Surface Dyslexia

[teacherabc]

A young friend (19) who will be leaving for college in a few weeks just had an educational evaluation so he can get the appropriate accommodations. He had already been diagnosed with ADHD and LD. He also has dysgraphia. Reading hadn't really been so much of an issue in high school because his testing for decoding and reading comp showed that he was either strong (decoding) or on grade level (comp). The psychologist, however, was concerned about his reading fluency. On the WAI IV, he got the following scores: Verbal comp: 105 (average), perceptual reasoning: 123 (superior), working memory: 100 (average), processing speed: 79 (borderline), full scale IQ: 104 (average), General ability Index: 115 (high average). I know that due to his ADHD, processing speed is a problem and it takes him longer to do everything. On the Woodcock-Johnson III, he got the following scores: Decoding: 110 (high average), comprehension: 101 (average), reading fluency: 77 (borderline), word attack: 113 (high average), spelling: 104 (average). I am leaving out math because I know about the math problems and they are consistent with what I know. The psychologist believes the kid may have surface dyslexia because of the reading fluency scores. From what I read about surface dyslexia, that usually involves poor sight word reading, which I haven't observed (and I have known/worked with the kid for years), and is typically accompanied by bad spelling, which he does not have. From what the psychologist told me about the test for fluency, I am thinking it is not dyslexia but his processing speed problems that care causing his poor performance on the fluency tests since it involves reading sentences and giving quick responses, a hard thing for someone with processing speed problems. The boy will be getting reading accommodations (extended time for assignments, books on tape). But the doctor was recommending additional testing for dyslexia. I am wondering if this is really necessary. He has enough on his plate at the moment.

[healthy11]

Hi again, teacherabc. I'm glad you decided to come to Millermoms and post. As I mentioned at Greatschools, I'm not familiar with the term "surface dyslexia."
In light of the fact that the student will already be getting accommodations for his LDs/ADHD, I don't believe more testing would result in any appreciable benefits. Unlike K-12 schools, where remediation may be provided per IDEA, colleges only adhere to ADA and provide access and accommodations. I can't forsee what additional accommodations would be granted, even if additional dyslexia evaluations were done.

[teacherabc]

I agree. I think if he had more time and less pressure on him overall, he might be interested in having further tests but right now he is feeling a bit overwhelmed. I spoke to him about what the doctor said and told him that if he wanted to have further tests, I would be happy to pursue it but that it was totally his decision. At first he said yes but changed his mind. Maybe one day he will want to do it but there is no rush right now. All of the accommodations were put into his report and that's fine. I just asked the doctor about the reading fluency because I wanted to understand it for myself, since I am a teacher, and for him because he likes to, and has a right to know what's being said about him.

[d]

ADHD plays a big factor in fluency. Is he a slow reader all the time? Do you think this score was representative of how he normally reads?

My dd's fluency scores (math, reading and writing) can be whacky. For example, 4 years ago her writing fluency score was off the charts at 99.9th %ile in the "gifted" range. This from a kid that had writing LD in elementary school (she's going into 11th). Her writing fluency score as of last year was well below her IQ. That's a 40+ pt score change which is just plain whacky but fits with her ADHD and how it affects her output and processing. It seems like she is either 'thick as a brick' or 'lightening quick' - like she has 2 speeds with little in between. That is a very ADHD thing.

Similarly, she is a "remediated dyslexic" that now loves to read. However, she reads at her own pace and liking. Sometimes she whizzes through books just devouring them, other times it takes her a long while to get through them. It doesn't seem to be tied into her interest level in the book either. But, she is always reading which has helped so much over the years. I love that she loves reading.

Btw, she is considered ADHD and LD.

[d]

PS, that's why ADHDers need extended time accom for their uneven academic output.

[cobyseven]

I don't see further help getting him what he needs in college either. The thing that SHOULD be emphasized with him, or discovered if he doesn't know it, is which modality works best for him. He would be better served in knowing precisely which way to study (i.e. slow reading or books on tape). Does he understand if he is a visual, auditory, or tactile learner?

[michellea]

You ask if more testing is necessary. When I discuss this issue with others, I ask them to think about what is there overall objective for testing. ie - what do they plan to do with the information once they have it.

Let's say he is tested and is found to have some sort of dyslexia. Will he be willing to spend time and resources remediating his challenges? Would the pay off be worth the investment? Are there other, more simple and accessible ways of solving the problem? (ie technology, more time).

