Stealth Dyslexia & Writing

We first posted the following article in the 2E Newsletter (http://2enewsletter.com) a wonderful educational resource.

Stealth Dyslexia

When you read the word dyslexia, what's the first thing that pops into your head? If you're like most people, you'll probably think of a reading disorder. That response is understandable, considering the way dyslexia is spoken or written of by many experts. For example, in 2003 the International Dyslexia Association defined dyslexia as: "a specific learning disability...characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities...problems in reading comprehension, and reduced reading experience..." Yet reading difficulties are just one of the many neurologically-based manifestations of dyslexia. Dyslexia is also frequently associated with difficulties with handwriting, oral language, math, motor planning and coordination, organization, sequencing, orientation to time, focus and attention, right-left orientation, spatial perception, auditory and visual processing, eye movement control, and memory. In fact, in our practice, we often see children who are struggling academically due to difficulties that are clearly dyslexia-related, yet who show age appropriate--and in many cases even superior--reading skills. Because of their apparently strong reading skills, most of these children have never been identified as dyslexic, or given the help they needed to overcome either their academic difficulties.

We have found this to be an especially common problem among intellectually gifted children, because such children are able to use strong higher-order language skills to compensate for the low-level deficits in auditory and visual processing that cause the reading problems in dyslexia. As a result, they are able to read with relatively good comprehension. In fact, this is such a common presentation in our clinic, that we have given it it's own name: stealth dyslexia.

Children with stealth dyslexia share three things in common: 1) characteristic dyslexic difficulties with word processing and written output; 2) findings on neurological and neuropsychological testing consistent with the auditory, visual, language, and motor processing deficits characteristic of dyslexia; and, 3) reading skills that appear to fall within the normal or even superior range for children their age, at least on silent reading comprehension. In addition, many will show a family history of dyslexia, and/or a history of early reading difficulties greater than would be expected for a child with their obvious strengths in oral language. Let's look at the problems experienced by children with stealth dyslexia in a bit more detail.

The most academically disabling difficulty affecting children with stealth dyslexia is almost always dysgraphia, or difficulty writing by hand. Several factors often contribute to their difficulties with written output. First, they typically have the characteristic dyslexic difficulty turning words in their heads into signals capable of causing the motor system to form the appropriate letters needed to make words. They may lack the kinds of visual templates that can be used to form words, or be unable to translate auditory word images into the kinds of signals the motor system needs to form letters. Second, they may havespatial or sequential processing difficulties that make it difficult for them to remember how to form individual letters (resulting in oddly formed letters, reversals, inversions, and irregular spacing), or to remember what order letters or even sounds come in a word. These children are often especially hard for parents and teachers to understand, because they may have verbal IQs in the highly or profoundly gifted range and show every sign of verbal precocity, yet be unable even to write the alphabet--even as teenagers. Third, dyslexic children may have difficulties with sensory-motor dyspraxia. Motor coordination problems are common in dyslexia, and may cause difficulties with the manual aspects of handwriting even for children who are trying to copy directly from examples of printed words. Often these children experience the extreme frustration of knowing what words they want to write, while being unable to get their fingers to make the proper motions. Finally, dyslexic children often have difficulties of visual processing that can contribute topoor hand-eye coordination, or difficulty using visual feedback to guide their writing.

The severe handwriting impairment associated with these deficits produces one of stealth dyslexia's most noticeable manifestations: the characteristically enormous gap between oral and written expression. Even extremely precocious adolescents with outstanding oral language skills, remarkable knowledge bases, and extremely lively minds can produce written documents of such brevity and simplicity that they look as if they had been written by a struggling third grader. The psychic trauma that can result from this gap between aptitude and output is impossible to exaggerate.

Another tip-off to the presence of stealth dyslexia is the presence of spelling difficulties in a child's written output that are far out of character with either their general language, working memory, or attention skills. While these children are sometimes able to score within age norms on multiple-choice tests of spelling recognition, or even on weekly tests of spelling words that study carefully for, they essentially always show significant and surprising deficits when they try to spell words from memory.

