Minutus

I'm curious what results or experience people here have had in treating
severe dyslexia? A family we're friends with, who I hope to be able to
treat in the future, have three grade school-aged boys who are all severely
dyslexic, and also have speech issues. They're *wonderful* kids -- smart,
lively, tons of fun -- but all sound as tho they have a rather thick foreign
accent (the youngest is practically impossible to understand without *lots*
of practice), and all have really severe dyslexia. The oldest (12?) is the
best reader, and reads at perhaps a 4th grade level (ought to be at least a
6th grade level). I don't have much other information yet; I'm mainly
curious about others' related experience with severe dyslexia (thoughts re
remedies and etc. are always welcome!). And does anyone have thoughts on
the speech issue... Their hearing acuity seems normal.

Thanks,
Shannon

Shannon,

I think in your place, I'd urge the parents to get more extensive neurological testing for the kids, to find out exactly what the problem is. The distorted speech indicates that it's more than dyslexia. There may be a problem processing sounds in the brain, a distinct possibility given the muffled speech plus the dyslexia, both of which point to some problem processing-recognizing-distinguishing sounds. This would be a variable independent of hearing acuity, which probably was tested based on signalling when the child perceived a tone, rather than on distinguishing among similar sounds. Do the children distort consonants or vowels or both? (this could indicate a problem within a specific frequency range). The brain's relation to sounds is marvelously complex -- there are lots of distinct aspects to it, any one of which could be lacking in these children. I assume they've been examined anatomically (tongue structure, e.g.). Someone with deep credentials in speech and language pathology needs to look at them and pinpoint the problem. Then, once that's been identified, the therapy needed to improve their speech will become clear, and the potential for improvement from homeopathy as well as the type of remedy to use will also become a lot clearer. "Dyslexia" is an umbrella term that does not address the causes, which can stem from an incredible number of different sources.

Hope this is helpful. Rosemary

Dear Shannon, firstly, just take the cases and don't build too much of a
pre-conceived idea about what is going on, explore each individual case on
its own merits.

Obviously acquaint yourself with as much information about Dyslexia as
possible - some believe it to be the inner ear which scrambles the messages
to the brain, others believe it to be a brain dysfunction or damage, others
believe it is due to over compensation factors and much more.

Generally there are learning difficulties on a broader spectrum not just
speech and reading. Often there is evidence of areas of excellence, like
there sometimes is in Asperger Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Autism etc.

Genetic factors might be involved, chromosome factors might be applicable,
as could drugs during pregnancy or other pre-conception/pregnancy factors,
vaccination etc. All this needs to be considered in the case.

I have treated a few cases of children with special learning difficulties
and their remedies were all very different (why shouldn't they be), so avoid
the pitfalls of generalisation and go for the characteristic symptoms of
each case. Sometimes these cases can be turned around with just one remedy
if it is spot on - others take time and a lot of effort (like all cases
can). I had brilliant results with one child who only had Agaricus, another
Lycopodium (adult with Dyslexia) and another I only ever used the rubrics
'slow learning to talk' and 'mistakes in spelling'.

It is all there for the challenge

best wishes, Joy

www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
on 8/6/04 3:56 PM, Bob&Shannon at shannonnelson@tds.net wrote:

I'm curious what results or experience people here have had in treating
severe dyslexia? A family we're friends with, who I hope to be able to
treat in the future, have three grade school-aged boys who are all severely
dyslexic, and also have speech issues. They're *wonderful* kids -- smart,
lively, tons of fun -- but all sound as tho they have a rather thick foreign
accent (the youngest is practically impossible to understand without *lots*
of practice), and all have really severe dyslexia. The oldest (12?) is the
best reader, and reads at perhaps a 4th grade level (ought to be at least a
6th grade level). I don't have much other information yet; I'm mainly
curious about others' related experience with severe dyslexia (thoughts re
remedies and etc. are always welcome!). And does anyone have thoughts on
the speech issue... Their hearing acuity seems normal.

Thanks,
Shannon
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks, Joy!
You reminded me, their mother says that their father had the same trouble
when he was little, tho his speech is normal now, at least to my ears. I
wonder whether his was this bad at so old an age... I'll have to ask that
too, tho if the answer is "yes", it would only tell me (a) likely genetic
factor, could be slow to change; and (b) these guys too will presumably
outgrow it (but ouch, that reading thing is a real stumbling block!!!)

It would be tempting to start repping heavily things such as "makes
mistakes", "reading impossible", "speech, indistinct", etc., but I'd guess I
should initially ignore those, just consider them "common" to the presumed
but unnamed developmental disorder??? And here's an example of where I
stumble over the debates re "treat the patient" (ignore "common symptoms")
versus "treat the disease" (these mistakes and etc. are certainly the mostly
visible parts of their "dis-ease"! They're actually doing quite well in
most respects, other than that! But no doubt I can find a "case" outside of
that...)

Thanks,
Shannon
on 6/8/04 12:55 PM, Joy Lucas at joy.lucas@ntlworld.com wrote:

Dear Shannon, don't ignore the so called "common" sx of the disorder, just
give them the correct context. The case might develop in a way that you only
need to use these so called common sx - wait and see how each case develops.

You also have reminded me to say that you might need to take the case to a
certain degree of the parents.

Good luck. Best wishes, Joy

www.homeopathicmateriamedica.com
on 8/6/04 7:26 PM, Bob&Shannon at shannonnelson@tds.net wrote:

Thanks, Joy!
You reminded me, their mother says that their father had the same trouble
when he was little, tho his speech is normal now, at least to my ears. I
wonder whether his was this bad at so old an age... I'll have to ask that
too, tho if the answer is "yes", it would only tell me (a) likely genetic
factor, could be slow to change; and (b) these guys too will presumably
outgrow it (but ouch, that reading thing is a real stumbling block!!!)

It would be tempting to start repping heavily things such as "makes
mistakes", "reading impossible", "speech, indistinct", etc., but I'd guess I
should initially ignore those, just consider them "common" to the presumed
but unnamed developmental disorder??? And here's an example of where I
stumble over the debates re "treat the patient" (ignore "common symptoms")
versus "treat the disease" (these mistakes and etc. are certainly the mostly
visible parts of their "dis-ease"! They're actually doing quite well in
most respects, other than that! But no doubt I can find a "case" outside of
that...)

Thanks,
Shannon
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Rosemary,

*Good* advice, but their funds are quite limited (as is their insurance
coverage), so don't know how much of that they'll be able to do. But I'll
ask what's been done so far. They've worked with a school speech therapist
and reading coaches, but that's all I've heard mentioned. (I think it's
just vowels that they mangle? But will listen more closely.)

Thanks, I'll see if they can tell me any more.
Shannon

on 6/8/04 12:46 PM, Rosemary C Hyde PhD at rosemarychyde@mindspring.com
wrote: