Letter/sound reversal

Hello
My 7 year-old daughter has recently been diagnosed with dyslexia. She has started seeing a speech therapist once a week.
Last week the therapist told me that she has problems reading letter combinations such as "el" and "ec" and reverses them into "le" and "ce". She gave me a paper with four letter combinations written on and an example word for each.
We are supposed to "practise" these with our daughter.

My problem is that I really can't see how reading and rereading these combinations with her is going to help. She just doesn't seem to be "getting" the blends, she sees "el" and reads "le". Just reading them with us, mistaking them and being corrected doesn't seem to be improving anything. I had hoped for some coping techniques/suggestions from the therapist not being told to do yet more reading with her.

So does anyone here have any suggestions as to how I can help her do her speech therapy "homework" ?

The working definition of Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. It does not mean seeing things upside down or backwards. That is probably a vision problem.

My son has vision therapy for convergence insufficiency. If you take a pencil and hold it close to the nose, one eye does not go inward like the other eye. This means that reading across the page is off. So, the left eye is 20/20 and the right eye is 20/20. What is not tested is both eyes working in sync to read across the page. A good book to read is "When a child struggles; the myth of 20/20 vision" by Dr. David Cook.

There is a vision processing test which is different than a regular eye exam. It checks convergence problems and visual motor intergration like copying from the blackboard.

The vision therapy has helped my son in school. Now, my daughter is next. Insurance covers half of 32 sessions, since the other half is educational. Anything educational is not covered by insurance.
Let us us know how things are going.

Annette

I am dyslexic. In many ways alot like your daughter. Today i am an epigrapher. I read the ancient texts from Egypt. They used to say i would never be able to read or write my own first name.

I know it is frusterating. Believe me i know. I know youa re hurting for her hurt, but you gotta understand that for all your agony hers is 100 times more extreme. You can never understand what she is going through or likely how hard she is trying. Because simply put, you don't have the issue that she does. I am sorry it is causing you frusteration. I am sure she is alot more sorry that it causes you frusteration than i am. I am fluent in over 6 languages plus several ancient ones today. When i was your daughter's age, i could not write my own first name. Dyslexics, tend to be highly intelligent. Extremely so, but their brains wrap around some things differently.

She has a difficult task, she must relearn a way of seeing something and interpreting it visually and attaching a sound to it. It isn't as easy as you may think it is. If you are right handed, try writing with your left hand as deftly as you write with your right hand. That may give you some small idea of how hard she tries and what this is like for her. Trying to do what her brain isn't wired for. She has to create new pathways in the brain or something to interpret these things correctly. It will happen. Unfortunately it will take quite some time and it will be a slow arduous process, then, it will click.... And it will be like a light turned on and her world and your world will never be the same again. I know, because i have been there.

May i suggest trying to draw the combinations with her in sand and connecting the phonetic sounds to them while you do this. Maybe it helps? Maybe you already do something similar. It helps alot of people though.

As a dyslexic i also read and write both music in ancient greek notation as well as the modern music we are familiar with. Don't write your child off and don't get frusterated. She can do this and she will. She just needs time support and to find a method that helps. I still read and spell everything phonetically. I still sound out every word. But it is so second nature it goes super quick. Many dysleic people i think are similar. Your daughter will be just fine.

Best of luck.