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Stealth dyslexia

This article, written by Brock and Fernette Eide, discusses the concept of hidden dyslexia, which can be a common problem among intellectually gifted children.
  • Topics
    • Twice Exceptional: Dyslexia & Dysgraphia
  • Author
    Eide, B. & Eide, F.
  • Publisher
    2e Newsletter
  • Year
    October 2005

When you read the word dyslexia, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? Probably you think of a reading disorder. That response is understandable, considering the way dyslexia is spoken or written of by many experts. For example, in 2003 the International Dyslexia Association defined dyslexia as “a specific learning disability...characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities...problems in reading comprehension, and reduced reading experience....”

Yet reading difficulties are just one of the many neurologically-based manifestations of dyslexia. In fact, in our practice we often see children who are struggling academically due to difficulties that are clearly dyslexia-related, yet who show age-appropriate – and in many cases even superior – reading skills. Because of their apparently strong reading skills, most of these children have never been identified as dyslexic, or given the help they needed to overcome their academic difficulties.

This problem is especially common, we have found, among intellectually gifted children. The reason is that these children are able to use strong higher-order language skills to compensate for the low-level deficits in auditory and visual processing that cause the reading problems in dyslexia. As a result, they are able to read with relatively good comprehension. In fact, this situation is so common in our clinic that we have given it its own name: stealth dyslexia.

What children with stealth dyslexia have in common are:

  • Characteristic dyslexic difficulties with word processing and written output

  • Findings on neurological and neuropsychological testing consistent with the auditory, visual, language, and motor processing deficits characteristic of dyslexia

  • Reading skills that appear to fall within the normal or even superior range for children their age, at least on silent reading comprehension.

In addition, many of these children have a family history of dyslexia and/or a history of early reading difficulties greater than would be expected for a child with their obvious strengths in oral language. Let's look at the problems experienced by children with stealth dyslexia in a bit more detail.

The most academically disabling difficulty affecting children with stealth dyslexia is almost always dysgraphia, or difficulty writing by hand. Several factors often contribute to their difficulties with written output. First, they typically have the characteristic dyslexic difficulty: turning words in their heads into signals that cause the motor system to form the letters needed to make words. Some reasons for their difficulty can be:

  • They lack the kinds of visual templates that can be used to form words.

  • They are unable to translate auditory word images into the kinds of signals the motor system needs to form letters.

Second, they may have spatial or sequential processing difficulties that make it difficult for them to do the following:

  • Remember how to form individual letters (resulting in oddly formed letters, reversals, inversions, and irregular spacing),

  • Remember the sequence of letters or even sounds in a word.

These children are often especially hard for parents and teachers to understand because they may have verbal IQs in the highly or profoundly gifted range and show every sign of verbal precocity. Yet, these same children might be unable to write the alphabet – even as teenagers.

Third, dyslexic children may have difficulties with sensory-motor dyspraxia, or motor coordination problems. These problems, common in dyslexia, may cause difficulties with the manual aspects of handwriting, even for children who are trying to copy directly from examples of printed words. Often, these children experience the extreme frustration of knowing what words they want to write, while being unable to get their fingers to make the proper motions.

Finally, dyslexic children often have visual processing difficulties. These problems can contribute to poor hand-eye coordination, or difficulty using visual feedback to guide their writing.

The severe handwriting impairment associated with these deficits produces one of stealth dyslexia’s most noticeable manifestations: the characteristically enormous gap between oral and written expression. Even extremely precocious adolescents with outstanding oral language skills, remarkable knowledge bases, and extremely lively minds can produce written documents of such brevity and simplicity that they look as if they’d been written by a struggling third grader. The psychic trauma that can result from this gap between aptitude and output is impossible to exaggerate.

Another tip-off to the presence of stealth dyslexia is spelling errors in children’s written output that are far out of character with their general language, working memory, or attention skills. While they are sometimes able to score within age norms on multiple-choice tests of spelling recognition, or even on weekly tests of spelling words that they study carefully for, these children essentially always show significant and surprising deficits when they try to spell words from memory.

The dyslexic deficits in handwriting and spelling tend to be more persistent and resistant to treatment than the reading deficits. It’s important that children with dyslexic dysgraphia be identified as early as possible so that they can be given appropriate handwriting interventions, and so that they can begin as early as possible to develop proficiency in keyboarding. Keyboarding should become their primary means of written expression for as much schoolwork as possible – in many cases for math as well as language output.

