Braxton was in kindergarten when the pandemic interrupted his first year of formal reading instruction. But his mother, Kristie, soon realized there was more to his struggles. Donell Pons talks with Kristie about the years Braxton spent “hanging on,” his eventual dyslexia identification, and what changed when he finally received targeted support—just as he prepares to enter middle school.
Show Notes
Today’s middle schoolers were just beginning their education when the pandemic disrupted classrooms across the country. For some students, that interruption came at a critical point in learning to read—and years later, foundational reading needs may still be following them into the secondary grades.
Braxton was one of those beginning readers.
He started kindergarten in fall 2019. When COVID closed his school the following spring, he spent the final two and a half months of kindergarten at home. That was when his mother, Kristie Nelson, a former kindergarten teacher, began noticing that something wasn’t right. Braxton struggled to identify letter names and sounds, and Kristie ultimately decided to have him repeat kindergarten.
But the pandemic wasn’t the whole story. Kristie remembered concerns dating back to preschool, and as Braxton moved through elementary school, he continued to struggle with reading even as he found ways to compensate. He made progress. He worked hard. He was “hanging on.” And because he was never dramatically behind, the underlying problem remained difficult to see. But by fifth grade, the work had become harder and those compensatory strategies were no longer enough.
In this episode of Literacy Talks, Donell Pons talks with Kristie about the journey that ultimately led to Braxton being identified with dyslexia. Kristie shares the signs she learned to recognize, how his school responded, and what began to change once instruction could target his specific needs.
The results have been encouraging. With focused work on phonics and other foundational skills, Kristie reports substantial improvement in Braxton’s reading accuracy. Perhaps even more telling, a child who had found reading difficult and exhausting began asking to read aloud.
Now another transition is coming: middle school.
Instead of spending most of his day with one teacher who understands how he learns, Braxton will move among multiple teachers and face increasingly complex reading and writing demands. An IEP, targeted intervention, and continued support will be critical as he enters sixth grade.
Braxton’s story is his own. But it also raises a much larger question: How many students are entering middle school with unfinished foundational reading needs—and what will it take to ensure those needs don’t follow them any further?
This conversation is Part 1 of The Braxton Story, a Literacy Talks series following Braxton and his family through the transition to middle school. We’ll check back during his sixth-grade year to hear about his progress, the challenges that emerge, and what his experience can teach us about supporting older struggling readers.
In this episode:
- How the pandemic interrupted the end of Braxton’s first kindergarten year
- The early reading difficulties Kristie noticed before and after that disruption
- How Braxton compensated for reading difficulties through the elementary grades
- Why increasing academic demands made his struggles harder to overlook
- How learning about dyslexia helped Kristie recognize what she was seeing
- What happened when his school identified his needs and targeted instruction accordingly
- Why putting an IEP in place mattered before the transition to middle school
- What Braxton’s experience can teach us about the unfinished reading needs students may carry into the secondary grades
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View Transcript
Narrator:
Welcome to Literacy Talks, the podcast for literacy leaders and champions everywhere. Brought to you by Reading Horizons. Literacy Talks is the place to discover new ideas, trends, insights, and practical strategies for helping all learners reach reading proficiency. Our hosts are Stacy Hurst, a professor at Southern Utah University and chief academic advisor for Reading Horizons; Donell Pons, a recognized expert and advocate in literacy, dyslexia, and special education; and Lindsay Kemeny, an elementary classroom teacher, author, and speaker. Now let's talk literacy.