The dyslexic deficits in handwriting and spelling tend to be more persistent and resistant to treatment than the reading deficits. It's important that children with dyslexic dysgraphia be identified as early as possible so that they can be given appropriate handwriting interventions, and so that they can begin as early as possible to develop proficiency in keyboarding. Keyboarding should become their primary means of written expression for as much schoolwork as possible--in many cases, for math as well as language output.

In addition to difficulties with written expression and spelling, children with stealth dyslexia often show persistent, though subtle, difficulties with reading. Despite the appearance of age-appropriate reading comprehension on routine classroom assignments or even standardized tests, careful examination of oral reading skills almost always reveals persistent difficulties with word-for-word reading. Though often subtle, these deficits, which usually result in subtle word substitutions or word skips, can result in significant functional problems, especially on tests. We frequently see children who consistently show good comprehension reading lengthy passages or even long books, yet who significantly underperform or even fail written tests of reading comprehension because they have difficulty reading short test questions or multiple choice answers.

This seemingly paradoxical difficulty reading short passages can be better understood by considering the nature of the reading difficulties children with stealth dyslexia usually have. As we've mentioned, these children typically show difficulties on the word-by-word reading level, including word skips or occasionally substitutions due to misreading. When they read longer passages, these children are often able to use their excellent higher-order language skills to fill in or correct errors in word reading, drawing on the redundancy and contextual cues that are usually available in longer passages. However, as reading passages get shorter, they contain fewer contextual cues, less redundant content, and often, more condensed syntax. As a result, there will be fewer means of correcting individual word errors, so the likelihood of errors actually increases as passages decrease in length. Unfortunately, there are few types of writing that are more brief, non-contextual, low-redundancy, and condensed than test questions or multiple-choice answers. On such passages, a single missed word--especially conditionals like "not" or "except," or comparatives like "before" or "since"--can yield catastrophic results, and there will be few cues available to show that an error has been made. As a result, children with stealth dyslexia often make "silly mistakes," responding in ways quite different from the way they would have answered had they correctly interpreted the question or answer choices. The same kinds of problems are often seen in math work, as well.

Although these mistakes typically result in underperformance, the 2e child with stealth dyslexia may be able to compensate well enough to avoid actual failure, especially during the early elementary years. As a result, they may not be correctly identified as having dyslexia or any other learning challenge, and appropriate interventions may not be provided. This frustrating pattern will be all too familiar to anyone familiar with 2e children: impairments severe enough to significantly impair learning and school performance, but not severe enough to be recognized or to qualify for appropriate services or accommodations. Like many 2e children, gifted stealth dyslexics often "fall between the cracks," so that the nature of their problem goes unrecognized.
Typically, the children we see with stealth dyslexia struggle through elementary school performing well below their potential, often making superhuman efforts just to keep up. When they meet the heavier writing demands (and sometimes also the more complicated reading assignments) in middle and high school, they frequently find that they are no longer able to keep up. A downward spiral of failure and despair is often the result. This outcome is completely unnecessary. With early identification and appropriate interventions, these children can be equipped to gain all the knowledge and success of which their powerful minds make them capable.

Tags: dyslexia, dyslexia college, dyslexia in adults, dyslexia writing, dyslexics, gifted, gifted dyslexia, gifted dyslexics, stealth dyslexia

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Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on November 27, 2011 at 8:28pm

The "natural way" means doing some activity to train up working memory. If it's auditory verbal working memory, then that's easiest... sentence repetition of increasingly long sentences, poem memorization, drama, etc.

Visual spatial memory is harder - and might require game-based computer formats like those in Cogmed or the DS game Flash Focus. Brain Age might have some of these games too.

Kinesthetic memory can be practiced by air writing over figures, words, letters.

Attention is chemically closely related to reward and memory. Whenever possible, try and look for activities that a child or student is highly motivated for - and therefore may have more naturally sustained attention.

One young girl we saw was very active and didn't like to stay doing much in one place. She didn't sit long for books or anything else for that matter. But she got intrigued by needlepoint - and that was really helpful - she wanted to do it so bad - and it really improved her sustained attention and reduced her impulsivity. That broadened out to more things - and action, fantasy, and funny books turned out to be a bigger hit than more prosaic schoolyard stories.