In addition to difficulties with written expression and spelling, children with stealth dyslexia often show persistent, though subtle, difficulties with reading. Despite the appearance of age-appropriate reading comprehension on routine classroom assignments or even standardized tests, careful examination of oral reading skills almost always reveals persistent difficulties with word-for-word reading. These deficits usually result in subtle word substitutions or word skips; and they can result in significant functional problems, especially on tests. We frequently see children who consistently show good comprehension reading lengthy passages or even long books, yet who significantly under-perform or even fail written tests of reading comprehension because they have difficulty reading short test questions or multiple-choice answers.

This seemingly paradoxical difficulty reading short passages can be better understood by considering the nature of the reading difficulties children with stealth dyslexia usually have. As mentioned earlier, these children typically show difficulties with word-by-word reading, skipping words occasionally and making word substitutions. When reading longer passages, they can often use their excellent higher-order language skills to fill in or correct errors in word reading, drawing on the redundancy and contextual cues that are usually available in longer passages. However, short passages contain fewer contextual cues. They have less redundant content, and they often have more condensed syntax, providing fewer means of correcting individual word errors. Therefore, the likelihood of errors increases as passages decrease in length.

Unfortunately, there are few types of writing that are more brief, non-contextual, low-redundancy, and condensed than test questions or multiple-choice answers. On such passages, a single missed word – especially conditionals like not or except, or comparatives like before or since – can yield catastrophic results; and there will be few cues available to show that an error has been made. As a result, children with stealth dyslexia often make “silly mistakes,” giving answers quite different from those they would have given if they had correctly interpreted the question or answer choices. The same kinds of problems often occur in math work, as well.

Although these mistakes typically result in underperformance, 2e children with stealth dyslexia may be able to compensate well enough to avoid actual failure, especially during the early elementary years. As a result, they may not be correctly identified as having dyslexia or any other learning challenge, and may not receive the appropriate interventions.

This frustrating pattern is all too familiar to anyone familiar with 2e children. They have impairments severe enough to significantly impair learning and school performance, but not severe enough to be recognized or to qualify for appropriate services or accommodations. Like many 2e children, gifted stealth dyslexics often “fall between the cracks,” so that the nature of their problem goes unrecognized.

Typically, the children we see with stealth dyslexia struggle through elementary school, performing well below their potential and often making superhuman efforts just to keep up. When they meet the heavier writing demands (as well as more complicated reading assignments) in middle and high school, they frequently find themselves unable to keep up. A downward spiral of failure and despair is often the result. This outcome is completely unnecessary. With early identification and appropriate interventions, these children can be equipped to gain all the knowledge and success of which their powerful minds make them capable.

More than Just Reading Problems

Dyslexia can involve more than just reading problems. Often, it’s associated with difficulties in these areas as well:

  • Handwriting
  • Oral language
  • Math
  • Motor planning & coordination
  • Organization
  • Sequencing
  • Orientation to time
  • Focus & attention
  • Right-left orientation
  • Spatial perception
  • Auditory & visual processing
  • Eye movement control
  • Memory

Brock and Fernette Eide are physicians from Edmonds, WA. They are the Professional Advisory Committee for SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) and their book, The Mislabeled Child, will be published next summer. Visit their website and blog https://www.neurolearning.com.

Permission Statement

This article is reprinted with permission from the 2e Newsletter and the author.

This article is provided as a service of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted young people 18 and under. To learn more about the Davidson Institute’s programs, please visit www.DavidsonGifted.org.