Donell Pons:
For this episode of Literacy Talks, I am on my own, and that's an unusual thing. So I will not be joined by Lindsay Kemeny or Stacy Hurst this time. But I am on my own with a really great guest, and I'm really excited to have this conversation. So what I'm hoping for our listeners this this will be a very interesting conversation because it really is the day to day of what we talk about all the time when we're talking on literacy talks we're talking about improving reading outcomes for students and we're hoping that a lot of the things that we've seen being put into place and implemented to help improve reading experiences and outcomes for students are actually working or helping, and so this is a real life experience. And I've invited someone to come on to the podcast and have a little conversation. And thankfully, you said yes. This is Kristie Nelson who's joining me. Yep. And we'll get a little bit into your background because you really are such a great example of this could be anyone. So this here I am. I have these kids, and suddenly I see something that's a little bit different. And so we'll get into that because I think a lot of folks will be able to relate to your experience, and then we'll kind of walk through what you've been going through in your experience with one of your children. But first, Kristie, I kind of want you to give our listeners a little of your background because you have some education background in teaching.
Unknown:
Yeah, I do. I got my bachelor's degree in elementary education, and I taught kindergarten for two years, but that was 14 years ago before I had my first son. So I do, and that's actually how I came to figure out Braxton had dyslexia. Was I had to do a renewal class for my Idaho certification to keep it current, and one of the Idaho requirements is that you have to take a dyslexia class, and so that's how I kind of learned a little bit more about dyslexia and caught on that maybe my son might be having some struggles with it.
Donell Pons:
Okay, so that's number one, Kristie, that I loved hearing is that going back to get some recertification, you started hearing some really good things about reading and the science of reading that you didn't know before, right?
Unknown:
Yes. Yep.
Donell Pons:
Yeah. Yeah,
Unknown:
it was a really interesting class.
Donell Pons:
Okay, terrific! I love hearing that. And then Kristie, also let our listeners know it's not like you're living in a big city. Tell folks a little bit about where you're at. No,
Unknown:
we are in a very rural town in far northeast Montana. We're about 15 miles to Canada, about 30 miles to North Dakota. Our nearest large town is about an hour and 20 minutes. The population of Plentywood is like roughly 3000. So we're really rural, really small town.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, that was another piece that I think will be interesting for our listeners is because oftentimes we talk about resources that are available in large cities, but not everyone lives in a large city, right?
Unknown:
Yeah, we we didn't have any sort of. I mean, my resources, the school and you, that was about it. So
Donell Pons:
yeah, that's great. So I should also have our listeners know that Kristie and I we are related, we're cousins, but we haven't really hung out together. You just have heard through the grapevine of our cousins talking and things about my work with dyslexia, and so thankfully you were able to reach out, right? Yeah,
Unknown:
I got your number from my uncle that he's worked with him a little bit, and yeah,
Donell Pons:
yeah, yeah, and that's that's the reality too. Is because this is heritable. There will be family members, and you're hoping that somewhere a family member's got some information for you because it is heritable. You'll see it in family lines. That's another piece of this journey we're talking about. So, Kristie, let's get to that first thing. You said you first realized that your son's reading development wasn't on track by going to this class.
Unknown:
Yeah, I had had concerns since actually preschool, but had no idea what we were dealing with. It just I noticed in preschool he struggled to catch on to the concepts. We did the Waterford program, and he would get stuck just doing the same exercise over and over again. And then we put him in kindergarten in the fall of 2019, and he has a late birthday end of May. But we thought he was ready for kindergarten. Well, then COVID hit that spring of 2020, so he was at home for the last two and a half months of kindergarten, and I started to notice he couldn't tell me letter names. He couldn't tell me letter sounds. He could write his name, but he couldn't tell me the letters of his name. I would tell him to, you know, he'd ask how to spell something. I'll say, write an A. What does that look like? And so then we ended up moving from Wyoming to Montana that summer of 2020, and I just thought there's no way he can go to first grade without knowing letter names and sounds. I taught kindergarten. I was like, he should have these down, so I re-enrolled him back into kindergarten. It worked out. Nobody knew he'd done kindergarten before. I just told him that was pre-kindergarten, and now this was real kindergarten, and we were just going to do kindergarten, and he actually did did well in kindergarten, and I thought, well, maybe we just needed that little extra time. Then we got to first grade. He did well the first half, but that second half of first grade, again, he was never super low, but he was just the lower end of his class took him a long time. He didn't like to read. He struggled with it. They recommended he start seeing the reading specialist at school. Small group, half hour a day. I talked to her, and she said, "Yeah, I love having Braxton. He's a hard worker. He's struggling, but he's still the higher end of our reading group. And that was kind of where we were at, first to fourth grade. He was, you know, making progress, but he was always on that low end of grade level according to their tests.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, hanging on,
Unknown:
just hanging on, but doing all right, but not excelling, not doing real great. And then that brought us to the start of this fall, starting fifth grade, and I took this dyslexia class. And as I was taking this class, they started to go over the signs and the symptoms of dyslexia. And as they were going over them, every single one hit Braxton. He added s's. He took away s's. He forgot when he was reading out loud. He would leave out the little words. He would change word. If the word was hard, he might say difficult. If the word was home, he might say house. He would not ignore punctuation completely. So his reading accuracy was very low. He had a real hard time decoding words. He would get a word right, and then the next paragraph, that same word he would get wrong. He would leave off the end of the words. He would only read the beginning of the word, but he would not. You know, it was almost he was guessing a little bit.
