Jacod si Disxelyc

Jim and I met last week with the doctor who did Jacob’s neuropsychological assessment. His evaluation was very thorough and he wrote up an eleven-page report for us. Whew. He concluded that Jacob is indeed dyslexic, which, in turn, finally explains Jacob’s difficulties with reading and spelling, in particular. (And jeers to all of his past teachers who never identified this and blamed other things instead. In your faces, ladies!) The neuropsychologist gave us lists of resources that we will be able to utilize to help Jacob overcome not only the dyslexia, but several other learning issues as well. Discovering how Jacob sees and interprets written words has been fascinating – dyslexia is actually quite an intriguing disorder. Well, Jacob is in good company, anyway, as we have found out that some pretty accomplished people were dyslexic – like Albert Einstein, John F. Kennedy, and Thomas Edison, among others.

The neuropsychologist gave us a sample of what Jacob sees when he reads:

An old wom an dakeb some gin gerdreab. She hab some bough left ov er, so she mabe the sha be of a little man. She mape eyes, anoseand a smil ing mouth andpl aceq curra ntsbown his front to look like du ttons. Thenshe laib hi mon a qak ingtray and put himint he oven.

Wacky, huh? The dyslexia also gives Jacob problems when he tries to read a word that he cannot picture in his mind. Nouns are, therefore, easier to comprehend than verbs & adjectives. Phonics? Very difficult for him! It is going to be an exciting ride, but we will prevail. We can only go forward from here!