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Hey, so i was diagnosed with dyslexia on monday and i was happy that people will finaly believe me when i say that i have been struggling and try to help me out. I was happy because i could finally recieve the extra time that i NEED not just WANT and pester about (what another teacher tried to write and send to my teacher so i can get extra time in my exam tomorrow). I have been struggling for years but nobody (family or friends) believed me as it is not something that is just visible so it too ages to get the proper diagnosis. I went to ask her if the lady that deals with the extra time arrangements if she had read my diagnositic report and she told me that she hadn't seen it (would have been okay if she stopped there) but then she proceeds to tell me that my teacher said that 'She doesn't need extra time'. Like excuse me. You literally just said that you had not read the report so why are you bringing this information up (that i was not even informated that it had been discussed) to the table when this was for another ongoing issues that i have. The dyslexia is another thing that has been discovered so how dare she say that the teacher said that i dont need extra time even though this (unnecessary and disrespectful) comment must have been for ANOTHER ISSUE. Nobody can know what is going on in your mind so how discusting to say something so cruel and straight up dismissing of the problem. Bare in mind that my teacher would probably not have said that at all (as i beleive at the moment) and if they did then shame on them. Btw the spelling mistakes will not be edited out in this written piece because this is how i actually write (spelling is one of my symptoms although my main one is reading speed).
I am writing this with the hope that someone out there will read it and begin to start taking action for themselves. My mum was deeply upset when i can home and had a meltdown and we will try out best to get justice, in whatever way possible because as a person that deals with children with special circumstances that is just unacceptable.
I hope that whoever is reading this know that you need to speak up for things that are not right because others simply do not care. That's the harsh truth. Please listen to me and stand up for what is wrong and save yourself my lovely. I wish you all the best.
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In California there's a thing called a 504 Plan that helps with accommodations for students in grade school up thru college. You may want to look into seeing if your state or country has something similar.
ReplyJust had a look at this and will try to get this set up as soon as possible, thank you for the suggestion.
ReplyYou are very welcome. I know what you're going through. Keep fighting for the accommodations. While I was in gradeschool one of my friends told me about it, like you she has dyslexia. I had a different issue but by her telling me. My mom and I were able to get it going and it helped me a lot. I hope it helps you as well.
ReplyI have a daughter with Dyslexia and can share a relatable story....from the other side of the fence.
We have a few children and they are, in so many ways, all different from one another. One of them is so very street smart and such a great problem solver but she's always struggled in school. When she was in elementary, she passed a grade but it was just by the skin of her teeth. The school had a conference with us and explained that, although she passed, they recommended we hold her back a year because they felt, considering the amount of struggles she had that year, that she would never be able to succeed on the following school year in the higher grade. It hurt but, they are the experts in their field. We took their advice and filled out the paperwork to hold her back. On the following year, in the same grade as the previous year, she did much better.
But, as the years chugged along, she always seemed to have issues with her school work.
She never read much but I think most kids don't so I didn't think too much of it. And I knew her grades were never great but I always assumed she just wasn't trying hard enough.
I don't honestly remember how it FINALLY came about that we thought she might be dyslexic, but we decided to have her tested. In an initial meeting with a local official testing center, they had her go through a few exercises to see if they thought she even needed to be tested. In one exercise, the lady held up flash cards and, on each, there was a random letter of the alphabet. She asked that my daughter simply name the letter she saw on the flash card and then make the sound or sounds each letter makes.
I immediately thought to myself, "What a waste of time. Of course she knows the letters of the alphabet because I helped her learn those before she started school and she's now coming out of ninth grade, for goodness sake." But, to my dismay, my daughter actually named many of the letters incorrectly and couldn't, on many occasions, provide the correct sounds of the letters either. Imagine seeing the letter "W" on the flashcard but calling it a "V" and then making a sound that's not associated with "W" or "V". As the cards fell, one by one to the table, I found myself struggling to fight back the tears. Between tests, it was difficult to not excuse myself from the room so I could cry it all out and beat myself up for not knowing how bad off she had been all this time.