Comments

Parent on 1/31/2021
Had to kind of giggle reading, myself and my two kids in college have struggled with atrocious spelling, writing, time and organization. I spent years shamefully look up simple and complex words for spelling .. owner of multiple paper dictionaries. Constantly labeled as under preforming. I struggled in college found a boy that would transcribe my papers... married him. Both of my children are gifted, both went to governor school and both finished high school with an associates degree. Word to other parents. I had to push the school REALLY in hard in elementary and found advocates for my kids. Half of the tests for gifted assessments my son fell ion the edge of under performing the other half he was in 98-99 %. They didn’t want him in the gifted program because he was quiet , not a behavior problem, they went as far as to say he would hold back the group. That was my breaking point, I said so if had a profound physical disability , like speech impairment, you wouldn’t let him in the class because it would take to long? Long story short that was what they needed to hear to understand. They did testing for LD’s and he was listed as Significant time difference in recognizing letters. We found that most of the tests in the public school don’t account for being gifted. Even with peers, it’s hard for people to understand that your brain just doesn’t work the same. We were told with practice spelling and writing would get better. It does and it doesn’t... One gifted peer of my daughters questioned why she was showing up for the entrance test for governor school. She said, “you can’t even spell”. It’s hard for confidence and esteem having a brain that can comprehend complex ideas but struggles to write simple sentences for fear of being labeled stupid by your peers. Apply to the SAT board early , we were denied 3 times until I wrote an semi ugly personal note and made the school attach to his application for extended time. I hate to have to be like that. It’s also very demoralizing how hard you have to work to compensate for something as dumb as spelling. We ended up taking our son to a neurologist in middle school. Attached his assessment to everything, listed as “ bright child syndrome “ lol.. what ever that is supposed to mean but it helped with a paper trail. Driving was also an obstacle ... the time to process being a stumbling point. We went over and over and over the order of processing driving scenarios. Son has driven in DC traffic so it does get easier. Pack your patients parents and be tenacious your kids deserve it. It can be done. Mine are finishing their BA’s by 20. They need support and a little extra time.. their gifts really do outweigh their deficits.
Other on 5/26/2020
I’m 20 years old and I’ve know from a very young age that I was a horrid speller and I was dyslexic in someway. I also have to truly think about right from left. I alway read far about the norm and my vocabulary is decent enough but that is mostly for a coping mechanism I found that is synonyms. My reading aloud sounds like a third grader though. I know a large range of words because if I don’t know how to spell one I could use another. My handwriting is also atrocious for the very reason that if the shape is good enough people don’t look at the actual letters. Computer typing helps some but I still mess up constantly. The only reason this sound vaguely like how I speak is because I’m on my phone with speak to word functions available. In elementary school there was a teacher that graded everything wrong with a spelling error, including math. I would have FAILED third grade if I would have got her. This is just a warning to parents out there with kids that may have this to be wary of.
Parent on 5/10/2020
I just wanted to say thank you so much for this article. As soon as I read it I knew it described my son's challenges to a T. I sent the article to the school psychologist and asked her to assess my son for stealth dyslexia. At age 13 he is finally diagnosed! He's had so many assessments over the years and the dyslexia was repeatedly missed.
Student on 10/23/2019
I honestly don’t know if I want to laugh or cry. Literally everything in this article describes me perfectly. I’ve know something was off since the end of elementary school (I’m currently a freshman), but I never thought it could be dyslexia; I thought I was too good at reading for that to be possible. Now to talk to my parents about getting an an IEP... Thanks you so much for this article!!!
Parent on 2/13/2019
How are these symptoms treated, such as motor planning?
Student on 6/24/2018
One particular coping mechanism I developed in the first grade for avoiding the passage readings associated with multiple choice and standardized tests was what I call the answer choice skim method. I would skip right over the passage and read the questions and all of the answer choices, then I would skim through the passage for context clues or words associated with the questions and be quite usually able to score As on such assignments. I had a near perfect score on my exit level standardized exams and got to skip the state college entry exams for academic placement. I was always an abysmal hand writer and speller, however, my district had money and was college focused, which meant beginning in grade 6, all academic writing was done on the computer, which conveniently had spelling and grammar checkers. I have always written very much in the same way that I speak, my English teachers said my written work was always engaging and well written, but never seemed to connect that to the fact that it was ME who was engaging and ME who was well SPOKEN. I have faced some struggles with that writing style in college, as I still struggle to maintain a third person perspective in my writing, however, this usually just leads to most editing passes over my work prior to submission. I was reading at a 6th-grade level by the end of the third grade but spelling at a 5th-grade level when I left high school, but due to the nature of English and writing by that time, it went unnoticed. I recently took an IQ test as a component of an ADHD evaluation (at age 25) and my absolute poorest component by far was spelling (50th percentile), followed my number inversions (short-term memory) (67th percentile) and one other short-term memory section (87th percentile). The majority of my rankings were above the 97th percentile. I did not pay for the extra testing for dyslexia, so I was not evaluated for dyslexia or other LDs. I am kind of regretting the decision to save the extra $90. It is pretty amazing how certain scholastic environments and an individual's own intelligence can allow such difficulties to go undiagnosed for 25 years.
