This is the week for achievement testing at son's school.

Our beautiful son has long braids that almost reach his waist and that he refuses to have cut, loves to play football and basketball, has a cat and a horse that he loves intensely, is kind, sweet, and very smart. He is also dyslexic.

That does not mean that he switches letters around or reads words backwards. Dyslexia is many things, but is mainly phonetic blindness. Our son's brain does not get that letters make sounds. Well, it does now, but only because we have great tutors that have spent hours and hours and hours of multisensorial teaching with him. W can read, but laboriously. He does not read billboards because it is too much effort for useless information. (His words, not mine)

I knew when he was a baby that something was different/wrong. He hated being read to. I knew in pre-k that something wasn't right and I knew it in kindergarten. By first grade, I had enough. When the teacher told me that she thought his "issues" were developmental I told her that I knew something was wrong, this wasn't my first child, I am a pediatrician and that the "developmental" explanation wasn't going to fly. Thank God that the teacher and the school are/were willing to do whatever needs to be done to help him learn.

There is a gift in our son's dyslexia. He can read people. I think that because letters and words are not automatic to him, he has observed people and has learned to read them. Son is one of the most sympathetic, empathetic people I know. He can tell if someone is hiding a sadness or worry and cares. He knows when people are lying. He knows when a person has joy.

Testing is extremely stressful for our son. It has time limits and there is tons of reading. Last year he had extended time and I know that he can always have that. But that doesn't take away that this week of the school year he feels his differences acutely and painfully. I tell him that the testing does not matter in his class placements, I tell him that the testing will not affect his progression to the next grade, I tell him that the testing is done so that the teachers can see how well they have taught this year, I tell him and tell him and tell him. But, he is smart and he knows. He tells me that he knows that all that I am telling him is true, but he hates the testing and he feels stupid. He shoulds all over himself this week. And I hate that.