Ask Dr. Silver

What helps a teenage boy who has a diagnosed dyslexic processing issue to fill in the gap between him being asked a question and his response? He has to develop a coping mechanism to not seem as if he is stalling the teacher or uninterested in a friend's story.

Vivien

I am a fifth grade teacher and I have a student who is medicated for ADHD with a patch. He shows an attention rate of about 85 percent throughout a school day. However, I have found that he experiences trouble in reading and in speaking at times. When called upon to orally read in class, he must stare at the text for approximately 20 seconds in order to verbalize his words. He also experiences this at times in beginning communication. Do you have any ideas of what the causes may be, or how I can assist him? Maybe games or skills practices that could help.

Thanks,

Donna

My 14-year-old eighth grade daughter has bipolar disorder and has an IEP under SED. She is in both GATE and special ed programming. She receives medical services from her HMO and from County Mental Health. She is currently stable and doing acceptable work in her academic classes. However, she has always struggled with written assignments (even before she became ill), and particularly struggles with answering the call of a question. Her grades on homework tend to be A's or F's, depending on the nature of the assignment.

Today her psychiatrist said that she almost certainly has a receptive-expressive language problem that is masked by her emotional problems and her intelligence, and that is definitely not part of the thought disorder.

However, the psychiatrist can't diagnose an educational problem so I'll have to ask the school to test my daughter.

My daughter has always had some trouble with writing mechanics and with organizing her thoughts on paper. However, she began talking at a very young age (full sentences before 12 months), has always had a precocious vocabulary, and reads well, so it never occurred to me that she could have a language-based disability. Is this possible? What testing should be done? Can a receptive-expressive language problem be remediated in a teenager?

Thank you so much.
P. Johnson

I am an early high school student. I just completed eighth grade but I find that a lot of my skills seem well below my classmates skills.

I have had a learning disability since before I can remember. I have dysgraphia, fine motor difficulties, and speech difficulties. However I take a combination of regular, college prep, and honors classes. I am in no "special ed. classes" with the exception of supplemental. I know for a fact however that my skills in grammar, written expression, and spelling are well below the eighth grade level.

However, I am receiving no help in those areas outside of my college prep English class. My teacher seemed to think of me as "stupid." I have asked for extra help but she seems too busy to provide any after or before school help. So instead she sent me home with English text books to borrow over summer which doesn't help much since it takes me hours to get through one page due to my handwriting difficulties. I learned very little in her class and I know the skills I lack in are not taught in high school but in elementary and middle school.

I fear that without these skills I won't be able to be successful in school and work.

A tutor is financially out of question and my case worker, who also happens to be my supplemental teacher, doesn't seem to think that I lack these skills or just doesn't realize it. I find she doesn't pick up on a lot of my difficulties.

How can I learn these skills that I need (e.g. basic grammar, spelling, and vocabulary) if I will not receive it through my classes? Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks
Cassie