My hunch is that if the student is looking for a cure, the treatment may not be worth the time. It seems that he is quite functional, and although I don't want to make light of his challengbes, it seems that there may be more efficient and effective ways to help him rather than "remediation". Thus, if the objective of the testing is to improve reading, I'd say it is not worth it.

If the objective is more of a curiosity or desire to further understand his learning style, and if time and money are not issues, then more testing wouldn't hurt.

[sharie001]

Call me ignorant, but wouldn't dyslexia fall under processing in one way or another?

I know there is more to dyslexia, like phonological awarness, etc., but it is a problem with how the child processes language, right?

[teacherabc]

The question you asked, sharie001, was pretty much my question. I think I don't know enough about dyslexia. The form of dyslexia the psychologist is talking about is not phonological I think (he decodes well) but is the inability to read sight words well, which I have not seen in the couple of years I have known him. I would say that he is usually a slow reader, but is slower at times than at others. So, you are right, d, it varies. I guess I am just trying to get a handle on this before the child leaves for college on 8/22 since the doctor threw a new thing at me. I guess the question I have, and it may not be important for anything other than for me professionally, since I am a teacher, and because I like to understand things that relate to people that are important to me, is is this really a form of dyslexia or is it another manifestation of his ADHD/processing problems? Unless VESID, the agency that paid for this evaluation, paid for a more extensive one, there won't be one regardless of his desire because he doesn't have the money. And right now, he doesn't want it. Mostly what he had used to deal with the problem in high school is rereading/slow reading. I tried to teach him scanning techniques but so far they haven't taken. One of the accommodations recommended by the doctor is books on tape and I don't know yet if he will take advantage of it or if it will work. Originally, the doctor recommended tape recording lectures for note taking in college as an accommodation for his dysgraphia but I got him to change it to note takers and copies of notes from professors because the child won't do it and I don't think it would work well because he would really need to have notes to study from. And I had to get the doctor to add an accommodation for writing papers--voice recognition software since the child would use it and oral speech is a big strength--he can speak an essay very quickly but it is torture to get him to write it long hand or on the computer because of his processing issues and obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

[d]

I wish I could write as well as Sharon F in responding to this.

The definition of dyslexia is broad and can change depending on who you talk to. Not all the school professionals agree. NY schools are disinclined to use the term dyslexia even though I think it is in the state or fed regs anyway. I have yet to find a NY district where I am that will entertain use of the term "dyslexia".

LD's are an "imperfect ability" (I think that's NYS regs language) to speak, write, spell, read, etc. and thought to be caused by a processing disorder.

ADHD causes processing probs in some/many. Some of the quintessential, common ADHD-related school probs are weak math, writing probs, inconsistent output, memory, slow reading (could be distractability related issue like reading and re-reading same paragraph over and over but it's not registering) and organization/planning.

Also what annoys me to no end is one district may interpret the regs differently than the district right next store. Many districts use the reasons that 85-115 Woodcock scores are in the "average" range and kids must be below 85 SS to qualify for help. Well, sure if you have a 100 IQ score. But, if you have a 115-120 IQ score, a 90 or 95 Woodcock SS score is a (processing?) prob for *that* kid. Federal regs have clarified that sp-ed classification and help is based on the kid i.e., smart(er) kids can be eligible for help, have LD, etc. although not all districts are aware of or forthright with that. What the district uses in an evaluation is not necessarily what a neuropsychologist would investigate. In fact, it hardly ever is as comprehensive.

My daughter has been regarded as a child with a disability since 1st grade. Technically, her medical dx's are ADHD and LD NOS. According to the school over the years, she has been sped OHI, then 504 and now she is LD. I used to think I could tell what was driving what in her school probs. Some things are very clear. I used to think that was very important. I no longer do as she is older and even though the "lines" between the 2 blur (assuming they were distinctly exclusive) she is successful and has the support/accoms she needs.

She had zero phonemic awarenss and little sound blending ability in early elem - awful probs learning to read. School called her OHI back then, not wanting to provide the reading instruction I wanted for her (Orton Gillingham and it *worked*). She reads just fine now but her phonemic awareness is still very low - it doesn't matter anymore.