Donell Pons:
Yep.
Unknown:
And then, so that all was a concern to me. And so that's when I reached out to the school. At that point, I I texted the reading specialist Kayla that he'd been working with, and I just asked. I said,"Do you guys do any sort of screening for dyslexia? And she said, "Well, I think they screen in first or second grade. And I was like, "Well, if they screened and he didn't catch it, then maybe we don't have dyslexia. But in my head, I'm going. This kid, like, something's up. And one of the other big indicators was in this class. It said a lot of these kids are average or above intelligence, yet they don't want to read. And those kids, they should be wanting to be curious and wanting to read, but these kids don't want to read. And another big indicator was on his math. I would read him the story problem, and he would figure out it in his head before I could even figure it out. And I was like, "So he's not-he's smart, and he's figuring out these math questions like lickety split, but we can't figure out how to read.
Donell Pons:
Yeah.
Unknown:
And so that was a big indicator for me. Like I think there's more than just struggling with reading, and we really struggled with the phonics.
Donell Pons:
Yeah. So okay, so you've reached out to the school. I
Unknown:
reached out to Kayla. She said there was no testing. I thought, okay, well let's just see. But I kind of said, well, could he possibly have this? And then his teacher is Miss Kemeri, who I'm a good friends with. I mean, we're a small town. Everybody knows everybody. I was working at school concessions with her one day in probably late September, and I just said,"Micah, I've taken this class. These are the signs and symptoms of dyslexia. Could this be Braxton? And she goes, "I think you're right. She goes, "I can't say because you know she can't say, but she said, "This sounds and and she was seeing and having concerns with his spelling and his writing, and she noticed his math too. She's like, he knows the math, but he gets it wrong on his papers. But if I read it to him, he gets it right. Yeah, and so she she was noticing and started. To notice some of the same concerns I was having, so she met with you
Donell Pons:
met with Kristie. This is really important. She didn't say to you, "Oh, absolutely not, or "I'm not going to talk about that. She was open, and she very
Unknown:
open. Yeah, and she expressed concerns, and she listened to my concerns, and I mean, she knew something was up because Braxton had been able to compensate very well up until fifth grade. But we get to fifth grade, we're reading harder passages. Our spelling words get harder, and Braxton has very high oral processing. So if he hears something, he can process and he can remember stuff like crazy. He's picking that, but so I think he could compensate up until fifth grade because he could hear stuff and remember it and spit it out. But we got to fifth grade and we we couldn't do that as much, and so we started to really take a nosedive, you know. So she talked to the reading specialist Kayla, and Kayla did some like informal assessments, I guess you would call them. And then we met for parent-teacher conferences, end of October, beginning of November. And Kayla went over what the tests she had done, which was a lot of the phonological awareness type of stuff, isolating sounds, taking away a sound, changing the ending sound or the beginning sound, and he really struggled, especially with words in isolation when he couldn't read them in a sentence, he couldn't figure out those words, nonsense words, and so they both said yes, there's something going on, and they suggested we do a get a 504 for him so that he could get some accommodations, and especially with spelling and some accommodations with their math, they have to do it sometime on the computer, and they have to like transfer it from their paper to the computer. And he really struggled with that. And so they said to email the principal and ask for some testing or 504, and then she had so many days to get back to me. So I emailed his principal, and she's really great too. She got right back to me. She said we're going to meet as a team. We're