My six year old ds has always been a very emotional boy. As a baby he made me carry him alot. I had to do all the house work with him in a baby backpack. One of his favorite hobbies was staring at his hand. He could move it and stare at it for long periods of time as if he was thinking “how does this thing work”. When he started to crawl he moved this fascination to doors. He would slightly open and close them in the same wonderous manner. I could never tell him NO! I had to skirt around it saying things like, “Oh we cant do that we might get hurt”. If we did tell him no he would usually cry for about 1/2 hour. I still have to reassure him that things are not his fault. I will say things like “we are not mad at you I know you did not know.” He would have problems with picking up a hamburger or using a fork also. He would say “I cant do it”. He was five before he could even ride a bike with training wheels and a month before he turned four he was finally potty trained for day time. He also started speech in PreK. Crazy me just thought this was who he was. Now that he is in ktgn and the teacher tells me he is behind am I learning about LD’s. I feel terrible that I never realised it before. He is behind in letter recognition and thier sounds. He still has problems with pencil grip and writing too. Looking into things I think he is dyslexic but now there is one more issue that is a concern to us and his school. He now has a tic. It started with an eye thing and now he does this thing with his neck. So I guess I was just wondering if anyone else heard of problems like this. I feel so bad. I never realised that he truely has learning problems. I though he just was not trying hard enough. I feel like I get the bad mommy award for not knowing this sooner. He is going for a comprehensive evaluation with his pediatrition this wednesday and on the 17th he is getting evaluated for dyslexia. Is there anything else I should do?
Re: Advice on my son.
It is my second child who has learning difficulties. My first is a girl so I attributed his later talking to his gender. I attributed his lack of interest in other children to his personality. I don’t think I really was in denial as much as I was not a hyper parent who always was looking for something wrong.
Most of the time that is the best approach to take. Kids’ development is uneven, and the one who doesn’t talk early can just be developing in other ways.
Beth
You need to go to somewhere that can do a comprehensive evaluation. I would say a neuropsychologist. I would defintely hold off on the dyslexia evaluation until you get a comprehensive evaluation. That will likely uncover the reading related difficulties anyway. Sometimes children’s hospitals have excellent developmental/learing evaluation services as well. But an exam with the regular pediatrician is not adequate and neither will a school evaluation.
And don’t feel bad, no one knows what is “normal” with their first child!