Other on 7/13/2017
I found this article fascinating. I can look back over my life now and see that I was undoubtedly suffering from Stealth Dyslexia. Although verbally quite proficient, throughout grammar school my penmanship, spelling, and reading were poor. I was extremely fortunate that a teacher in middle school got me into the honors program where handwriting and spelling were less important than ideas. I am now 68 years old. I obtained a PhD in biochemistry and worked as a scientist for my entire career. I still spell abysmally and my handwriting is illegible unless I take great care in forming the words. I would like to share two things that helped me compensate for my condition. First, during my career handwriting became much less important than typing. As soon as I could, I typed everything that anyone was going to see. My poor penmanship stopped being a problem. My spelling was still extremely poor. The next compensation was to start using a word processor with a spellchecker. Having to look up a word that I thought was misspelled in a paper dictionary was far too cumbersome to be practical. However, a computer program that would underline misspelled words and make suggestions worked well. I discovered that one way of getting around words that were misspelled and for which the word processor could offer no alternatives would be to enter the misspelled word into Google. A search in Google almost invariably returns the word correctly spelled. The second compensation that allowed me to function adequately in a scientific environment was the use of speech recognition. I started using speech recognition decades before it became popular. Even in its very early forms (DragonDictate) it massively improved my written communication. It is almost impossible to misspell anything using speech recognition and since the output is typed handwriting is a non-issue. Early diagnosis and treatment for individuals with Stealth Dyslexia is the appropriate approach. However, I found that I was able to adequately compensate for my deficiencies using technology. I would suggest that someone suffering from Stealth Dyslexia should at least consider using technology as a method of compensation.
Parent on 4/25/2017
I really like the name 'stealth' dyslexia. That would almost be cool for a 9 year old boy to say/hear. There have been signs from a very young age (6 months) that my sons brain was wired differently. We talk about him having a wiggly brain and have explained that rather than taking the direct route his brain wiring sometimes takes a long and convuluted route. He has had assessments by NHS speech and language therapists, OT's, physiotherapists and basically all have said he'd not bad enough at anything to need any support. Ive toyed with the idea of him having bits of dyspraxia, visual processing difficulties but have recently been looking into dyslexia. This article describes my lovely son, he however also has problems with paritcular maths skills such as telling the time, place value, in particular decimals, learning times tables and remembering other key facts like 1,000ml in a litre. He also struggles with judging speed and distance of moving objects. This is making play times hard for him and where he biggest loss of self confidence stems. The other children always pick him to be 'it'/ the catcher because they know he won't be able to catch them :( The battle to get him some support begins tomorrow with an appointment with his school SENCo. Thanks for so much for the article.
Student on 3/6/2017
Today in English, my teacher randomly started talking about Dyslexia. She was talking about how she read a forum page about it, and she was talking about how some students who have it are so gifted to make up for it, they don't find out years into adulthood. I took great interest, A, because I love learning about disorders, and B, because she was staring at me the entire time. I asked a few questions that, lowkey, regarded some things about me, and she said yes to every single one of them. She stated, "I was thinking about you guys while I read it, and some of you really line up with the symptoms." The entire time, she was looking at me. I am beginning to wonder if there was a reason for that, because I really think that "Stealth" Dyslexia describes me. I have a horrendous stutter when reading aloud (and talking normally) too, but I do fine when I read silently. I also ADORE writing, reading, and math, so that might be the reason it has gone undetected if I have it. I thank the writer of this, and I apologize if this made no sense whatsoever.
Other on 2/15/2017
I might be butting in here. I am dyslexic. The description above is me. I was diagnosed when doing a UK. "Open University" course when I was 50. Dyslexia itself was barely recognised when I was at school. (I am now 69. and retired.) I have poor short term visual memory and working memory issues. My diagnosis was a revelation to me. I was told I really was very clever. I could read well from an early age. My hand writing is still dreadful the wrong letters and odd capitals still appear where they should not. I have rarely got punctuation right. I find filling in in forms a nightmare and I can make a right mess of them. It can take me quite a while to organise a coherent reasoned statement but I can eventually do it . For me school reports were "M is quite clever but must try harder". I did not do well as well as expected in my school exams. I am also very disorganised I leave belongings all over the place. I did get a decent job. Knowing It was not "me" but the Dyslexia really helped me get some self esteem and confidence.