going to discuss Braxton. I'll get back to you. And then she called me back a week or so later and said that they had met as a team. They met with the teacher, her, the reading specialist, the school psychologist, and the speech. They'd all met together as a team, and in their discussion, they decided that they wanted to test Braxton for the full IEP testing because they all thought he would qualify for an IEP, and that way he could get accommodations on state testing. And so they went ahead, and she had me wait till after Christmas because we're at this point is December to sign the paperwork because once I signed it, they only had 60 days to do the testing, so first part of January I went in and signed it, and they started doing the testing. The testing did take quite a while. I mean, I think it was mid February before I met with the whole team again, and it was it was quite a bit of testing. But I was just happy that I didn't have to ask, I didn't have to fight. They just said, "We think he needs the full testing, and we're going to do the full testing. Because that was my biggest thing. I was like, "How do I get an actual diagnosis? Because I don't have anywhere else to go. I don't know where to go.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, the information that you need to understand what you're looking at. Yeah,
Unknown:
and I wanted to know, like, what were his strengths? What were his weaknesses? Is this actually dyslexia? Is it something else? And you know, in a big city, I maybe could have gone somewhere and gotten some testing, but we just-I don't have any. I just-I didn't know where to do or what to do or where to go. You know?
Donell Pons:
Yeah.
Unknown:
And so they-they did all the testing, and they came back. It was actually the TILS test. It's a test administrator, but administrated by the speech and language pathologist, and it identified Black Braxton as dyslexia without a language delay. And so that one gave me the diagnosis. It gave them the diagnosis, and then they went ahead and Kristie.
Donell Pons:
What did that mean to you to hear that? Was it clarity? Did it give you some clarity to just hear the words to say, "Oh, okay, that's what this
Unknown:
is. Yes, because I was like, "He is a smart kid. Yeah, and we are really struggling with this, and I think it really helped Braxton as well. The testing was really hard on him. It was a lot. It was long tests. It was hard. It was hard for his brain. I could tell the end of January he was getting a little frustrated. Yeah, you know, and but I just explained. I said, Braxton, I think you have what's called dyslexia. I said it's it's. Nothing wrong. It's nothing bad. I said it's just your brain learns to read differently, and we need to figure out how your brain learns so that we can help you learn so you can succeed.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, and way to go, mom.
Unknown:
That's what I told him, and he is my funny social kid, so he go and tell. I just have dyslexia. I just my brain learns differently, you know. I have to go to all these tests because my I have to figure out how my brain works, you know. Yeah. Um. But I did bribe him. I said after all the testing, I'll take you out to lunch. Just me and you. We'll go to lunch to celebrate you're done. Um. And so it's been really helpful for him. As soon as we got done with the testing, he had the diagnosis. He was able to start going to the special education room for help. He's gotten one-on-one help with mrs. B, really focusing on phonics, focusing on the areas he really struggles with, the suffixes, prefixes. And he came home one day. He's like, "Mom, this is awesome. I've never gotten so much help in my whole life.
Donell Pons:
See,
Unknown:
like he is so grateful, and I have seen leaps and bounds since they started really like targeting and working on his reading. Like, I mean, not near as many mistakes. He's he's reading the whole word, not just the beginning. He's not adding the s's. He's fixing his. He's catching the twos and the fours and the does. So.
Donell Pons:
Yeah.
Unknown:
Yeah. So it's been so
Donell Pons:
knowing sure helped in knowing what to do to help him, right?
Unknown:
Yeah, it's helped a lot. Like I said, I think Kayla's been working with him every morning for 1520 minutes and really hitting hard on the phonics, the letter, the sounds, the suffixes, the prefixes. She said when they started, his reading accuracy was at like a 70 something percent, and the last time he does a reading accuracy test every week, and he was up to like 97%
Donell Pons:
Wow!
Unknown:
So just getting him to like slow down, focus on one word at a time, focus on the whole word, the phonics of it, has just really, really helped him.
Donell Pons:
All the pieces coming together for him.
Unknown:
Yeah. So now we just have to get the spelling and the writing, which it will come.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, it will come. You're right because you're on the right track. So Kristie, you've had quite the experience, and it's been. We have got to think about this. Has all been in a year, right, folks? So from not knowing to going, oh, I think maybe, and then how do I get help? And then starting the testing process, I is in this lifetime in a year, so to speak, right for for your family and for your little guy. Yeah. So, in terms of what the school has been doing to help you, Kristie, what has stood out to you about how the school has handled this? Because there were some key points at this at for you and the school,
Unknown:
yeah. Well, they just-I mean-they didn't question.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, they
Unknown:
all got on board, and they all wanted to do what was best for Braxton. Yeah, you know, and and what did that IP mean? I said, well, we know he has dyslexia, and I know there's specific programs for children with dyslexia, like specific tutoring programs that you can use. I know when I student taught, there was one that my teacher would use with like tiles, and they were red and you know manipulating tiles around. And I said, "Is there something specific we need to be doing, like a specific program? And you know they were very like, "Well, we don't have that in our school, but they said now that we know where his weaknesses are, we can pinpoint those. We know what type of activities to do with him, and they've all just jumped on board, and they've all worked really hard to help Braxton to be successful.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, that's terrific. And I was just thinking, you know, Kristie, that's ideal because as as you have already experienced in your life, having been taught one way and not learning about anything, got the science of reading. How do you teach reading? What's the the science behind it? To this movement across the country that has taken time to reach into schools and to get teachers where they're teaching, and also then teach teachers before they leave their college prep programs to know what to do before they even get there. This is all going to take some time, and not everybody knows the same things at the same time. And so here you are at a rural school. They're getting information. Maybe they don't have access to all of the things, and there are things that you might mention that they don't have access to. But what they do have access to, they are utilizing very well, and that's that's a really great thing you want to highlight and say, "Oh, that's terrific, because you love to see that, because it will take time, right?
Unknown:
Yeah, and I mean, I was even amazed. So my first grader also is struggling. He doesn't seem to be struggling as much as Braxton. He struggles more than my other two kids, and. I went into his parent-teacher conference, and his teacher is taking not the exact same, but she's also taking the science of reading class. And she said, she brought it up to me. She said,"Do you have any dyslexia? And I said, "We're actually going through this with Braxton right now, because she was seeing some things with Beckett, my first grader.
Donell Pons:
There you go.
Unknown:
And so Beckett, like I said, he does okay, but he's also developed a stutter the past few months, and they're actually probably most likely going to do the full IEP test on Beckett in the fall.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, yeah, but I love that information. And already asking you proactively, is there any dyslexia? That's oh gosh, I love to hear that. That is so great, Kristie. Yeah, that's the kind of stuff you love to hear. Is because it's that information making it out to teachers, and then teachers doing the best they can with it in their situations, and that's what we're seeing with what you're you're experiencing right now with your son. That's why I thought it would make a really good conversation for our listeners to be able to listen to this because we often talk about the different things that are occurring across the country. But on the day to day, in an average town somewhere where you're just a family shows up and there's a young person who's struggling with reading, what's working? What's happening, and that's the pieces that we love to hear.
Unknown:
Yeah, yeah. This school has been awesome. They've just jumped right on board and haven't hesitated and have really worked hard. Yeah. To get Braxton the help that he needs.
