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- My 12-year-old couldn’t read, and even as an educator, I had no idea why. It turned out he had dyslexia. (businessinsider.com)
Local Mom and Educator Uncovers Son’s Secret Reading Struggle, Exposing Systemic Flaws
A local mother and seasoned educator shares her deeply personal journey of discovering her son’s hidden battle with reading, a struggle that led to a diagnosis of dyslexia at age 12 and exposed significant gaps in the educational system.
Logan, now 16, faced a mental health crisis rooted in his inability to read. At 12, he was withdrawn, battling stress-induced hair loss, and clinical depression.
The simple act of texting or participating in online video game chats was beyond him, leading to social isolation and a profound sense of shame. “He put on a brave front to protect a secret: he couldn’t read,” his mother recounts, expressing the heartbreak and panic she felt as both a parent and an educator.
For years, Logan’s reading difficulties were mistakenly attributed to his autism diagnosis at age 6. The prevailing “balanced literacy” approach in schools, which prioritizes a “one-size-fits-all” method, failed him, allowing the gap between his reading level and that of his peers to widen dramatically.
The turning point came when his mother, leading a shift towards the “Science of Reading” at her own elementary school, brought home new assessment tools. A simple test, asking Logan to segment the sounds in “cat,” revealed a shocking truth: her 12-year-old son couldn’t identify the individual sounds in a basic word. This revelation led to a psychoeducational evaluation and a clear diagnosis: dyslexia.
“His struggle to read wasn’t a result of his autism. And it certainly wasn’t his fault,” she emphasizes.
Dyslexia, a condition making reading and spelling difficult, is treatable with the right support. However, that support was initially absent in secondary school.
Logan didn’t need more “reading time”; he needed explicit, systematic phonics instruction.
During his sophomore year, a new phonics-forward, Orton-Gillingham-aligned, multisensory intervention program at his high school provided the missing piece. Coupled with intensive tutoring two to three nights a week, the journey demanded sacrifice from Logan and his family. The stakes were high: “his future.”
Within a year, Logan’s reading proficiency soared. His curriculum-based measures improved from 22 words correct per minute with 65% accuracy to 71 words correct per minute with 96% accuracy.
While celebrating her son’s remarkable progress, his mother also delivers a powerful indictment of the system. “Logan’s story is not a celebration of the system; it’s an indictment of it,” she states, highlighting that millions of children graduate elementary school without sufficient reading skills due to outdated curricula.
She challenges the dangerous misconception that older students will “magically catch up” or that the path to reading changes in middle or high school. The fundamental need for systematic, explicit phonics instruction remains the same, regardless of age.
As an instructional coach, she is now leveraging her platform to implement changes within her school, including ability grouping, informed assessments, and professional development in the “Science of Reading” for teachers.
Today, Logan is thriving. He’s an honor roll student, a member of the National Honor Society, “Student of the Month,” and a varsity athlete. “School seems easier this year,” he recently told his mother, who responded with a profound truth: “That’s because you are a reader now.”