Dyslexia & Names?

[janette]

My 8yo DD is dyslexic and also has a terrible time with names. She is finally calling my younger brother and his wife by their names after spending a week at camp with them this summer. She sees them about 2 times a year and could describe them and their house but never remember their names.

At camp she made a friend and I kept coaching her with the friends name, usually she just referred to her as my friend. By the end of the week with my and her sister's help she was remembering it some of the time.

I've come to the very unscientific conclusion that names and letter / number decoding must use the same part of the brain. Is it just her or does anyone know of someone else that seems to share this.

 

[debster812]

Janette,

My Brother in very severely dyslexic, and is so color blind, he sees mostly grey. ( ) I think I chose most of his 'date' outfits in High School.

I think you are right though, its all part of the same logic/symbol/processing that makes J A N E T T E actually equal your name. Because JANETTE is just a symbol for your name/label and other words are just random labels for other things (this is me TOTALLY oversimplifying, I know we have other DISers who know way more than me)

Hmmmm, now if we could figure out how to translate your name coaching to help her with her school work, I bet she (and you) would have a much nicer academic year. (I know my brother was always despondent when we went back to school).

Good Luck

Debbie

 

[janette]

It makes sense to me Debbie,

We just used plain repetition to help her with her friends name. I'm bad about names too but I made sure and always used her friends name with her. It just doesn't seem right when she would tell people about her "best friend" but when they asked who it was she'd just say "I don't know her name.".

She does get help at school, she's in special ed for reading / language and makes progress. I was a little worried about the start of school since I didn't get to talk to the teacher but she had an IEP in place and things are fine. I think the other kids can be the biggest problem and so far we've not had too bad of a problem with that.

 

[Kirby]

Both of my children are dyslexic, DS (14) and DD (11). DS doesn't have trouble with names but now that you mention it, I have noticed a little trouble with my DD.

We are very fortunate to be in a school district that recognizes dyslexia and has programs to diagnose and help our children. Both of my children are doing well in school and, in fact, my son has been exited out of the language science program.