Donell Pons:
Yeah. Okay. That's terrific. Now, Kristie, you know. So we were for our listeners, we're having this conversation, and we're going to check back in with you at intervals to see how it's going. Because as we know, it will be a process; it doesn't happen overnight. But he is getting the help that he needs, and that's obvious by the progress that he's making. So, like you've mentioned, I sure when we need to work on that spelling and writing, that will come. That's part of the process, but you're already seeing, and you're encouraged by the things that are improving, right?
Unknown:
Yeah, I like I said, like the beginning of the year, we do like family scripture study, and I got it was like a third grade reading level Bible for the kids to read out of, and I remember listening to Braxton read in September, and I was like, oh my goodness, like it was just a struggle and no punctuation and a lot of mistakes. And then like a week ago he was reading again and I was like, oh my gosh, like look at us go. And the other night he asked to read Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. He wanted to read out loud to me.
Donell Pons:
He asked. He
Unknown:
asked to read. He wanted to read and not just listen to it on Audible. He wanted to read, and he was like reading without all the mistakes. I mean, there were some.
Donell Pons:
Sure,
Unknown:
we weren't 100% Yeah, I mean, from the beginning of the year to now, it was quite a big leap, and another thing that we I discovered in my science of reading is they said some kids when they read silently they don't hear the words in their head. And one day at the beginning of the year when I was just starting to take this class, Braxton was really excited. He wanted to get AR points at school, so he wanted to read to me, and so he could get. He wanted me to read, and I said, "Well, you read a page, I'll read a page. You read a page, I'll read. Sure. And as he was reading, he's like, "Mom, it's so much easier to read out loud. And I said,"Braxton, when you read in your head at school, do you hear the words? He he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.
Donell Pons:
Right. He
Unknown:
had no idea. He's like,"No. I'm like okay, Brax. Here's
the thing:
at school, you're gonna have to read out loud. You're gonna have to read just under your breath, and that's one thing. His teacher, like, I text her. I was like, Micah, Braxton just read me a whole page, but he had to read it out loud. He doesn't hear it in his head, and so Micah was great. She let Braxton go sit out in the hall so he can read out loud, you know,
Donell Pons:
and hear himself
Unknown:
to hear himself read, and so that was a that was the one thing. And I mean, he actually finished a whole book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, reading out loud, and he was so excited he could take an AR test on it, you know, and like I said, now we're reading Percy Jackson.
Donell Pons:
Percy Jackson,
Unknown:
yeah.
Donell Pons:
Oh, Kristie, I love hearing this. You know how much I love hearing this. This is so great, and it is a journey. And some real positive things to see is the fact that he came to you to ask if he could read. You love seeing those things because that's when you really know things are turning, and you just can't force that. That's going to be on them, and you don't know when that'll be. I love hearing that already. He's asking to be able to do some of those things, and something that's really important that we haven't really touched on is holding on to his sense of confidence, his sense of well-being about himself. It's not easy to do, is it, when you're struggling with reading. Classroom situations is it? That's not an easy thing to do. No,
Unknown:
it's not. And I mean, I've actually been very surprised because Micah, his teacher, Micah says, "Yeah, if I need anybody to read, he's the first one to raise his hand. And that's just kind of the kid that Braxton
Donell Pons:
is. Yeah.
Unknown:
But I think if my older kid that had a little bit different personality struggled like Braxton. I think he would just turn inward and not want to try. You know what I mean? Not want to read out loud because he's my one that wants to be perfect.
Donell Pons:
Yeah.
Unknown:
So
Donell Pons:
yeah. So that is interesting because we do talk about some of the mitigating factors that different people with dyslexia have, and sometimes they do just kind of have perfect, you know, kind of protection factors in their personalities, where they're made of something different. Where you know I can struggle with that. Maybe I'll find a way around it. Doesn't doesn't really impact me as much. But then there are other folks with dyslexia where it really hurts, and it's it really takes a beating on them to have that happening every day. So yeah, and you just never know.
