As you know, but your readers may not, my darling dyslexic daughter (ddd) is well-remediated (thank you Slingerland, Lindamood-Bell, and gifted teachers), but her reading rate is lower than one would expect, given her constellation of abilities. Complex texts and any narrative with unusual spelling (ex.: dialect) ==>> reading while listening to the recorded text (thank you Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic). She excelled in biology, but chemistry was a real challenge. She understood the table of elements, but rapidly recalling, for example, that silver = Au, or rapidly decoding molecular formulae (example: methane is represented by CH4)…well, good thing her lab grades were extremely high, because the test grades were low. Oh, and the difficulties with rapid automatic (or accurate) naming…

Did I tell you the “parentheses” story? We were in the grocery store at Christmas time. Ddd gestured toward those familiar green and red plants, and said, “Let’s get some of those parentheses plants, Mom!” I was curious, so we talked a bit. She knew that they were native to Latin America, she knew that they were part of a large family (Euphorbiaceae), she knew that they were perennials, she knew that the red parts were not flowers but bracts….but correctly recalling poinsettia? Nope. We rehearsed “poinsettia” several times. The next day, she asked, “Should I water the parentheses plants, Mom?”–and then clapped her hand over her mouth, and said, “Oh, Jeez!..Poin, poin, poinsettia!”

I’ve actually had several conversations with ddd on this issue.One response: “How would I know? I’ve always been dyslexic.” Another: “I’d give a lot to be able to read as effortlessly as you, Mom.”

“If it is a gift, I want to give it back.”