Well, I have now had plenty of time to absorb Tristan's diagnosis. In between, I also had to absorb a more disturbing diagnosis at home, but this is not a blog about my husband, but instead about our son. The full assessment has now been received. We were a bit surprised as to the severity of the learning disabilities he has been diagnosed with....most notably the dyslexia. My husband and I had long suspected he was dyslexic since spelling is the one area he scores consistently below avearge. Tristan has been receiving scores in the 40's in spelling since he began first grade. In al other subjects he displayed inconsistent achivement sometimes earning 90's and as low as 50's. Here comes the really perplexing part. A few months ago I tried implementing an icentive program. I told Tristan that for every test he scored above 80, he could buy a lego minifigure from Ebay. He loves legos so I thought this may work well. We never expected it to work so well! Since I instituted this instant reward program, he has brought home nothing but 90's (including in spelling). We are left asking ourselves how it is that a child diagnosed with an alphabet soup of learning disabilities is able to do this??? Honestly, I don't know the answer. Is he just smart enough to be able to overcome his disabilities on his own? Does he really have dyslexia? His sudden and dramatic improvement has put everything into question. The one diagnosis we are still sure of is the Asperger’s. Although he has not exhibited the disturbing behavior that prompted our concerns at the beginning of the school year, there are still the subtle signs and historical situations that lead me back to confirming the diagnosis. Most children (and adults with AS) exhibit intense interest in one or several subject matters to the exclusion of all others. My feeling is that Tristan was not able to do well because he simply did not think it was important. No, I don't think he's a genius, I think he has some difficulties with the work. However, I think his attitude was one of "learning this will require some effort which I am not willing to put in." By incentivizing him to do so hi grades have soared in just a few months. His teacher is equally amazed although I think she credits herself with the drastic improvement. In any event, we are all happy of the progress he has made not just academically, but in all other areas as well. He is much happier and relaxed and that is what is most important to us!
