Looked up dyslexia. Although Jo has problems with left and right I really don't think she is dyslexic. I think that her main problem is her lack of an early education. She lived at home until she was 9 and then went to an hogar until we picked her up at 10. When we picked her up, she couldn't do many things that we teach our kids at home. She couldn't count money, tell time, didn't know the months and days except for from rote memory she learned at the hogar. She came knowing her ABC's and how to count. In Guatemala we took her shopping at the market and gave her some Guatemalan money. She would haggle with the vendor for a lower price and then just hand her a stack of money to let the lady take it out. Both parties saw nothing wrong with this.

Today, she still knows her months and days of the week if given in order. If you ask her what comes after June, you can see her starting with January and going through until she gets to June and then she will say July. Her left and right is the same, she gets them right half the time!

This concept of time really comes into play as she is working on her lifebook. She really doesn't know how old she was when many events occured and we have had to kind of guess. Since we know how old her younger brother is, we can age some things from that. When she first came it took her awhile to get used to our rush we do by the clock. She never had to worry about doing something on time before and it was quite an adjustment for her.

Sometimes I find it very interesting to see what an effect there is when there is no early education, not just at school but at home. We teach our kids so many things without realizing it.
Felicia