Parent on 2/6/2017
I am currently looking into vision therapy for my 14 year old dyslexic/dysgraphic son. I stumbled onto this. My son had 5 years of private Wilson and is very bright. He does very well in school but I am constantly fighting a losing battle with his writing. This year he is being graded on "editing", which is driving me crazy. It is an area of extreme weakness for him! I had them test him with the Woodcock Johnson and his SS for editing was a 67! This is such a frustrating journey. It is such a thrill to stumble onto something that actualy describes your child! We have put so much time money and effort into helping my son live up to his potential, to see him be misunderstood is painful. I plan on sharing this information!
Parent on 3/10/2016
I also found this article very helpful. I am constantly confused by the effects of dyslexia. My daughter was diagnosed as being mildly dyslexic at age 7 and classically dyslexic at age 9. She has superior reasoning skill (18years plus) but testing at school as reading at her age level and spelling well below her age level. Yet on her most recent NZ national reading comprehension test she scored a stanine 9 (top 4%) yet her spelling remains at that of a 7 or 8 year old. I find it surprising that she now has excellent reading comprehension withour any additional time yet struggles in her spelling and speed in other areas.
Parent on 3/2/2016
This article is so important. It describes my 13 year old son perfectly and I will read it to him. He was labelled a 'mild dyslexic' at 8 years but, after falling still further behind at school, he had an official Educational Psychology test at 11 and was found to be 'significantly dyslexic' (following the test, he was described by the assessor as 'incarcerated'). His coding ability is in the 5th percentile. His comprehension, however, is in the 95th. We now have a Reader and a Scribe for every test and exam and we are getting A*s (except for languages). For the future, I see him recording his lessons/lectures on his iPad as well as using a dictation app for his work. Fortunately, he has a lovely, quiet, kind but strong character and there does not seem to be any emotional damage which his assessor said was rare.
Parent on 10/9/2015
Wow, our son was 16 1/2 when we discovered his dyslexia. We were stunned because we homeschooled so I knew he could read but it was his anxiety over test taking that prompted his high school counselor (his ISP was a private school) to get him tested for an LD. He opted for community college so he did not take the SAT. My goal is to encourage him to always do HIS best and reach for the sky as the sky is the limit.
Parent on 9/19/2015
Just stumbled apon stealth dyslexia. We live in the Netherlands and school wishes to have our son (9y/o) tested for ADHD. Among other things he has terrible handwriting; last year he had to learn to write again but with a different kind of writing/font. Nowadays it is not much better. Spelling isn't really well, not bad enough to consider dyslexia according to school. His scores are way lower than to be expected regarding his potential (everybody agrees on that) and his calculus/math is different because he has learnt himself a different strategy than he was taught. Unfortunately school states is is his own doing, they only recently noticed after our own 'discovery' on that point. He earlier (6/7 y/o) was suspected on having dyslexia but after extra training school doesn't consider that anymore, because his grades are not low enough. I think this article is a great source of information and I will show this to his teacher. I think this kind of dyslexia is more of a possibility than ADHD.
Parent on 9/7/2015
The article is very enlightened for me. I am a 39 years old German woman. I was diagnosed with dyslexia in 3rd grade and was identified as gifted at the age of 39. I got nervous about my son starting kindergarten in California at the age of 5. He had difficulties with learning the alphabet and the sounds, though he could read a little bit at the end of kindergarten. He was good at side words. And I was thinking of my frustration as a child and got confused by his problems. I think could have stealth dyslexia as well. Are there any recommendations. Nobody ever would identifiy me as a dyslexic here in germany. I am a good reader and not a bad writer. But I prefer to skip reading, because I always had difficulties in reading word for word. I always wondered about that. I hate to read the newspaper and i am a fast and good reader regarding novels and other longer texts.
Parent on 8/8/2015
This description fits my 16yo son completely! We have always homeschooled and struggled with his LD. Is there anything that can be done for these types of learners this late in the game? I'm getting nervous with the SAT and college coming up...
Parent on 7/27/2015
This is a great article. About 30 years ago, just prior to my final exams, I had a new English teacher who raised her concerns that I had a type of dyslexia. I can't recall the name of it, but it was something like 'hidden dyslexia'. She was going to ask the exam board for some type of 'allowance'. After that I never heard any more. But my poor spelling and slow reading has dogged me through my life. I now work in health and my notes are depressingly messy. I and my sons and father also have auditory processing type problems. Many thanks for a very enlightening article.
Educator on 6/12/2015
This is a great article to be shared with Educators, School Psychologists, Guidance Counselors and Support service Specialists. I am a fifth grade educator and have a student who exhibits these characteristics. The mother of this student sent me this article. It is eye opening!