Unknown:
Yeah, and I mean, I noticed Braxton like he he's never loved school. He doesn't want to go to school. He struggles with school. It's hard. It's tiring, and so I have noticed that. I haven't noticed his self confidence as much. I mean, he still wants to read out loud, but it's like there were a couple years there where it was hard to get Braxton out the door to school because it was just it was just hard. He struggled,
Donell Pons:
yeah,
Unknown:
and you know it was exhausting for him the way his brain worked and not being able to catch on.
Donell Pons:
And you don't want to do things that hurt that much, right? That are that hard. Yeah, you got to go through every day, and we need to we need to think about those things as we see students struggling with reading, and to realize just how difficult it is for them to show up every day to do that thing, huh?
Unknown:
Yep,
Donell Pons:
that's so hard. You've got a doll there on your shoulder.
Unknown:
Yeah, this little guy stayed home today. He has a rash. Oh
Donell Pons:
darn
Unknown:
it! Yeah, he's a little sick, but good to see your
Donell Pons:
face. And now, Mom, that you know what you know, the rest of the family benefits, don't they?
Unknown:
Oh yes, because I know to look for it and what to look for, and we can probably catch it and get them some help a lot sooner. And I mean, the other thing is they said that they do do a dyslexia screening, but I think we think figuring out the timeline. We think Braxton might have missed it. We think they started this dyslexia training maybe with like first graders when Braxton was in second grade,
Donell Pons:
just over the margin.
Unknown:
Yes, and I know Beckett's teacher. He's in first grade now. She said, "Well, we did do a dyslexia screening on the iPad, and it didn't like flag Beckett, but because she's taking the science of reading class and she's seen a few things, she's wondering if he and you know dyslexia it's on a scale. They can have all of the symptoms, they can have some of the symptoms, and I think Braxton probably has a little bit more severe, and Beckett might have it, just maybe not
Donell Pons:
as severe,
Unknown:
but still struggles with it.
Donell Pons:
Yes, yeah. So I've got two kids like that too in my family. One that was much harder to detect, and another one bang on. It's like you're if you're if you miss this, you don't know what you're looking for. So you're absolutely right. It's on a spectrum, right? And continuing. I wish I
Unknown:
would have known some of these because to me, dyslexia was always just you flip words or you flip the D's and the D's. And they said that's one of the rarest symptoms and signs of dyslexia. And I remember Braxton kindergarten, first grade, preschool rhyming words. We could not, for the life of us, figure out rhyming words, and now looking back, I'm like, that's one of the signs and symptoms is they can't rhyme, and like this Watford computer programming, you'll be like, here's the word cat, you take away the cu. What's the word? And that's what he'd be stuck on for weeks, weeks, because he could not get 100% to move on to the next, you know. And I, I see Beck. He struggles a little bit with the rhyming. He struggles a little bit with the decoding, the sounding out. So, yeah, I'm glad that I know what they are now, and I just wish I would have known them five, six years ago, you know,
Donell Pons:
right? But you know, today, and I think there are a lot of teachers. You know, what's interesting, Kristie, is that's what we hear from a lot of educators who have taught for many, many years, and then when they receive this training, it's a it's a lot of for many educators remorse because they think about the students that pass through their classrooms that they now go, oh, that's what that was, and I didn't know, and I didn't do right because you go to help. That's why you're a teacher. You want to help,
Unknown:
yeah. And like I said, everyone knows thinks of dyslexia as flipping words or flipping letters, and but even in fifth grade, Braxton will flip his B's and his D's, which developmentally we should be beyond that. You know,
Donell Pons:
yeah.
Unknown:
So
Donell Pons:
yeah,
Unknown:
yeah. It's just it's been fascinating to learn all about it, and it's been amazing to see now that we know what it is and we know what to target the progress that he's been able to make,
Donell Pons:
right?
Unknown:
And how much, like he's just excited to go learn because he has help.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, you know. Yeah, and he's being successful.