Now, I'd consider her more ADHD but her IEP says LD. Actually, I'd consider her definitely very ADHD with mild LD. Her math, which has always been a struggle and bubbling at the sped surface for the last 10 years, tanked ever so slightly into the LD category. It doesn't change how she processes math, does in math class or the help the school gives her. I mean learning to read and write caused her the biggest problems, math was always just there, neither here nor there. No change in that, whereas huge leaps & bounds in reading and writing when it was properly remediated.

Like this young man you are writing about, she is also a bright kid so that has compounded the school's willingness to identify her needs and help her.

Anyway, I've lost the plot. Interesting discussion though for me.

[teacherabc]

This kid also has significant math problems--5th grade level in calculations and (almost) 10th grade level in problem solving.

What drives me crazy are a few things--the fact that poor kids with parents that can't or, worse, won't do anything to advocate, get shafted and get passed up to high school without their problems really being addressed in a satisfactory way. This is a bright kid who spent years in self contained classes where he got picked on by more aggressive kids where he said he wasn't taught but kept with all the kids who had behavior problems (he can be annoying but is no behavior problem). No one ever dealt with his dysgraphia until I started to in the beginning of his senior year. The other thing that drives me nuts are school psychologists who think they know everything when they don't. The school psychologist at my school first insisted he couldn't have dysgraphia because it wasn't a physical problem. When I told her it didn't need to be, she then said it still couldn't be dysgraphia because he didn't have processing problems--her tests didn't show that. I suggested that she might want to redo the tests and besides he has ADHD. So she refused to set the wheels in motion to add accommodations for the conditions and I had to speak to our principal who gave him a scribe anyway (and he passed 4 out of 5 Regents exams in addition to the RCTs that he had already passed). Not to mention, in his current evaluation, he was found to have significant processing issues, which didn't appear overnight. And the pschologist we had before her was worse--nasty too.

[cobyseven]

Don't get hung up on definitions. Yes, dyslexia IS language processing...SOMETIMES.

I was having a discussion about this one day with Lillian, who had her son tested by a renown person in the LD world. The definition of dyslexia by RESEARCHERS has grown more narrow. It has to be to study it appropriately. They view it as a reading problem only.

The International Dyslexia Association has a much broader definition that encompasses many, many types of LDs.

To me, processing issues whether auditory, visual, language, or all three ARE dyslexia. I know, I know, many disagree. But I choose to follow the IDA definition. I figure that's their sole purpose. The formal IDA definition is as follows:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

Adopted by the IDA Board of Directors, Nov. 12, 2002. This Definition is also used by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

So, I would say this boy definitely fits this definition.

What good will knowing this serve him, is the question.......

The trouble with math sounds highly dyslexic, too. Some dyslexics have no trouble with math. Others have a huge problem with it....specifically calculations. It is helpful to think of it as a person who thinks in pictures rather than words. Calculations become difficult because they have no picture in their heads to associate with the numeracy.

[d]

There is a few factors going on with this kid. Yes, his parents haven't advocated for him. The school system let him fall thru the cracks too. Plus, he is bright, so another common risk factor for falling thru the cracks.

I read your other thread on him. What high school is supposed to be about for kids with differences is self-awareness and self-advocacy, recognizing your strengths & weaknesses to strategize around weakness and maybe use strengths to pull themselves out of a hole. Too often though they have been so damaged by going thru the system, being that square peg in a round hole for so many years and trying to go un-noticed, it's a big thing for them to do that, particularly on their own. I really really hope this kid's strengths (bright, insightful and sensitive) as well as being removed from his current environment make a difference for him. That he gets out in the world, begins to heal, begins the self-discovery and awareness, experiences success. I wish you could tell him 'know thyself'.

I keep thinking of Jonathan Mooney's organization. I know it's for younger kids but if he was involved with it and other college kids in same boat, that would be great. And what about some of Jonathan Mooney's books for him?

And don't get me started on school psych's. We have one here who is just a dream. But my record with my district's school psych's has been less than positive including the current pscyh who is a newbie in general and to HS who is telling me all sorts of "authoritative" things about my dd. LOLOLOL. The one pscyh who pleasantly surprised me (shocked, rather, she was spot on about my dd and navigating her thru the sytem), resigned for another job. The newbie psych can't even write a decent letter to the College Board that includes all my dd's accoms. And I had a MS psych who was nicknamed Dr. Turdbrain. When my dd was in 6th grade, her tutor, a sped director in another district called my district's sped director and told her "If you were smart, if you want your daily quality of life to be tolerable you will keep Dr. Turdbrain away from Mrs. X. And you should know that as a fellow sped director, he is a *liability* to the district'. Blissfully, I didn't have to talk to him for the next 2 1/2 years. He was that unprofessional and incompetent plus rude and inappropriate.

