Hi momthebabynurse, it's Liz from I Speak of Dreams. In my opinion, people just beginning the voyage of discovery about dyslexia make too much of letter/number reversals and switching, and not enough of some other clues.

I'd strongly urge you to go to the website Bright Solutions for Dyslexia and watch her very informative videos on symptoms, diagnosis, testing, and remediation.

I am beginning my practice as a Barton Reading and Spelling System tutor, and as it happens, I live in what my blogpals call Deadwood City.

Uhhm. When we had concerns about my daughter's reading in 1993, we went the school testing route. Had I known then what I know now, I would have paid up front for a comprehensive Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE). In essence, we wasted 5 months of 2nd grade because the process took so long.

Your mileage, of course, may vary.

Please feel free to email me with any questions etc.

Hey Amanda. Sharing my story... I have dyslexia, as does my dad. Mine is MUCH more severe with numbers than it is with letters, as is my dad's. I was not diagnosed until after I graduated high school, which I almost didn't do because I flunked algebra repeatedly. I was in the gifted program from 3rd grade on, but I always had way low grades in math. I was called a slacker by both my parents and by the school. And to a degree, I was. But if I heard "If you would just apply yourself..." once, I heard it 50 thousand times from my mom, from teachers, from from the guidance office, and even from my gifted teacher.

Looking back now, I can't figure out how they missed it. On standardized tests in middle school, I would score off the charts high in math comprehension, but just barely average on math application. In 7th grade, I had a 71 average for the year. But on the last day of school, I got the math award because I had by far the highest score on the standardized tests. In high school, when I worked at the grocery store, I would constantly read totals backward. $24.95 would come out of my mouth as $42.59.

I remember one algebra test my senior year (the 2nd time I took and flunked algebraII) that I studied so freakin hard for. I worked so hard to learn those formulas and kept repeating them over and over in my mind. The second I got handed the test, I hurried and wrote them all across the top of the page. I knew I had made good on that test! When I got it back, it had a big red -8- on the top. Yes, I made an EIGHT. The teacher circled my formulas in red and wrote 'get the formulas right next time' next to them. I opened my book to check them, and damn if I didn't write every single one of them down BACKWARD.

How could they have missed that? But because I was SUCH a very avid reader and was reading on an 11th grade level in 3rd grade, it never crossed anyone's mind that I could be dyslexic. I flunked spelling every single year from the time I was given my first spelling test until they stopped giving them. I still can't spell for crap. But I can read ANYTHING I'm given and retain 98% of it.

I don't have any advice. I just wanted to say GET HER HELP. If the school won't listen, MAKE THEM. She needs to learn how to adapt the way she learns and looks at thing. I know she is a really smart girl, and she probably gets ahead of herself. Her eyes and brain get to moving across the page SO FAST. The biggest thing is to learn to SLOW DOWN and really take the time to SEE what you are looking at and give it time to relay the message correctly.