly, we didn’t. What I learned is that in 2014 alone 110,373 kids were adopted through foster care, and domestic and international adoption (Jones and Placek, 2017). Kids… | Read More »Dyslexia and Adoption: Let’s Connect the Dots

The Quest for Reading Services: Stories of Parents and Other People

The Parents There is our story. Yet, there are so many other stories to tell. Over time, I hope this website can feature tons and tons of stories and serve as a repository to document the heart-wrenching decisions that families are faced with to get their child the correct reading services. While every story is different, with a parent’s awareness I recognize, that there are poignant commonalities between us; we the parents of kids with learning, behavioral and physical differences. We see a hope and resilience and an unwavering vision of our kid as brilliant, perfect and deserving of happiness. Even if there are times that only you see it and people around you are skewing your vision or taking away your hope, you stay on your path. For us, our path is to get our daughter to read, and keep her self-confidence intact in the process. That’s what we owe her. Keeping our kid’s dignity and self-confidence is the hardest part of being a parent of a kid with a learning difference. The people I have been meeting this summer are a lot like me. So many Moms (and some Dads) staying up here with their kids. Dorothy was only here for part of the summer, and I miss seeing her smiling face in the morning. Dorothy would leap… | Read More »The Quest for Reading Services: Stories of Parents and Other People

A Bittersweet Reflection on Post-Camp Testing

It’s Sunday, July 30th the height of summer, and it’s a beautiful sunny day at Camp Dunnabeck, nestled between The Berkshires and The Catskills. So, what are we doing today? Post-Camp Testing There’s something bittersweet about arriving at a kids’ camp at 8 am on a Sunday and seeing all of the campers lined up for testing. Bittersweet in that most kids are still sleeping, or if they are up this early on a perfect July day, then they are getting ready to go swimming or to do something summer-like. Parents who have a kid with a reading difference have to walk that delicate tightrope of allowing their kid be a kid and giving them enough services so that they don’t fall even further behind; especially true when dealing with long-term retrieval and working memory challenges. Combining services with a typical camp experience is a prime example of why a place like Camp Dunnabeck is so needed. The kids have so much fun that the reading services are a non-issue; at least for us. I wish all kids with reading differences had an option like Camp Dunnabeck. Doesn’t every child deserve a summer? So, what is post-camp testing all about, and why are we here on a gorgeous Sunday morning in late July: 1. The tests measure progress after nearly… | Read More »A Bittersweet Reflection on Post-Camp Testing

SUMMER SERVICES PLUS SUMMER FUN: CAMP DUNNABECK

READING OPTIONS What about school for next year? We had an awesome day at Kildonan, home to Camp Dunnabeck.  What’s not to like? The curriculum is structured around intense Orton-Gillingham tutoring, they have a state-of-the art assistive technology lab, strong academics, wonderful arts options, a great sports program, and the kids seem to be thriving. All of the teachers are trained to teach kids with reading and learning differences. Matter of fact, all kids with intense reading differences who need more than multi-sensory tutoring should have access to a school like this; an end goal of solving one of the major issues of reading differences as it makes all the difference and can be a lifesaver-really! ATTENDING A SPECIALIZED SCHOOL FOR KIDS WITH SIGNIFICANT READING DIFFERENCES CAN BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THRIVING AND NOT GETTING THROUGH SCHOOL AT ALL So why isn’t Kildonan our definite choice at this point? It simply comes down to the fact that it’s not around the corner and it’s not free. We have never given up hope that there must be a way to make it work for us here, and as it turned out, we had the infamous IEP (individualized education program) meeting shortly after our visit to Kildonan. The IEP meetings are when you set goals for the following school year and learn… | Read More »SUMMER SERVICES PLUS SUMMER FUN: CAMP DUNNABECK