The thing that has gotten me (or rather my dd) successfully through all these years is reading as much as I can, the wealth of info and support on this board, private help, etc. I'm at the point where I don't believe a thing the district tells me about my dd unless I can verify it with the outside team of pros that are her support system (and mine). This kid's mother needs her own f/t therapist, much less effectively taking care of her ds.

[teacherabc]

Fat chance of her getting her own therapist...I will google Jonathan Mooney. This young man who is a former student of mine who continued to stay in contact when he left. Why we connected, I'm not sure except that he has tended to have a surrogate parent for the last few years (first it was someone from his after school program, then another teacher, and, finally me--it is always a woman, typically older) and I seem to be the one he is latching on to more or less for good.

Whether this is dyslexia, you can be sure he is going to get all of the accommodations he is entitled to because I have been advocating for him nonstop (I've had a lot of time on my hands this summer). In case you're wondering, I am also trying to do the same for a few others of my old students but except for one other, my relationships with them are less close and the other girl may not be going to college and in any case, not yet. The others anyway have parents that are less destructive and more involved and are better at advocating for themselves. This boy has trouble walking into an office by himself (which means I am going to be on the phone with him constantly until he walks into the Students with Disabilities Office which I hope will be the Monday after the Saturday he arrives).

Yes, I am sure that many of his problems were not deal with because the boy reads on grade level, so as far as a lot of people are concerned, I am sure they did not consider him to have a problem...even though he failed classes and managed to graduate in four years out of sheer determination (summer school, p.m. school and, with my pushing him and the right accommodations, buckling down his senior year despite starting out the year living in the shelter and going back to an abusive home where he slept on the floor (when he was allowed to sleep at all).

[d]

Well, I'm glad you're there for him. He'll gravitate towards someone who champions him, which you are doing.

[Mayleng]

teacherabc, I just want to say, "THANK YOU" on behalf of your students. You are a rare gem, not many teachers would care so much for their students. Your students need someone like you, you are doing a very good thing helping and advocating for them. We are always praying for more teachers like you. You make a difference to them especially those whose parents are abusive or neglectful of these kids.

[healthy11]

I concur with Mayleng...It seems like you're also very realistic about the shortcomings of the educational system, be it arrogant school psychs, or even for students whose LDs are identified, getting appropriate services... (By the way, I don't mean this as a slam on all school psychs...we've had a few wonderful contributors on this forum, who really seem to want to do the right thing, but many are less than helpful, only going through the formality of a cursory evaluation and generating a "boilerplate report" that isn't very useful... )

We ended up having a private psych attend my son's initial IEP meeting in 8th grade (they kept refusing to admit he had any issues up to that point) and the private psych found several numerical errors in the test results that the school psych prepared, including how they "estimated" my son's IQ to be about 30 points lower than it finally tested out at!

[sharie001]

As far as the math issues go it could be related to his dysgraphia, it could be dyscalcula, and/or it could be a problem with rote memorization and/or sequential processing.

Has he been evaluated for a visual processing disorder? What about hand eye dominance, it could play a roll too?

Some other places which can offer assistance are:

Your state Office of vocational rehabilitation

Your state office of assistive technology (which assist both kids and adults)

[d]

OMG, OMG, OMG. sharie's post gave me a lightbulb moment. Sharie, for reference NY's AT sucks despite having a blind governor. Too many other issues like tanked economy. Our state ed isn't exactly bang-up either. Teacherabc, how much have you involved VESID in this? VESID includes college prep. Until recently, they had some relatively unknown gems of help. A friend of mine got driving lessons and textbook $ for her dyslexic/LD dd to attend college. Very helpful, financially and such. Apologies if this is elementary and you did it already. But maybe there is more help for this kid from VESID when he gets to his upstate college?

[zippity]

Welcome, teacherabc! I would seek out the public library which may have a literacy program. From the sounds of it, this boy has not fully learned to read. He is no longer able to compensate as he did when younger with the level of sight words now being thrown at him as the academic demands increase in grade and level. He may have a phonological awareness but he needs to complete other remedial instruction. The fluency may improve due to the dyslexia being remediated, the ADHD - processing speed may not allow it.