Another boy that came to mind is one who became very interested in painting tiny fantasy figures. It helped his fine motor coordination as well as sustained attention and attention to detail.

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Permalink Reply by JEG on December 4, 2011 at 10:32pm

My son who is 14 was diagnosed as dyslexic last year and having high intelligence level (top 5%) One of the recommendations were for him to use a laptop for certain classes. This he has been doing but it seems to have made the matter even worse in school. He has been no guidance as to how to organise his work, or how to deal with any of the practical issues. I was called into the school last week to say they would not be able to offer him a place next term (its a private school) due to his recent low grades and attitude to work. He very often achieves A's for achievements in exams with C for effort. The school have the perception that he is highly able but lazy. I am going to meet with the head to discuss my view that the school have discriminated against him due to his disability and failed to make reasonable adjustment.

One of the things I was thinking about doing was to prepare a fact sheet about his condition along with tips of do's and don'ts for all staff who teach him, many of whom are aware of his specific learning difficulty. Has anyone tried this and does anyone have suggestions as to what I should include. It may be too late for this school but feel it may be a way forward. Many thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on December 4, 2011 at 10:51pm

Hi Jeanette,

The writing chapter of our book "The Dyslexic Advantage" deals with this in detail. There are also suggested accommodations in the appendix at the back.

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Permalink Reply by Pingbo P L on December 12, 2011 at 4:14pm

Hello Drs. Eide,

The above article reminded me of my childhood. I grew up in the far east. I was not diagnosed until I was grown up, no one would have thought I was dyslexic when I was a kid, especially back then in the 70s. I remember I used to the only kid left behind in class still trying to copy notes from the blackboard whilst my mum waited for me outside after school. As the teachers were very strict, pupils were not allowed to go for recess unless we had finished copying from the blackboard and I remember I had even been refused permission to go to toilet a few times! I went to a school where the teachers were very strict and notes copying was the norm, even from the very first day in school. My parents transferred me to another school after a month of my not being able to catch up with copying notes and they thought the teachers were too severe. No one noticed what was wrong with me and why I was so slow at copying notes constantly sharpenning pencils.I used to grip my pencil very hard. My parents seldom check my homework. In the second school which I was transferred to, there was less notes copying, Many times I borrowed my classmate's exercise book to photocopy or write out my notes at home in my own time. Nevertheless,teachers were not very interested in non- academic kids but as long as I caused little trouble in class, they had nothing to report. As I could read and spell quite well, no one noticed I could not write well. I also had trouble getting my thoughts down in essay composition; sentence construction. I dreaded english lessons. Classes were streamed into A-D; depending on end of year school exams. In most years I would end up in mainly C class, once or twice in D. Once I even got 6% out of 100% for my maths class test because I could not understand the sentence. They were short word-questions. I gave up after the first word problem question because I was just fed up and decided to while away the rest of the test time. When I gave me dad the test results, he could not believe it his eyes. Whenever I did badly in the exams everyone thought I was not academic and therefore not very smart. I think I was the only one who knew I was not stupid. I did managed somehow to get my grades up with extra tuition, however mainly learning the linear way as most of the teachers taught that way. That put me off maths for many years. Its only in recent years that I started to like maths again. So, I just survived through school until I managed to get into university in UK to study law. I didn't get into university on my first attempt; but via a non-traditional route on my 3rd attempt. When I was at uni, I did much much better as law was not necessarily taught in a linear way, and to answer the problem questions I just had to remember the case scenarios as stories and I could alway give more than one solution. There was often no right or wrong answer. And I didn't have to do maths. Funnily enough, today I don't practice law, but I work in finance.

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Permalink Reply by Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide on December 12, 2011 at 7:40pm

Pingbo - Thanks for sharing your incredible and inspiring story. What determination you showed in reapplying to law school and how amazing it was to see how law case memorization was for you. There's so much to learn about this different thinking style. So many are discouraged from pursuing advanced degrees.

