This article is written with the full permission of my son Kade, who is willing to release very personal information in the hope that it will help others who are experiencing similar difficulties. Kade is a very brave and inspiring young man, light up my life.
I feel I must repeat that I am not an expert on dyslexia and have no training in psychology, my articles are based on my own experiences as an adult who unknowingly lived with dyslexia for many years and the experiences of my teenage son who was diagnosed as being dyslexic at nine years old.
The day before Kade started high school at Ratoath College, I found out that her Moltoir (principal of the year) was Nuala Nà Mhuricú. I already had a relationship with Nuala, as she had been Caoimhnoir (class tutor) to my oldest son Evan for the first three years he attended RC. I called the school right away and left a message for Nuala to call me back. High school was going to be a whole new challenge, now instead of Kade having a teacher, she would have 11, one for each subject. He knew that Nuala would be the link. He called me on the phone at 8.30pm that night (anyone who thinks teachers go offline at 3.30 when school ends is dead wrong).
He had two requests for Nuala, Kade should not be asked to read aloud in class, as his reading at this time was far behind that of his peers, and Kade should sit at the front of the class as he was still he was easily distracted. . She said she would send an email and speak to all of Kade’s teachers, the message had been received. I could relax, a little bit anyway.
The next day, Kade began her high school education journey. All the students entered the great room, along with their parents. There was a lovely introduction and welcome to everyone and then one by one the names of the students were called out by the soon-to-be Caoimhnoir. Kade was Greta Judge, I met her again through Evan, and although Kade’s best friend was going to be in a different class, he walked in line, following Greta with a smile on his face.
He came home that day still smiling and that really has been his frame of mind since he started at Ratoath College. Yes, he has had challenges, not everything has been easy and his Dialinn is full of notes, never behavior problems, always organization. But he’s happy, really happy to go to school and frankly that’s the most important thing.
The school body has been fantastic with Kade, all the teachers agreed with the suggestions we had, which would make Kade’s education a little easier.
Kade’s first challenge was to go to her locker and find all the books and copies she needed for the next three classes. For any subject, you would have a textbook, sometimes two, a paperback and a hard copy. For some subjects, he was also asked to have a notebook and an A4 folder, perhaps also polyethylene pockets. A young friend who was a couple of years ahead of Kade made a perfectly simple but effective suggestion.
We had already color-coded each topic and colored its schedule accordingly. Shannon’s suggestion was to buy zippered plastic folders, colored, of course, to match each topic, so in each folder she would have all the hardcover and book copies she needed for that topic.
This worked quite well, although it meant that you either forgot nothing about it or forgot everything. There were many days that I drove back to school because I had forgotten the zip folder that I needed for homework.
Kade’s evaluation for attention deficit disorder had begun and we had met as a family and individually with the psychologist. Kade’s teachers also had to fill out a report. Kade was observed in class and had many conversations with the psychologist. After many months of evaluation, the result was that, although Kade had some attention problems, he was not bad enough to be diagnosed with ADD. In practical terms, the lack of ADD diagnosis meant that Kade would lose certain concessions and a help, but we could continue to seek the right help for Kade.
Kade always reads aloud, it means nothing to him when he reads in his head; you need to hear the words. In class during English, students would have reading time when they read to themselves. We came up with a solution. We downloaded his novels and reproductions onto his iPod and he listened to them as he followed the words of the book. The English teachers not only accepted this idea, they suggested using the same technique with other students.
We knew that traditional exams would be a real problem for Kade and that she would never reach her true potential through an ordinary exam.
While Kade was still in first year, I met with the special needs assistant, his Moltoir, and Caoimhnoir to discuss best practices for Kade.
We all agreed that Kade needed a reader for the exams, and he or a scribe could answer on a tape recorder instead of having to write.
We tried both ways and found that Kade was more comfortable using the tape recorder.
For homework, Kade’s dad or I do the reading and he answers on a digital voice recorder, then e-mails his answers to his teachers. Again, I can’t praise the staff enough, each of them is happy to receive Kade’s homework in this way.
Again, Kade needed more assessments to qualify to take the state tests this way. I spoke with the department psychologist, a very nice lady who cared about Kade’s best interests. I had never heard of the digital voice recorder. I commented that giving a 14-year-old a tape recorder would be like giving him a typewriter. I also suggested that instead of the department spending large amounts of cash each year on readers for state tests, the test questions could be downloaded to an iPod or laptop and students could listen to the questions that way. Using the digital voice recorder instead of tape cassettes would also save money.
We are now just a few weeks away from Kade getting her junior certificate. There is no doubt that it has been a difficult three years. Kade still has organizational problems and is easily distracted. All his teachers say that he is a charming, well-behaved and polite boy, but at the same time insanely frustrating. I sympathize with them because I know exactly what they mean.
He excels in math and science, and does very well in history, geography, and English. He surprised us in his teasing by passing Irish and Italian, as the foreign language is a great challenge for him.
We are all confident that he will do well on his junior certificate, but more importantly, Kade is confident that he will do well.
The senior cycle will be the new challenge. Kade has chosen to do Leaving Cert Applied next year. At the end of the year, you will have to choose to continue with Leaving Cert Applied and only have a two-year senior cycle. Alternatively, you can do LCA for one year and then do the traditional 5th and 6th years.
The advantages of LCA are a reduced number of classes, only 4 traditional state exams, project work during the two years that adds to your final Leaving Cert score.
My concern is that Kade has failed in project work and has done better on traditional exams. But you may not get any concessions if you choose to do ordinary exit certificate. So doing LCA next year is really buying us a year and hopefully by that time he will be mature enough to work on projects and have them on time, or be ready to drop the certificate.
In which case, of course, I will fight in your corner again and look for all the concessions I can get.