I would only want to know what he can't do in terms of reading. As for Dyslexia testing at his age, it's more about his history because typical testing for younger students does not have to consider his experience. There is a lot of compensating going on for him and it can be part of the reason for fluency problems. If he has difficulty with various letter combinations then that would be what I would get a tutor to help him with. Or maybe he has not gotten to the level of mastering root words, suffixes, and prefixes. That would be the type of testing, if he decides to go with it, I would recommend. Find out where the holes are in his skills.

He does not need a diagnosis. I have never heard of "surface Dyslexia" and I have done extensive research on Dyslexia through SAGE Journals. I have read reports and studies on subtypes of Dyslexia, (my spelling may be off) Dysphonesia, Dysiadetic or a combination of the two. It really doesn't matter at this point which he has except he probably is Dyslexic but I am not fully apprised of his history as you are. If it were me remediate the holes in his reading skills which can affect many things, writing and math too.

[teacherabc]

Thanks--I wish I had caught on to the level of LD this child had earlier but he was hard to get to know for the the first year or so--he didn't like me because I had to report his attempts to cut himself to our social worker--got him on a 72 hour hold before Christmas--he was made at me and didn't talk to me for a good long time (basically my introduction to him). Plus, I was new at this--didn't know much--he started as a student and I as a teacher, period, at the same time. I am guessing the math is dyscalia--though his short term memory is a little low. His visual processing is okay. He does have some issues with hand eye coordination though. He has been referred to the Office of vocational rehab in our state (which is how he got this evaluation done). VESID, however, has been frusstratingly slow in opening his case. He has just been given to a case manager but hasn't even been approved yet, though his eval is done (which I at least have for his school). They know he is leaving on 8/22. Well, next week is another week and I guess he and I are going to have to march down to VESID and haunt them until they do what they need to before he leaves.

[teacherabc]

I had to laugh, reading d's post about AT. I have had to fight so much for any kind of AT from the DOE for my students, For one, it came too late--he had pretty much decided to drop out by the time I finally got it, fighting tooth and nail. I have had knock down drag outs, so many of them...making me somewhat a nuisance to the DOE (and sometimes I lose). The good thing at least is I have a Principal and other administrators who back me up every step of the way. NY gov't is so penny wise and pound foolish. I have a kid with severe dysgraphia who is brilliant (I haven't yet had a kid who is both at the gifted level with an LD and I think this kid is) and I think I will be fighting for AT this year...If not, I will be going through the same stuff with getting the accommodations on his report next summer--only without a mother from hell. Only this time I am going to ask the Principal if there is any money in the budget to pay me for the time I am spending doing all this (which I am not now, but that's okay--labor or love).

[d]

Acc to my friend, the VESID case manager they had was awesome so I'm crossing my fingers he gets a good one.

[teacherabc]

Right now, if they actually do something, it will be a step in the right direction. In any case, any extra money he can get...Fortunately, we don't even need to fight over whether they will get a computer for his software because I found a school that will give him one and it is on its way there right now. The VESID office in Manhattan is great, it sucks in the Bronx, and in Brooklyn, we don't know except it seems slow--this is our first Brooklyn case there.

[teacherabc]

Regarding what you said Zippity, I have had lots of opportunity to observe the child reading, both aloud and to himself in many different settings over the past 1 and 1/2 years of so (and some longer than that). His sight word reading seems to be fine. I also think he is about average in root words, prefixes in such. I really think it is more a matter of processing speed and, to a lesser extent, memory. While he seemed to do average on the memory test, from what I have seen of him, this can be inconsistent due to attention, motivation, fatigue, etc. But I am going to try and double check this before he goes.

[d]

Teacherabc, some of us here use VESID's nickname of VAPID. Most of the VESID offices are worthless. Mine used to be BFF's with all the district PPS Directors. So, when you called for clarification on something, they not only didn't quite answer, they referred you back to your SD or Albany (another time-consuming futile exercise) and called their BFF's, the PPS Directors un-beknownst to the parent to report on the content of the call. So, when friends reported that the services for college and vocation transition were actually worthwhile, it was a pleasant surprise.

Nah, NY doesn't have *any* probs in their state ed dept (NOT!)...

[SharonF]

teacherabc--

I'm really impressed with your level of knowledge and awareness. (Not to criticize your peers, but I have two college-aged kids with LDs and few if any of their K-12 teachers seemed to have a clue about sight words, working memory, processing speed, etc.)

