09 May Kate-Lynne & Cheyenne’s Story
Kate-Lynne is our first child, and early on she was always on track developmentally. Once she started kindergarten, I noticed that her writing was not quite as precise as her peers and she struggled to color in the lines, but we continued to work with her and assumed she would catch up. By 1st grade, she struggled every single night with homework, couldn’t focus, and we struggled to constantly redirect and reiterate the concepts. This led to Kate-Lynne starting in the school’s after school tutoring program, which allowed her to get her work done in a new avenue but didn’t fix the problem.
We moved to Missouri from California when Kate-Lynne was in the 3rd grade, and she continued her constant struggle with writing and spelling. She continued to have a hard time with her school work, and now we no longer had the after-school tutoring that helped, if just the smallest bit.
She started at a new school in the 4th grade and had a teacher who stayed after school with her every day. She was still struggling, but we saw slow progress. It was around that time that we saw a news article about Springfield Center for Dyslexia and Learning. We didn’t know if dyslexia was her diagnosis, but we knew something was missing and this seemed like it may be our answer. Kate-Lynne was added to the Center’s wait list and we continued on.
Kate-Lynne received an IEP in the 5th grade, and this took us one step closer to our answer. The school performed IQ testing, and we saw there was a discrepancy from her previous IQ test done in California. There was an unspecified disability in the reading and writing sector which was not specified in her previous test. Her IQ showed she was capable of reading at a higher level than she did. Even with this new information, we still didn’t know what tools and resources we could offer that would help her find success… At this point we were beyond frustrated because we knew we were missing something that would allow us to better advocate for our daughter.
By chance, I once again saw a news story about Springfield Center for Dyslexia and Learning, and that led me to call again and follow up on her wait list position. It turns out she was the next student to be placed, and Kate-Lynne got in. We haven’t formally tested Kate-Lynne for dyslexia, but we saw a change in her within one session with Bobbie. She progressed three levels in reading this year, and she now helps her sister with spelling. After all these years we never thought she would ‘get it,’ but suddenly things started to click. This program has progressed her learning tremendously, and more importantly, it’s given her confidence that she never had before. We are so grateful to SCDL for giving our girl the tools to express what she knows in her head but previously couldn’t share outwardly. We are eternally grateful that we finally closed that gap!
