After the screeners and the case conference, we felt a sense a relief. We now knew what was causing her struggles. But now we had to tell our daughter…
We had mentioned to her before she took the screeners that she was taking them to see if she was dyslexic. She knew this word from our nephew being recently diagnosed. Now we had to explain what that actually meant. We told her that she was dyslexic to start with. That that is why she struggled with reading so much. We said that her brain works differently and because of that she has a hard time with letters and their sounds.
We also told her that this doesn’t mean she can’t read. It just means that she is going to have to work harder than most people when it comes to reading. We informed her that she will have this her whole life but because of it she will excel in lots of other areas. She will know how to work hard and will learn to do things in different ways than others.
Our daughter seemed comfortable with this. She also seemed slightly relieved as well to know there was an actual name for her struggle. She still struggles with being embarrassed by it at times but slowly she is accepting her dyslexia.