Dyslexia & Diet

I've watched a lot of the nutrition documentaries out there...

Crazy Sexy Cancer
Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead
Food Inc
Food Matters
Forks Over Knives
Hungry for Change
Vegucated


My main purpose was to find some nutritional solutions to the environmental allergies my son experiences.  Along the way, I discovered the power of vitamins.  I have seen my son who is prone to allergens reduce the symptoms with a vitamin load.

Recently, I've been pondering how diet and dyslexia might be connected.  Not as a cure, but how healthy nutrition can boost brain function to alleviate any barriers that can be removed.

Any articles, research, or tips you can share?

Summer Strategies

I flipped the calendar to April and realized we only have roughly 2 months of fourth grade left.  And as always, it's mixed emotions.  I feel like we are close to accomplishing another long school year and I feel nervous about summer.  Summer break presents a great break from the rigor of the school year, but it always seems to be a con for all of the momentum we've finally got going.

Last summer, we opted to not enroll my daughter in summer school despite several recommendations to do so.  It was a far commute, long hours, and not necessarily going to address the academic areas where she needs extra work.  I bought curriculum and we had a loosely structured academic time each day.  My older kids got in on the task, too, and helped when they could.  It went well, but it seemed to be more of a maintenance strategy, not the strategy we needed to make progress.

This summer, I think we need to find something more substantial to use the nine weeks as a time to catch up on missing concepts and be more prepared for fifth grade.

Any suggestions?

Supplemental curriculum?
Private tutor?
Program at a learning institution?
Summer school?
Online programs?

IEP Meeting

The IEP Invite & Agenda

Last week, we had our IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting for our daughter with her teacher, case manager, tutor, speech therapist, principal, her father and I.  And it was long. And good. And exhausting.

There was so much admin to cover first (long part), then we moved on to documented progress (the surprisingly good).  But we landed on goals for the future and all the work needing to be done to accomplish those...  And that was the exhausting part for me as I help her navigate through it all and especially for her, as she does the hard work of learning.

As with most of her meetings, there's good and there's bad.  I must force myself to focus on the good and let that fuel me for the future.  (By the way, I can not think too far into the future without being overwhelmed when it comes to her education)

Here's the thing: I'm not concerned about her living life as an adult...  she has awesome relationship skills, can problem solve, and knows her strengths along with her limits. She'll do just fine. But I am very concerned how we make it through the next 9 years of report cards, homework, standardized testing, studying, and IEPs.  I have to adopt the "do the next thing" strategy and take it all one week at a time.  Or I can get really overwhelmed and lose my drive to help her succeed. (the last thing she needs from anyone!)   I have to remind myself we are succeeding and let those reminders propel me to do the next thing... and all the extra things.

Anyone feel exhausted just thinking about all that needs to be done?  And the future?

Diving

Hard work paid off this week at a meet.

Drafts & Tears

Been working hard on writing compositions lately...

The prompt for this week was:  What would you do if you were given $100?

We spent so much time, discussion, & tears on several drafts.  Once we got through the very long process, she was quite pleased with the results.

She's learning the value of pushing through difficult assignments and the joy of accomplishing them when she didn't think she could...

Learning it, just not always liking it.

My daughter thought this was funny!

Managing Anxiety

Managing anxiety with my daughter has been a challenge for us.  Partly because my husband and I don't struggle with anxiety much and partly because I just don't understand the level of anxiety or all of the triggers for her.

The anxiety appears when she's asked to do a certain task or when she doesn't sense a person is going to unconditionally support her.

I know reading aloud is a huge trigger in any setting of any material.  She doesn't even like to read aloud when it's just her and I alone.  And we learned when my daughter's beloved tutor was reassigned, the new tutor caused a lot of anxiety.  Mainly because it was all new and he tackled some things differently.  It was a setback for my daughter and took some time for her to establish a relationship with him and settle in to the new set up.  She doesn't perform well when she doesn't think people have her back.  She is very guarded and shuts down with any display of a lack of support. (her perception of lack of support is a little off as well)

Once she's convinced a person will unconditionally support her, she will try.  And try hard.  As I've mentioned before, she trusts her diving coach and it shows by the stunts she attempts.  She loves to meet and connect with people and really doesn't have any fear of strangers.  (As long as they don't ask her to read aloud ;-)

A lot of the challenge is reassigning her anxiety and fear...  reading aloud for a trained, licensed tutor in a safe environment who wants to help her succeed should not be scary, but interacting with strangers in an unknown environment should be.  I love that my daughter has an eye for marginal people and a heart to connect and help them. I certainly don't want to change that.  But a good dose of caution goes a long way in personal safety.

I have a hard time explaining that to her without heaping more anxiety on her to deal with.  I do not want to throw fear onto a task she does well (connecting with people) since she already has a lot of anxiety over the things she does not do well (read, write, etc)  It seems it would be downright discouraging  to tarnish a skill she enjoys and needs to feel successful.  I've placed the burden on myself to find ways and places for her to utilize her strengths.

My daughter also struggles with bad dreams... Dyslexics have often been described as seeing in three dimensions and being very visual therefore, it seems to me (and again, I'm not an expert) visual images must really burn into her brain.  When she sees a scary image it really sticks with her and it must be vivid since it seems so hard for her to forget.  For this reason, we try to guard what she sees knowing it brings bad dreams and it takes a lot of sleep loss, prayers, and reassurance from mom and dad to recover.  And all those distract from the things she needs her brain to power through.

For now, we've decided not to seek medication therapy, but want to help her to learn ways to cope and manage with the anxiety.

Any tips you can share?  I'd love to know what else we can try (or avoid)...