Unknown:
Yeah, and he's yeah because they've you know they've done some accommodations. His spelling, he doesn't have to write the spelling words. They have a list. He has to pick the correct spelling of a word instead of writing it. He can get the question math questions read out loud to him on the state testing. It can all be read out loud to him. Like they had a test where they had to write like an essay. He could get the passages read to him, and then he can do the speech to text to help him. And one of the big things they're working on right now with Brax is when he writes. He he writes a sentence and then you say read the sentence. Well, he doesn't read it. He just tells you what he thinks he wrote, right? So then you're like, no, Brax, like pay attention to the words on the page, and then he's reading it and he's like, that that's not what I wanted to say, you know?
Donell Pons:
Interesting. So
Unknown:
it's getting that immediate feedback on his writing, like okay, we need to slow down, we need to pay attention, and they also have him working with the OT to help with that brain motor connection.
Donell Pons:
Great
Unknown:
with the writing portion too. So
Donell Pons:
very good. Okay, Kristie, this just thrills me no end. You know that. I mean, that's why we wanted to have you in for a conversation, and we will be checking back to see how it goes because already so happy with the progress that has been made, and I think this will be very interesting for our listeners also to check back to see how his progress is coming, because it also lets you know exactly how a school handles over time. So you know, this year this was this teacher, and then Braxton is he's going to move into another grade, right? Well, yeah,
Unknown:
and see, this was another large part I wanted the testing done is because next year he goes to middle school, and so we're so small. We're all in the same building. There's a middle school hallway, but he's going to be going to six different teachers or seven different teachers instead of just one, and so I really wanted all the teachers to be aware. Mike has been great without an IEP. She was still giving him these accommodations and really helping him, but she had him all day and she knew what he needed.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, and
Unknown:
so now that we're going to be moving on to middle school, but now we have an IEP in place, so all the teachers can see it and see strengths and weaknesses and what he needs and accommodations and and stuff like that. And then he'll be doing summer school this summer. They do it for six or seven weeks. The kids go every day for an hour in the mornings, and then I plan to have them also do that computer program that you set us up with.
Donell Pons:
Yeah.
Unknown:
So hopefully we can keep that summer slide from happening, and maybe get a little ahead.
Donell Pons:
Yeah, that would sure be nice. And that's it'll be really interesting to talk to you in the fall because, like you say, that is a big transition. He's had a big fifth grade year with all this information and resources, and then he's going to have an even bigger change when he moves to that sixth grade. So that will be a really good time to check in in the fall and see how things are going.
Unknown:
Yeah. So we'll see. Yeah, and I'm grateful with this IEP. They have a study hall class, and he gets he'll be assigned to the special education classroom for that with a special education teacher, and so he can really get some some help outside of class during that study hall portion. Yeah, so
Donell Pons:
keep that learning going.
Unknown:
I think you know. I think the school has a good plan in place. I think we're going to get there, and we've already seen really good improvement. So,
Donell Pons:
yeah, you definitely have. That is so fantastic. Okay, this has been such a fun conversation, Kristie. Thank you for giving us the time too, because I know you are very busy. I have many demands on your time, but this has been so fun to have you check in and share this experience with us. And like I said, we'll be checking back with you periodically because I know our listeners will find it interesting as well. This is a real life situation. Somebody who is in a school system, and the school system is trying to work with you, and they're getting information and resources that are new for them too. Many of them, and they're applying them. So this is a really good case to kind of look at and follow along. And so again, I'm so glad our listeners. I'm hoping they could join us and listen in. That'll be fantastic. And this has been a great episode of Literacy Talks. We'll definitely be checking back in with Kristie later. But thank you guys for stopping in and listening this time, and we'll have you again for another episode next time. Thanks.
Unknown:
Great, thank you.
Narrator:
Thanks for joining us today. Literacy Talks comes to you. From Reading Horizons, where literacy momentum begins, visit readinghorizons.com/literacytalks to access episodes and resources to support your journey in the science of reading.
