A Note from the Editors: The following was written by a mother whose son has benefited from tutoring with Alysia at Inspiring Minds. At the author’s request, we have withheld her name as well as her son’s name. The opinions expressed in the piece are her’s, not necessarily those of Inspired Woman. Click here to read more about Inspiring Minds Center for Dyslexia and Literacy.

I can still remember the first day that I knew my son’s tutoring with Alysia was well worth every minute he spent with her.  I received the text,  “I love you” and it was spelt correctly…he was 17.  His written expression had been an issue for so long to read that text it literally brought tears to my eyes.

His troubles in school first become a concern in 3rd grade.  Thankfully a very caring, but stern teacher suggested that we have him tested for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). She had noticed he struggled switching materials between subjects and would often be a couple pages behind. Appreciating the fact that she cared for our son’s well being, we went through with the testing.  His test scores were borderline so he was diagnosed with mild to moderate ADD.  I remember asking the team of professionals about my concern with his spelling, and I was told that spelling is not a disability.  I did not want my kid labeled with a disability; I wanted to know what I could do to help him.  Spelling was such a huge problem for him it baffled everyone.  He would spell words without vowels; he even spelt his own name incorrectly on homework. No matter how long we spent studying for spelling tests there was never rhyme or reason to which words he’d spell correctly versus incorrectly.  Most often, the words I thought he knew for sure from studying at home were usually the ones he would get wrong on the test.  I still kick myself that I did not question this more and stick with my gut that this was not okay.  But, as recommended by the professionals, we started him on Concerta. My husband and I were amazed at how much our son’s grades improved and his reading and math competency levels sky rocketed. Sadly, his spelling and writing abilities were still well below average. Our son’s confidence grew every day and it was great to see him feel “smart” again.

Fast forward to 9th grade, his grades were not good; he was putting in extra time studying and doing homework yet his grades were not matching the effort he was putting in. We made several doctor’s visits thinking we needed to change his ADD meds or increase the dosage. A change of meds caused stomach issues and after several tries he wanted to quit all meds together. He went a year without any meds, grades were still not good, but at least he felt better. About this same time we learned that there was no such diagnosis of ADD any longer, it was strictly Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). My “mom gut” had said for years that his diagnosis wasn’t correct; our son had never been any more hyper than a typical boy his age so with the “new guidelines” it was not a diagnosis he ever should have received. Thankfully, this started me looking for other resources to figure out how to help my son. He has always been extremely brilliant, yet his schoolwork would never let a person know that. Before his teenage years he had several large gas and nitro powered remote control cars that he would drive until something broke and then he would spend hours taking the tiniest pieces apart, figure out the problem and get things back in working order within a few hours. He has flown six-foot long fuselage remote control airplanes and most recently he has built multiple drones, and his own computer.  He programs his drone remotes himself and flies the drones using a FPV (first person view) goggles. Which, if you’ve never put on a pair of FPV goggles, if you get the chance, you have to check them out!!

Point is, I’ve always known my kid was intelligent; yet watching him struggle in school day in and day out was so hard. A light bulb went off one day shortly after my son had to drop Spanish due to the fact he was failing so badly there was no way he could bring his grade up.  I read an article about dyslexia and it commented that a dyslexic person is unable to learn a foreign language!! A dyslexic person struggles with understanding his native language’s grammatical and spelling rules, adding Spanish was like telling him to fly without wings and feathers! I then began asking my close friends if anyone could recommend someone to screen my son for dyslexia. Through a teacher friend of mine, she had given me the name of Alysia’s partner, who then gave me Alysia’s information and now over a year and a half later I am still so thrilled that my son and I have her in our life!!

Alysia is such a kind and caring person. My son won’t even let me help him with his English homework, he simply says, “Alysia knows how to make it make sense to me and you don’t,” and that is why I am so thankful for Alysia! She does know how to make things “click” in a dyslexic’s brain.  

The biggest frustration for a parent of kid with dyslexia is that our school systems don’t get it. I sat with a whole team of school professionals and they spent more time asking me questions about dyslexia than telling me what they can offer for help for my son. I am very grateful that they were interested and that they did ask questions, but I worry about the number of kids that fall thru the cracks. Schools do not offer any kind of dyslexia screening or dyslexia tutoring.  Just to give a simple example of how clueless the school is about dyslexia, while in our meeting with the team of professionals at school, my son was asked if he knew how to make the corrections on a computer if someone went through and corrected his English papers for spelling and grammatical errors. He respectfully said, “Yes-I know how to do that, but that doesn’t teach me why a comma is where it is or why a word isn’t spelt the way I spelt it.”  The team of professionals had their own “light bulb moment” that day.  

Here are a few things that now really stick out when I look back at the road we’ve travelled….

• My son would always use small “d”, but capital “B” in order to keep from confusing the two letters. This was true in his 3rd grade papers all the way through the time he started tutoring with Alysia.
• Spelling is atrocious and grammar and punctuation have always been an issue. I sure would have appreciated an English teacher or two pointing it out to me that my son’s written expression was far below age appropriateness in 6th-7th grade!  
• My son’s handwriting has always been EXTREMELY bad, but with his form of dyslexia to listen to a teacher and takes notes is not only difficult, it’s truly practically impossible.
• We always joked that our son liked to simply “live in the moment” because when we would ask what he wanted to eat he would ask if it was breakfast or suppertime! He truly didn’t know the difference between a.m. and p.m. and why significant.
• To this day he can’t list the 12 months of the year. They are an arbitrary list of names that has little rhyme and reason to why they are named as they are. A dyslexic’s brain doesn’t have time for arbitrary information.  
• He has never enjoyed reading, shockingly his reading comprehension is wonderful, yet to read out loud he will make up a word rather than attempt to sound out a word he is unfamiliar with. The word he says will start with the same letter of the unknown word, but most often not a suitable word for the sentence.
• He has always been very hands on and loves to learn via watching videos and doing. Thank God for the age of YouTube!
• I feel so fortunate that our son has not given up trying his hardest at school, teachers and administration often make kids feel that they are not trying hard enough. The problem is, when a teacher announces a due date, but doesn’t post it anywhere, a dyslexic kid can’t remember the detailed information long enough to get it properly written down; a due date is arbitrary, never a “reason” that something is due on Thursday except that’s what the teacher says. My son always has his homework done, but it is often late or he receives zeroes because he doesn’t know when to hand it in if not asked for by the teacher.

I can’t say enough positive things about what Alysia is doing for our son. Not only is she helping him to understand the rules of spelling and writing. She is teaching him tips and tricks on how to better tackle big assignments and how to best work with his dyslexia rather than fight against it. His self-esteem has improved, his grades have improved and he looks forward to college with a positive attitude and never give up attitude. Thank you Alysia from the bottom of my heart!