It would be nice to hear about your experiences in finance some time also...especially how you came to be involved in finance and what skills were used in that area. To be weak in early maths but so strong in professional finance is also very interesting.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah bowland on December 18, 2011 at 8:55am

Thank you for your work! My 11 son is PG and has read in the post-graduate level since he was 5 and has never had trouble with comprehension on short passages. However, so many other traits you cite do describe him, not the least of which is a total avoidance of writing, extreme difficulty with rote learning/arithmetic, attention/distractibility issues, executive function weaknesses. He is amazing, loves to learn and has thrived in homeschool. However, since reading your recent book, I really suspect stealth dyslexia and I don't know where to turn or what resources to seek out for help. What curriculum will be best to help support/build writing skills? How can I help him in math? How can he be doing algebra but not recall times tables? HELP!!

If you know of any testers/resources in Texas, I will do whatever it takes to support him!

Desperate in San Antonio,
Sarah

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Permalink Reply by Marietta Haywood on December 18, 2011 at 8:52pm

My daughter (8 yrs old, 3rd grade) just got tested at Vanderbilt University. The test was done by Dr. Rimrodt.
She did some weird tests with the child to check between the left side of her body and the right side, so she could compare both.
She asked the child to read some make believe words, to check how she did with phonics, and that was normal.
However, the child failed in all the handwritten tests. YES, she has dysgraphia.
Now we have a formal diagnostic of dysgrahia and we can ask for more school modifications.
The child is in a private Christian school this year.
Another point that I got out of our Vanderbilt visit is that they do not recommend ADHD medication for a child that is making good grades.
Last year, in a different school, the whole school staff, including director, councellor and teacher, pretty much forced us to medicate the child. She was making straight As, but according to the school, she still needed a pill!!??
I am happy we changed schools.
We just bought her a learn to type software. She is enjoying it.
I explained to her that as she gets into the next grades, there will be much more written assignments and that it will be easier for her to type or use the speech recognition that Windows offer.
She was Sooo happy that she will not have to handwrite long things anymore.
However, she still has to fill her handwriting in cursive book, about 2 pages a week. Stress writing is working very well for her. She is either talking about a subject while writing, or singing. It gets the work done at no time.
I am thankful that y'all have this page. It described my child so well.
We would have settled for an ADD diagnostic and the possibility to have a lazy child. However, reading all the information you give us, I kept testing her at different places, until I found Dr. Rimrodt at Vanderbilt that could recognize dysgraphia.
BTY, we were on the waiting list at Vanderbilt for 13 months!
But it was worth it.

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Permalink Reply by kbird29 on March 28, 2012 at 7:24am

Help! Dyslexia....or Crazy Mom?

Can someone please help me?

I have an amazing son (8 years old) who is verbally advanced and excels in mathematical concepts. In first grade, he was unable to read all sight words and could spell few sight words. We enrolled him in Sylvan. After six months of reading/spelling intervention at Sylvan and at home, we had him performing above grade level in reading comprehension. However, his spelling was still odd- although at grade level (even after hours of continued spelling work every week). After advice from Sylvan, we obtained an OG tutor.

He has been working with the OG tutor for a few months and is picking up on the rules/codes much more quickly. We met with the school and a private dyslexia testing expert. Everyone says he is fine but has focus issues only when doing reading/writing/spelling. His writing continues to take long amounts of time.

My husband and I have advanced degrees (with little effort) and have always scored A's/99% on tests. My husband has an iq in the 160s (his grandfather dropped out of school in 3rd grade and was illiterate). My two oldest children are gifted and always score in the 99%std test/150 on cogats. My 8 year old seems as bright as the rest of us, but he has to work so hard to be average. The school specialists and the dyslexia testing expert have never heard of stealth dyslexia and will not entertain the possibility an average/above average kid could have dyslexia.

How do I figure out if my son is not as bright and/or could have dyslexia? Or, am I just a crazy mom?

Any help here is appreciated........

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Permalink Reply by Eric McCormick on April 3, 2012 at 9:55pm

I am finally getting around to replying to this last one...

kbird29, you are not at all a crazy mom. But you have made one of the classic errors. A lot of people have believed that intelligence and dyslexia were mutually exclusive. However, William Butler Yeats, Albert Einstein, John Irving, and Charles Schwab are part of the long list of people with confirmed or strongly suspected dyslexia.