The term "dyslexia" can be beneficial when dealing with the general public, even colleges. Most people have heard of dyslexia, even if they think it's limited to b/d reversals.

In my opinion, attorneys' interpretations of IDEA to determinine IEP eligibility have made the term "dyslexia" all but useless in K-12. There is one reference to dyslexia in IDEA, but dyslexia is not defined in the law. Most important, there is no IEP category for dyslexia. So most schools ignore private diagnoses of dyslexia or worse, claim dyslexia doesn't really exist.

As you probably know, there is a lot of overlap between ADHD and LDs. Sometimes, it's impossible to know whether a person has a reading disability, a processing speed disability, an attention problem, or a mix of all three. (Or take out the words "reading disability" and substitute math, written expression, oral expression, or auditory processing. All basic academic skills can be sabotaged by slow processing speed and/or difficulty maintaining attention.)

From what you describe, I think this young man has a combination of learning issues. If I had to guess, his relatively slow processing speed and working memory are both the chicken and the egg of his learning difficulties. Very common in bright ADHDers.

But there are no IEP categories for Processing Speed or Working Memory problems. So those issues tend to be ignored. Schools focus on the "reading fluency" score or the "math calculation" score, sometimes comparing it to full-scale IQ. But that focus only on IEP eligibility causes them to miss the real issues.

As others have said, processing and working memory problems can lead to weird scatter on eval scores (even on IQ tests) and inconsistent performance in the classroom/homework/tests. But because IDEA doesn't require schools to recognize the very real fact that processing speed and working memory cause learning difficulties, schools often attribute weird scatter or student inconsistency to "laziness" or "lack of effort."

And there is some truth to it. People with unexpectedly low processing speed are more prone to academic burnout, academic fatigue, and difficulty maintaining attention and focus. They fall behind. If they try hard, it often is still not enough. So it's sometimes easier not to try and simply fail, than to keep trying so hard and keep falling short.

I don't think additional evals are going to help much. Processing speed is extremely difficult to "fix." It can (and should) be accommodated.

It's great that you've been able to secure accommodations for this young man at college, and that you have a supportive principal and administration to help get AT for your dysgraphic student. But you're right--the money usually isn't there. Not just NY but everywhere. And many schools are terrified of setting a precedent: if they offer a service to one deserving student, hundreds more will qualify for that same service and "break the bank."

[healthy11]

teacherabc, since you mention this boy being at the gifted level and having LDs/ADHD (which is called "2e" or "twice exceptional") please look at the various resources I've listed at community.greatschools.net/groups/16042 (My son is also "2e.")

[teacherabc]

I don't think he quite makes it into the gifted level, though he is bright...I am noticing a pattern (though probably too small a sample) of students I have had with dysgraphia, some with the physical kind, others from another cause--who have IQ levels higher and better other abilities than many of my other students with other LD's (and no dysgraphia). One unfortunately dropped out, two have just graduated (both with significant processing problems), one who I think may well be gifted as well, and another who hasn't been diagnosed with dysgraphia though I am sure he would qualify because his mother refuses to cooperate and is sending him into a job training program--a terrible shame. I really need to study the paperwork for the remaining kid when I get back to school to see what I can glean.

I am not sure I really see the laziness aspect of the ADHD--when they have a hard time focusing it makes it hard to get things done. And school rules don't help. The kid I've been sspeaking of would sometimes put up his hood to help himself focus and invariably when I allowed him to keep it on (because I knew he was using a coping mechanism since he didn't do it all the time like some kids), an AP would walk in, tell him to take off the hood and I would get in trouble.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sharon--I am studying for a Masters in Literacy so these terms are probably more familiar to me than to most teachers, even in SPED.

I do see how it is hard to tease out what is what. In this particular case, my gut tells me that most of his problems in math and reading are a result of his processing problems which are connected to his ADHD.

[dhfl143]

OK. I have never heard the term "surface dyslexia" -- despite doing extensive research on the subject. Your post piqued my curiosity, so I did a google search and found links referencing studies conducted around 1993 and 1996 which discusses the term:

1) sorrel.humboldt.edu/~morgan/sur_dys.htm

2) www.cnbc.cmu.edu/~plaut/papers/pdf/PattersonETAL96.surfaceDyslexia.pdf

Even though this is the case, I was unable to locate any reference to this term on searching IDA's web site.