Parent on 3/13/2015
Loved the information, but would also be interested in more applicable interventions.
Parent on 7/21/2014
What a brilliant article. My son has just been diagnosed as a high functioning "gifted" dyslexic. He is a brilliant reader - now 5th grade his scores on state tests indicate 12.5 grade. His writing ability is awful and he became extremely frustrated. We suspected Dyspraxia or dysgraphia and we were floored by the outcome of the tests. However since reading this article I have a new understanding and have a sense of relief! In fact I will share it with him...
Parent on 6/12/2014
My son was identified as profoundly gifted with dyslexia. The reading comprehension despite poor oral/word reading is what I see. When he reads orally to me, which he likes to do, he misreads over half the words on the page but can tell me what is happening. We homeschool so don't have to deal with public school, however, I see that he is 'only' basic second grade reading level (he is 5 years old reading mostly Magic Tree House) while other subjects like math computation is pre-algebra. As he is missing his hands the fact that he can even write impresses people and handwriting is not a factor: we use computers and voice to computer programs a lot.
Parent on 4/24/2014
I have found this very interesting. I have very good reading skills and comprehension but when I am tired having done a lot of written work my eyes and brain feel like they are jumping around and need to settle before attempting any more. I can confuse my left and right, my spatial awareness is not great (again when tired) I can lose time and confuse similar activities - i.e. forget where my car is parked as I am looking where I parked it the previous day. I have to feel fresh to able to fill in a form without making mistakes and I have a dread of office work. I don't like answering the phone as sometimes I do not understand what people are saying and find it hard to remember more than a couple of instructions. I keep an eye on my two girls for any signs of confusion although they both are advanced readers and are doing well at school. However, my littlest took a while to pronounce words and would say things like 'lellow' and tarity shop when at school. She could pronounce her y's and ch's so I suspect she was not able to remember the sequence of the letters. She may have jumped ahead to the L first in yellow and the ending t in charity shop. When I am very tired I can also get muddled with the sequence of words and run ahead to the end first, ie ' I am going to put the bin in the rubbish or I have dade minner instead of I have made dinner.
Educator on 3/12/2014
I only live in awe of students who have dyslexia. They are so misunderstood. I have taught many children with dyslexia and they have great resilience strategies.
Student on 3/1/2014
I had an IEP as a child and I was told I was dyslexic. I never really looked into what dyslexia really was. I thought it was simply the reason why I mixed up words and read slowly. I always thought I was just sort of dumb, but good at pretending to be smart. despite having these problems, I found that i could avoid many of my faults. But still my confidence was severely damaged by my belief that I was dumb. I did not start to reach my true academic potential until I started to receive extra time and listen to audio textbooks my junior year. This form has truly helped me understand who I am and why I have had to work so relentlessly and in such an unusual manor in order to make my way in life. I have to say though, I certainly need the extra time but it just doesn't have the same satisfaction knowing that my score is a result of being allotted extended time.
Parent on 9/13/2013
This is fascinating. I am trying to get help for my daughter who may possibly be dyslexic. The more I read about dyslexia I also see myself as a child, except that I taught myself to read early and have always been a fast (speed) reader. I struggled with spelling, writing, reversing letters, telling time, never learnt my multiplication tables.
Parent on 1/25/2013
My son was identified with learning problems very early thanks to the keen understanding of my wife, and he has many accommodations. Our main challenge has been the school system really just wants to fit our square peg into their round holes. They don't perform the accommodations in my son's IEP with consistency. Finally, I have a problem with the highly presumptuous expectation-setting that seems to be prevalent for twice-exceptional students. Why do we automatically expect that the very superior talents of the student should represent the level by which we gauge performance? Isn't the reality of the situation that every person is the sum of their strengths and weaknesses? Accommodations and remediation will not make up for ones weaknesses in full, so the expectation that my son's genius-like qualities is where he should be performing in school isn't fair; not for him, not for my wife and I, and not to his teachers. I think that setting the bar high is good, but too high is simply pain-inducing. We all deserve a break sometimes.
Parent on 9/22/2012
I am so grateful to have stumbled upon this article! For the first time, I feel like someone has described my daughter. She has always had a number of "processing issues," but they never seemed to add up to typical dyslexia. "Stealth" dyslexia descibes her to a T. Now what do I do?
Parent on 7/7/2012
So glad I have read this article. My daughter has struggled through her education and yet, on numerous occasions, I have people commenting on how 'bright' she is. I have a degree in public health which I worked hard for and yet I know at 14 my daughter is much more intelligent and yet struggling in our state education system. I am desperate to support her academic potential. It's so hard but this article has hit so many spots I know to continue to help her any way I can.
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