On this page, the lady marks which ones had confirmed troubles with learning: http://www.dyslexia.tv/snapshots/index.htm

You will notice that dyslexia runs the gamut of personalities, intelligences, genders, and so on. It is only recently that we have found the genetic markers and brain structures that are confirmed by research to be involved with dyslexia. However, there is no indication that we have found them all!

Also of worth in mentioning is that like all human variability, there is a measure of strength to these things. Both my parents wore glasses from an early age, as did some of my grandparents and my brother. I, in contrast, do not need them. Does this mean my eyes are perfect? No. It just means that is there is some genetic cluster for poor vision, I either missed it or got a mild form.

That term I used, genetic cluster, is also of note. I do not recall off hand what the scientific term is, but that one will do. The important part is cluster. It turns out that while this gene or that gene may be related to one effect or another, it usually takes a specific combination or group of combinations to actually get the result! That means both you and your husband could be carrying genes related to dyslexia, but only when they come together in a certain combination do they cause dyslexia.

Now, go back one step or three or all. Lets add all this together The strength is what? Mild, moderate, severe, or profound... and only shows up if there is a proper combination. That means any member of your family could be a mild dyslexic and not know it. The IQ range you described is powerful enough to fully compensate for just a mild bit of dyslexia. See, many dyslexics read, but at a slower pace than normal. And many high IQ people read at a faster pace than normal. A very little slowdown and a very big speedup is what? Ever get expanded sub scoring on yourself, husband, or kids? Ever look to see if there was an unusual low that repeats across all of a single family member's IQ tests? I have been tested a number of times in my life, and the most recent at 42 looks almost the same as the ones from when I was 7. The oddities repeat in the tests, showing it was not an aberration of the moment, but rather a true difference. And you may find those same things in your family, and not just the 8 year old.

As for weather or not your son is bright, that s the wrong question by a long shot. This has nothing to do with how bright a person is.

That leads to the term "Stealth Dyslexia," which as you have encountered, is not widely known. People confuse the bright as a light that shines and blasts away all chances of disability... unless it is Stephen Hawking. However, if a person takes a moment to realize that a handful of the greatest minds ever have failed math, failed language classes, and admitted to having dyslexia, you suddenly connect with the fact that just like Hawking's physical disability, a great mind can be encased in a mental disability.

I have repeated myself enough for now, but I hope this gives you some food for thought and things you can talk about with the rest of your family.

Oh, as for the school specialists and the dyslexia testing expert, ask them to give you the cited study that proves that an intelligent person can not have a learning disability. They are supposed to be trained professionals who work off or proof and research, AKA: The Scientific Method. Yet here they are, quoting some unfounded belief and refusing to look at the modern science that says they are 100% wrong.

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Permalink Reply by kbird29 on April 5, 2012 at 1:52pm

Thank you for your reply. To my knowledge, the rest of the family has not had IQ testing. We have a very bright family overall with a lot of advanced degrees. The only reason I brought it up is b/c people/educators keep telling us that our son could not have dyslexia b/c he is doing too well at reading and at school. But, he is not bright enough to qualify for advanced classes. Based on my experience as a mother and volunteer tutor at the school, I believe my son to be as bright as the other children in the advanced classes. It is unfortunate he is being pegged as too bright for a learning problem but not smart enough for the advanced math class.

I am currently looking a having my son tested by a psychologist specializing in gifted children. My hope is that is intelligence will be confirmed, and we hope to show his dyslexia. Apparently, the dyslexia testing only shows how he performs in relation to other second graders. I don't understand why if he can read at a fourth grade level, they will not test him at a fourth grade level? My son's recent report card shows math and reading as very secure, but he actually has writing and word usage as an area of concern! The apparent discrepancy, combined with the teacher's comments that he has trouble concentrating during writing, merely reinforce what we have been telling the educators. It is all very frustrating.

We are hoping to move my son to a private school next year b/c of the lack of response from the public school educators. I am very saddened by the inability of the education system to think outside of the box, especially in the excellent school system that we are supposedly part of.

Does anyone know of any parameters for brain scans to prove dyslexia? I know studies have been conducted that show the physiologic difference, and I wondered if testing/imaging diagnosis can be made as of now? My husband is a radiologist, and we could easily have the testing done.

Thank you for all of the information!