How a stomach ache can lead to a dyslexia diagnosis
It starts with a tummy ache, but soon that tummy ache becomes a pattern of behaviour. Then the child starts to belittle themselves, even calling themselves names like ‘stupid’ or ‘loser.’ The child is not stupid, in fact, the child is quite bright, but school is a struggle and the child’s self-esteem is taking a hit.
What most parents don’t know is that their child’s chronic stomach ache may be the first sign that they have a learning difference, like dyslexia.
“Kids are very aware. They look around a room and know that learning is coming easier to their peers and then it becomes a matter of compensating,” says Colleen Chow, director of learning services at Fraser Academy. “The number one thing kids say to mask school issues is that they have a stomach ache.”
The gap in school performance resulting from a learning difference can be less noticeable in the first few years of school. Kids with learning differences are often able to rely on their strong memorization skills and intuition, but as they progress, the focus shifts from learning to read, to reading to learn. That’s when academic performance often takes a nosedive.
“If you start to hear from teachers that your child will catch up in time, struggles with following instructions, isn’t doing their best, or is lazy — it’s time to get a Psycho-Educational Assessment because those are warning signs,” says Maureen Steltman, head of Fraser Academy.
Fraser Academy is a school for kids who are intelligent, or even gifted, but struggle with learning to read, write, or spell through conventional teaching methods. The faculty at Fraser Academy go beyond the curriculum by not only teaching kids the subject matter but strategies on how to learn.
“Take a child with a reading challenge: we teach them to read by breaking down language to its smallest components,” says Chow. “That takes them from relying on guessing and memorization, to an actual strategy that they can use to decode those words.”
Undiagnosed learning differences go beyond academia and often these kids struggle socially and emotionally, displaying more signs of mental health issues like anxiety.
“The price people pay for not being diagnosed and supported is that they may never reach their potential and never fully thrive,” says Steltman. “In the discrepancy between school performance and intellectual potential, lies mental health. The quicker these children get assistance, the more likely they are to prosper and avoid mental health issues throughout their lives.”
Chow and her colleagues at Fraser Academy focus on strengths, not weaknesses and the result is graduation rates consistently 15 per cent higher than the provincial average. In the right learning environment, kids learn to work independently and gain the confidence to advocate for themselves, which helps them navigate postsecondary and the workplace.
“Dyslexics and people with learning differences face challenges that build resilience,” says Chow. “Resiliency and a growth mindset are the gold standards of success, and that’s what we try to instill in our students.”