McClain's Dyslexia Story

I want you to meet McClain. He is my ten year old son. He has a wonderfully perfect mom, a beautiful thirteen year old sister, an adventurous sidekick twin brother, and a five year old brother who idolizes his every move. He is all boy--clever, funny without trying to be funny, a super hard worker, a geek for all things Star Wars, a lover of Legos--especially Star Wars Legos, a dirt-digger and outdoor enthusiast. He is also a Christian and wants others to know how Jesus has changed his life. To get to the point, McClain is also a pretty bright kid. No one in our family is a rocket scientist, but we make our way through the world.  That is what brings us to the heart of this short bio. 

Early on in McClain's academic career, first grade to be exact, we noticed that McClain didn't seem to be able to easily sound out or remember words as he was reading. He was also having great difficulty with reversing letters and spelling words incorrectly. My wife, being a teacher, picked up on this early. For the next couple of years, McClain spent time doing extra work trying to learn to read with different programs at school and at home. His hard work was met with little success. I mentioned that he was a hard worker, but it didn't matter how much or how hard he worked. Reading just never clicked. Often times, he would forget a word just a few words after he had read it.

At the same time McClain was being tutored, my wife did a lot of research on different possibilities. Being a teacher, she had an idea that it could be dyslexia, but we couldn't know for sure. Fortunately, we are blessed with fantastic teachers and staff at our elementary school that helped us search out explanations for McClain's difficulty with reading and encouraged us to get McClain tested. 

So in March of 2014, we were able to load up and head to Iowa City to see one of the top specialists for dyslexia and dysgraphia. After eight hours of intense work and testing for McClain, we learned that he did indeed have both dyslexia and dysgraphia. This diagnosis was a huge relief for our family. We were now able to know that McClain's brain processed information differently and could jump on a path of how we could best help him learn to read and write. Because of this diagnosis and a lot of hard work, McClain now reads with ease at his grade level. He also has tools in place to make writing assignments doable. 

The video above was created at the request of McClain's elementary school for use in a training seminar. We want to share it with you in case you find yourself in a similar situation. We hope you enjoy it.