im worried about my little brother  

my youngest son is severly dyslexic and wouldn't go to school. Even when I was threatened with prison if he didn't go he still couldn't. it used to make him ill. i was always at the doctors with him, in the end the doctor said the dyslexia was causing him stress which he was turning in on himself and making him ill. he referred him to a child psychiatrist who he could talk to . in the end my son had to change school and go to a medical unit which was part of a referral unit, one part for children like my son who found school stressful and children who were bullied or pregnant and the other part of this referral unit was for children who had been excluded from school for their behaviouir. have you talked to his doctor, lots of young boys are prone to depression so this is something that may need more help than a bribe. my son is 19 now and this is behind us but it was a nightmare time for us both. the school does nt sound very helpfull, what does his special needs teacher say? Is there another school that he could change to that has more experience with helping children with dyslexia. imagine if you couldn't do your job and was afraid everytime you went into work, day in day out and instead of being able to change job you were made to carry on going even if it was making you ill with stress. we don't do this to adults but we do it all the time with children. dyslexia is only suffered by people with a high IQ so he will be a deep thinker anyway which can also make them more anxious. good luck with this as it is not a problem that is easily sorted out but does need professional help to deal with.

My son had a hard time in school also... sad to say this, but his teachers did not help the problem at all! He quit school at 16 because he was told (by a teacher) that it was legal for him to do so... He is now 24 and he works so hard everyday. He wishes now he would have finished school. You are concerned about your brother, talk to him, take him to a counselor, anything to help him. Be there for him, if nothing else get him to at least homeschool. he needs an education, if not his life will be soooo hard for him. God bless you for caring. Good luck.

Maybe he could try unschooling! If it is the environment of school that he dreads (and I can TOTALLY relate to that, as I HATED school when I was a kid) this may help. Also since he is dyslexic, he probably learns differently than other kids in OTHER ways too!
Try telling him that he doesn't have to go back to school, but he must keep his brain sharp while he's out. Sit down with him and come up with some goals for things he can learn within a trial period. You can go to the library and check out books on homeschooling and "unschooling" (student guided homeschooling) to help you out. Unschooling students can go to museums and galleries and lectures, etc, or read books, in order to learn. He may really like that if he gets to learn what interests him! Let him set his own schedule with times that he wil work on an assignment or activity, followed by times that he will take a break to watch TV or play video games or whatever it is he does.
Many kids with dyslexia or other learning disorders are actually extremely smart, but they just learn so differently, that school is painful for them. If you let your brother lead the way, and encourage him, he can learn on his own!


- Angel
http://www.blogcharm.com/4kids

My son didn't want to go to school either. He also is dyslexic. I went to the school board and asked for help with it. They sent him to a school that specializes in this. He learned how to read and write. It only took him 6 weeks and then he was able to go back to regular school. He did so much better after that. His grades improved and he got his self esteem back. He is now 32 years old and is a good man.

I had the same problem with making it to school when I was your brothers age. I have ADD and my problem was staying focused, after 5 minutes of class I was so bored, which led to some pretty crazy behavior resulting in getting picked on, by teachers and students. I can understand your brothers fears about worrying he's goingto get laughed at, kids his age can be very cruel, especially towards kids that are different. Goingt o the doctor is a good step, if I were your mom I'd go back and demand that he be referred to a counselor, and not just the school counselor. Be supportive of him, and in a gentle way try to impress the importance of an education on him. Keep us updated!!

Well I think everyone offered some very good ideas about this subject the only thing that hit me was when I was at that age I hated having to stand up in class myself. the reason being was when you get to be about that age your body begins to have a mind of your own if you know what I mean and standing up during class can be a very embarrassing thing for a young man.