She was approved, obviously, for official testing so we found ourselves back at that building a few weeks later. I had to drop her off and returned a few hours later for a pick up. Once there, the nice lady who performed the testing said that they would get the results out to me via mail very soon and that, soon after, we'd have a virtual meeting to discuss the results.
On the following week, I received a packet in the mail from these folks and was surprised to note that it was quite thick. I opened it up, once inside the house, and flipped quickly through the pages to just get a glance at it all. I was expecting, I suppose, to get a one page document that said "Yes, your daughter has Dyslexia." or "No, your daughter does not have Dyslexia." Instead, this was pages and pages and pages of charts, graphs, and paragraphs detailing her performance for each test.
Later that afternoon, once the kids were down and the house was settled, I finally made time to go through it all. To say that it broke my heart was an understatement. On one section, like "Reading Comprehension", her score was equivalent to a 3rd grader. Her brain works so hard to unscramble the letters to read the individual words that she can't also remember the full sentence, much less the paragraph or overall story. That said, she's practically unable to answer any questions about a document she reads. When I saw that her scores in some areas compared to those of 3rd graders, the tears started streaming down my face. I had too many tears in my eyes to even focus on more of the document. It took me a long, long time to read it all.
I felt so bad for her and I was so, so very angry at myself for not knowing sooner.
As part of the testing, they provide her with an IQ test as well and, on that, she scored just 8 points shy of getting the highest tier. She's so very smart, they said, and they had never seen someone at this facility before that ranked so low on the Dyslexia test but also so high on the IQ test. She was a unique case, they said.
Our next steps then were to get the 504 paperwork (which was a bit of a hassle and took months to complete). Once done, the teachers were notified and the 504 went into affect. Her grades improved dramatically. She still struggles, yes, but the 504 plan is very helpful to her.
We had to resubmit paperwork for the 504 for this school year and will have to do this again next year as well.
In the end, I can say that you are correct in stating that it's difficult to get people to believe you because, as you also mentioned, it's not something people can see. I can also say that the official testing was expensive, the paperwork for the schools was long, and the process for implementing the 504 was long. To me, it seems like too much trouble. Too much money required to prove this and too many flaming hoops to do something about it once you have proof.
Just know that you aren't alone. I don't, myself, have Dyslexia but I certainly understand your frustration and am wishing you the best!
Good Luck!
ReplyThank you soo much for sharing your story with the dyslexia. It had helped me to understand that I am not alone even though it currently seems that way. I will be forever grateful for this.
ReplyWell, your story hit me, as my friends and I say, "right in the feels". For you to be the one with Dyslexia, looking at others who are seemingly not believing you or believing in your situation, I thought it might be nice to share my experience from "their" point of view. If you are in a wheelchair, and you ask someone to hand you a glass of water, they'd jump right on that because they can see that it would be difficult for you to get this water yourself. But when you say you have issues with Dyslexia, there's nothing to "see" so it's too easy for others to brush off.
I hope, over time, things will get easier for you. I know too many folks with Dyslexia who are successful and happy in life. There will be hurdles, but you can overcome or find workarounds for sure.
Good Luck!
ReplyAnd I can add my experience from the 3rd side of the fence;)
I don't have dyslexia, but I tutor and I had a couple of teachers with it (including a science teacher with both dyslexia and dyscalculia - and yes, that does make things exactly as hard as it sounds, but it's not insurmountable!). Your teachers were completely in the wrong for constantly denying you the help you needed. I just wanted to say that it will get better for you, and hang on tight and fight for the support you need:)
ReplyI will try thank you soo much, If I don't continue fighting for what I need nobody will do it for me so I appreciate and will take your advice.
ReplyI can kind of relate, but my case is a bit different. Instead of dyslexia it’s autism. At first, even a bit after my diagnosis, my parents didn’t really believe I had autism since my sister also has autism and hers is more severe. I guess they thought there’s only one form of autism or smth.
Oh and btw, shame on your teachers for just dismissing you, I’m really sorry you had to go through that.
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