I am starting to seriously fear our DS has dyslexia of some sort.

He has already been diagnosed ADD, as well as LD and had noticed occasionally that he wrote words completely backwards..

But recently, he is beginning to write more and more words perfectly..backwards. I have watched him, he writes them fast and doesn't even (even after looking at it) realize what is "wrong".

I know I probably need to take him to another physician, but I am just wondering if anyone knows how the testing for this works? Also, what do I DO with it? He was a left behind child in public school, a school that said, in writing, oops he just happened to be a child we dropped the ball on, which is why he is homeschooled... But this is unnerving me a little bit. He struggles in reading, no, actually, he is great at reading and comprehension, but he is anti-reading and I am starting to wonder if this is the reason why...

I doubt I posted this in the right place, but I could really use some advice on this.

-A worried Mom

I highly recommend you check out this website : www.gapsdiet.com and get your hands on the book.

My daughter was also a 'left behind' child-  she was diagnosed with ADD , OCD, ODD and had several behavior and learning disorders-  she also had some mild dyslexic tendencies.

Between doctors and teachers either telling me she was fine or trying to put her on meds to control her symptoms I did not know what to do or where to turn - it was frustrating.

A friend suggested to me that her problems could be dietary-  I had heard all the cut the sugar and processed foods stuff but nothing seemed to be helping much, though the more I though about it, the more it made sense-  your body is fueled by the foods we eat and the ability of our body to digest foods and nutrients is going to affect every function of our bodies, including and especially the brain- I just did not know where to start.

I discovered my daughter was gluten intolerant- she also has a severe allergy and intoleance to corn.  She was an undiagnosed celiac for 10 years and her gut was in really bad shape.  Over the past 3 years we have removed all offending foods from her diet,  focussed on repairing her gut with good nourishing foods and probiotics and now she is back in school, her grades are phenomenal, she has very minor ADD  tendencies, the OCD and ODD tendencies are GONE. 

I did have her tested for dyslexia-  the test is very easy, (it does take time but is not stressful, especially if you have a good doctor that relates well to children.  I have seen people whose dyslexic tendencies have been minimized or even completely cured by changing after dietary changes like I have described above -  if the body is not getting nourished the brain is not being fed and does not function properly. 

In my daughters case, her diet was only a small factor-  she was found not to have true dyslexia but her eyes focused at different levels causing her to have to strain harder in order to bring things into focus and causing eye fatigue rather quickly,  as her eyes tired the words would tend to jump around, meld together and just go blury-  for her , glasses helped to alleviate this problem for her.

I know how frustrating it can be , I felt like I was walking in circles and into brick walls for a long time , not knowing who to talk to or where to start.

I suggest allergy and food intolerance testing.  If you can afford it have him tested through enterolab.com- understanding the results of this test literally saved my daughter's life.  Get the GAPS book, the diet is a little overwhelming but just having hte information can help you understand the relationship between gut health, learning disabilities and disease.  Then if you are concerned about the dyslexia, just schedule a test- I think my daughter's test took 45 minutes- there was a general eye exam, then she was asked to read aloud and take a spelling test ( do not fret over this one - correct spelling of the words is not what they are looking for as far as indicators go)  I think there was also a picture sequence activity she had to do - it really was not anything to be anxious or worried about.

Worried Mom, I hope I can help set your mind at ease that dyslexia is not the end of the world.  In fact, often it can indicate a very artistic/creative brain.  I read a wonderful book called The Gift of Dyslexia, which explained the characteristics from the point of view of the person who has it.  It was written by someone with dyslexia.

Two of my children have it but it can be just as much of a gift as a struggle.  We have found audio books and reading aloud to be life saving. If the point of reading a piece of literature is to understand the story, then there are many ways: listening to the audio, watching the play, performing in the play, etc.  In terms of decoding, there are wonderful techniques.  Some people recommend Orton-Gillingham.

A behavioral opthamologist can both diagnose and help treat dyslexia with eye focusing exercises. 

Here are the things we've used that have worked best for my children:

1) large print books or books with lots of white space on the page

2) plays and scripts (lots of white space)

3) audio books

4) covering book pages with a piece of translucent yellow or pink plastic, to minimize glare

Best of luck!