This boy here. Even now, at 14, he has such a creative and imaginative mind. Lego building has been his passion since he was big enough to put the pieces together. He is also my seventh child and anyone who has a bunch of kids can relate to this story. One day while we were doing school, it hit me. My son can't read. How did this happen? More importantly, why was it happening?
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As a homeschooling mother who has been around for awhile, I had to stop and wonder why he couldn't read. At five he still hadn't learned his letters so we stopped and took time to make sure he had them down. I thought that would do the trick.
We moved on to easy readers and phonics lessons. He still wasn't getting it. Oh well, he's a boy and people told me a lot of their boys were late readers. We'll just wait a bit.
Give it a Break
Well, first grade turned into second grade and he still couldn't read. People told me not to worry. They also told me to not push it and to wait till he was ready. It all sounded logical to me. Instead, we would read together, with me doing most of the reading.
Second grade turned into third and now I was getting worried. You might be wondering why I didn't take him somewhere? Let me tell you that money is a very powerful thing. Testing costs money. Money was something that wasn't easy to come by with seven kids and one income. I just kept looking for free resources and asking a lot of questions.
Try a New Program
I tried "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", which had worked great with my other kids. That helped, but not much.
Thinking that maybe he was dyslexic , I did a lot of research on my own and talked to other moms who had kids with dyslexia. There was some connection, but it didn't seem like it was the total explanation as to why my son couldn't read.
I took him to my eye doctor, who recommended a vision therapy specialist, but when I looked into the cost, yikes, that put a stop to that. The $1,000 wasn't there to spend right then.
All About Spelling
It was about that time that I found "All About Spelling" and thought it looked promising. We began at Level 1 even though he was already in 5th grade. Now mind you, his reading was improving, but he still required a lot of help from me.
This program is great and did teach him a lot! He started to make bigger strides as we worked our way through the levels. Until one day he didn't.
The Providential Car Crash
By this time people were also realizing that my son couldn't read. He was getting old enough to be very self conscious. About this time, I was in the car with some of my daughters when we got hit by another car. While aggravating for her, it turned out to be the thing my son needed.
You see, because of that crash, we each received $1,000 for pain and suffering. This was the ticket I needed. I was able to finally get him to that vision specialist. Turns out that he did in fact have a convergence issue. No matter how hard he tried, and he did try, he couldn't make his eyes come together properly for more than a few seconds at a time. This makes it very hard to read more than a few words before your eyes get too tired and move apart.
We set up a plan and began vision therapy. By this time he was 12, but they assured us that with the proper therapy and work on his part he could retrain his eyes. He started working with the therapist and, I kid you not, within one month my son was reading by himself. Within a few more months, he was reading on grade level and working his way through novels.
God's Timing
We were both overjoyed. A whole new world opened up to him and it was wonderful.
I did kick myself around for awhile, berating myself for not figuring this out sooner. But you know what? It's just not healthy to do that. I tell other moms this all the time. If you're making your decisions after bringing them to prayer and you're using the information and resources you have at that moment, then there is no sense in beating yourself up over a seemingly bad decision.
At the time I had prayed and researched and made the decision based on the fact that the money just wasn't there. Once it was, I knew what I needed to do. Why God allowed it to be that way is beyond me, but I know that His timing is always better than mine, so I let the guilt go.
When Moms Tell Me, "My Child Can't Read"
Now that I've been through this experience, I am always quick to tell moms who have kids who are struggling to read about vision therapy. It was well into our adventure before I'd even heard of it.
If kids can get the basics checked early on in their reading problems, a whole lot of frustration might be bypassed. This kind of checking, however, has to be done by an eye doctor who specializes in vision therapy. My regular eye doctor was not equipped to run the necessary tests.
Even if the problems can't be solved by vision therapy, it is a simple way to rule out a big problem. I know young men who have struggled for years with reading who probably should be tested. Even as adults, vision therapy works, so it's never too late.
If you have a struggling reader, it is worth the time to have the basic eye tests performed. If you don't have the money, don't worry, God will help you figure it out.