My 11 year old son is very artistic and extemely talented. Ever since he was 5 years old, he has displayed this crazy-excellent talent for drawing. I wish I had a scanner so I could show you some of his drawings. You would just stare at them with disbelief that a little kid drew them. Of course, being a boy, he specializes in anime, dragons, video game characters, and various made up super heroes.

I've got this picture he drew recently of some anime character (from Naruto, I think), and my son drew tiny, intricite patterns throughout the guys fighting uniform. The whole picture was only about 2 1/2 inches long. It amazed me that he drew something so perfect and tiny.

He recently built a robot dog from some kit of like a million little pieces without reading the instructions, only looking at the pictures.

He makes up video game console designs and draws them like he some sort of video game engineer.

When he was very young (like 3-4), he would play with the strangest things. I remember when he went through a phase of making figurines with pipe cleaners and would play with them for days. When he was that age, he also would make a tail out of newspaper, and tape it to his pants and wear that every day. Once, after I picked him up from my mom's house, he had his tail on and a fake, drawn on mustache (he loved Mario). When I told him to take the stuff off before we went into the store, he innocently asked me "why?" So I let him wear them in.

Obviously, he thinks a lot about how things work and is creative, but his school grades suck. He can't even read that well. I don't know what to do. He's got Ds and Fs all over his report card.

My theory is that since he so creative and artistic, that he is lacking in his ability to understand written things, like directions and that may be why he doesn't read very well.

I just wondered if anyone here thinks I might be right about this. He doesn't have any real good teachers. They just act pissy because he's not turning his work in on time, and forgetting to bring a pen to class (can you believe his SS teacher actually called me to let me know he's been forgetting it)?

Has he been tested for dyslexia?

Well, yeah, your rite. It sounds like the right, (I think its right) side of his brain is more efficient. Thats really cool though. Maybe you can put him in more elective classes when he gets older or a vocational program so he can get more use out of school.

dustysgirl said:

Just take pictures of them!



Nah, you can be good at both visual and written things or bad at both or good at one and bad at the other. I don't think there's any connection.



That's probably the more likely reason.

CarrieMpls said:

That could be it too.

You're son is a visual thinker.


You should have him take a visual/auditory - rightbrain/leftbrain test.

He learns through visual input. This is why his reading isn't good. He hasn't reached the point of visualizing what he's reading. Either that, or it's taking him too long to visualize what he's reading (Even auditory thinkers visualize what hey're reading, but they do so quickly and naturually).

People who really very strongly on Visual or auditory learners tend to excel at things that really on each, but have to be trained to learn through the other method.

I'm 50/50 for both auditory/visual and left/right. This means I am supposed to be very creative with solutions and art, but take in input in a chaotic manner which causes my learning to suffer a bit.

Thanks for the replies. Not one teacher of his has ever mentioned dyslexia.

I sent an email to his language arts teacher this morning. His grades have been Fs in that class since the beginning of the school year, but decent in math and science (go figure) and straight As in art (of course). I asked her for suggestions, so I'll see what she replies with.

I will ask her if she thinks he might have dyslexia and if she knows anything about auditory/visual testing.

In high school, he will have more choices for his classes. The only classes that they offer in middle school that are different than the normal class schedule are choir and band.

By the way...he is obesessed with learning to play drums. I'm going to try to buy him a set for Christmas. So far, he just drives me crazy with his tapping on everything around him. I pulled my husband's old keyboard out last week, and he's already picked up a few chords on that.

dustysgirl said:

Music and art are both fabulous for helping with math skills. They stimulate similar parts of the brain, so to speak, so keep encouraging those!
Sounds like you're doing everything you can. Have you looked online for a parents group or something? I guess I don't know the best place to look for resources, but someone else might.

dustysgirl said:

He's obsessed with playing drums??? You should keep him into that. And show him this.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...arch=blink

What does he want to be when he grows up? Did he ever say?

coolcat said:

Either a book illustrator, artist or video game designer.

luv4all7 said:

OMG...I will show him that when he gets home. Both my boys love Blink 182.

dustysgirl said:

YEAH!!!

dustysgirl said:

If he likes comics, I was thinking maybe he'd like to do webcomics (just a comic book but published on the web)... Lots of folks like to do these for fun... I know he's only 11, but he seems very disciplined when it comes to things that interest him... Just a thought. Could be good experience. Here's a link to a list of webcomics, so you see what I'm referring to:

http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/ (just so you know, some are mature... not suitable for kids)

If he only likes to do art and not the stories, maybe he could work with a friend...
[Edited 12/6/06 8:05am]

coolcat said:

I don't get comics. But he would like the gaming comics on there probably.

In fact, he has written some short, like one page, comics already. Usually about some game.