dysTalk Flip - Bilingual And Dyslexic - Dyslexia - Forum - dysTalk

My 10 y old daughter was diagnosed with dyslexic a few months ago. She speaks 3 languages and attends a bilingual school (Swedish and English). She read and write in two of her languages. In Sweden do they say that the more languages the better for bilingual children. I would not worry moving him back to the US just make sure he uses his French. Being bilingual is a blessing. I would not have any worries moving my daughter to the US again where she lived the first four years. Good luck.

19/04/2012 19:44:45
Charlotte

My Grandson is severely dyslexic he came to France from N. California at age 7 he is now 12 and bilingual. He struggles to read and write but his speaking in English and French are without accent and most people do not know he is not French. Inititially we sent him to the Private school but we realised he was not progressing and the Teachers were not able to address his needs. We changed him to the public school and he was put into CLIS for reading and the regular classes for other subjects. He came on leaps and bounds and it was recommended that he go to regular College. He is having a difficult time there not because he cannot function in two languages but he has other issues relating to his early years. We are therefore going to home school him for a year or two and see if his comportment improves enough for him to return to school. His being bilingual hasn't been a problem. He is under the auspices of MDPH and has bilingual software for using on his computer, which he uses for class along with an AVS to help him read and write.

Joan I would suggest that you try to get the Department for Handicapped children involved and you will see there are a number of things they can do to help. Being classed handicapped does not have the same connotations as it has in the US. I know it is difficult for people to see their child as handicapped, but my view is if it gets them the help they need forget the name and take the help.

Anne: In Southern California you might want to contact the Scottish Rites Language centres, I forget the full name. They do excellent work with children. Generally free or at low cost.

27/03/2012 10:12:14
Kris

My son is 7 and was diagnosed with Dyslexia a the start of the school year. We are a Franco-American family, living in France and have our children including my son in an English bilingual program.

I am bit frustrated by the little therapy that have been prescribed (30 min a week). I just learned in the states that children receive a hour a day within the school. Since, I have asked for more sessions and will have another 30 min which seems weak (but the therapist have not availability!). Not sure how to approach this problem are far as the bilingual programs goes I really do not want him to drop it (his dual language/culture will be one of his strengths in life).

I would be interested to hear from Anne who she saw in Paris for help her some.

JB

11/03/2012 17:37:03
joan bohan

We too live in Italy and I have three kids. My eldest who is nearly 7 has just had his first ''pagella'' (which is an evaluation that happens twice a year). He is fluent in English and Italian. I speak only English to my kids and their father only Italian...so in that way there should be no confusion on which language to speak when spoken to... so far it has worked like a dream! But reading and writing has not been touched apon until now that my eldest is going to school...and although I believe and have seen that he is developing his skills in reading and writing in Italian...the teachers are now proposing the possibility of dyslexia. Obviously this is alarming as we had no clue and we are still unsure. I'd be interested to hear Tonysmom, because I see she posted somthing similar a year ago!!!!

10/02/2012 10:46:24
Rosy

My daughter (now 12) was born in Poland and attends Polish school but we speak English at home. She was diagnosed with dyslexia almost a year ago. Although she is bilingual and reads fluently in both languages, she mixes up grammatical structures in both English and Polish when she speaks and writes. None of my other three children do this, but neither do they have dyslexia. Her spelling (surprisingly) is very good, but her schoolwork is affected by her difficulties in expressing her thoughts.

12/10/2010 12:04:35
Angela

My daughter (now 12) was born in Poland and attends Polish school but we speak English at home. She was diagnosed with dyslexia almost a year ago. Although she is bilingual and reads fluently in both languages, she mixes up grammatical structures in both English and Polish when she speaks and writes. None of my other three children do this, but neither do they have dyslexia. Her spelling (surprisingly) is very good, but her schoolwork is affected by her difficulties in expressing her thoughts.

12/10/2010 12:03:03
Angela

We live in Italy and all three of our children learned English as a first language despite being born here. We spoke only English at home (I'm American). No all three are perfectly fluent in both English and Italian (they've gone to Italian school since the age of 3). My Oldest son, 7, was just diagnosed with dyslexia and I'm not sure how to proceed. We meet with his school next week, and I don't want to keep confusing him by trying to teach him to read in two languages but at the same time I don't want him to loose his ability to fully participate in American Culture - I:E Study in the states when he's older. What do I do now?

03/10/2010 07:08:24
tonysmom (Member)

All my dyslexic students speak at least 2 languages. Most of them speak and read in three languages.

It is rather unfortunate that both the languages that you son learnt are orthographically inconsistent.

I believe, he will not have a problem learning to read in an orthographically consistent language.

09/05/2010 00:30:20
Luqman Michel

Hello,

my son was born in the US, and started to speak in English even if we are Franch natives and speak French at home. For reasons too long to explain we had to go back to France for a few years but are returning soon to the US. Once in France it was clear that our son had a very hard time speaking French, and reading and writing it (besides many other common issues like pedaling and tying shoe laces...). He has been diagnosed a few months ago with Dyslexia and probably Dysgraphia (he is entering equivalent fo 3rd grade), we are lucky in the fact that his speech doctor was a friend of the best neurological doctor specialist in learning disabilities in France/Paris who is now taking care of him . She however says that dyslexia was aggravated by the fact that our son is bilingual and she says that tests show that he probably remains bilingual even if right now it seems that English is far away (doesn't speak but quite well understands). Now our problem is: we shall go back to the US in about 9 months, and therefore our son will need to 1-switch back to English , and 2-enter the American education system. So I am seeking advices from people with dyslexic bilingual kids and also for some advice on how to school a dyslexic child in the US (Southern CA will be our landing place).

Thanks!

29/09/2009 16:48:33
Anne