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Dyslexia

What is it?

A child with dyslexia will have difficulty reading, writing, and spelling despite average intelligence. Although dyslexia used to be considered reversing letters and numbers, it is a lot more than that. A person or child with dyslexia simply processes information differently.

Symptoms and questions to ask yourself include:
Difficulty learning to read

Difficulty spelling often inconsistently misspelling words
Difficulty reading aloud
Misses words when reading
Skips lines while reading
Difficulty copying from the board
Easily confused when following directions, for example, with a board game
Delayed phonological and phonemic awareness (phonological awareness involves rhyming words and counting syllables in a word. Phonemic awareness involves manipulating sounds in a word.)
Writes letters or numbers backwards (be careful with this one many young children will reverse their letters or numbers and grow out of it.)
Anyone in your family left handed?
Often will compensate with strategies to hide weaknesses including memorizing books read to them.
Often labeled as "not trying hard enough" or "a behavior problem"
May get lost
Anyone in your family have trouble learning to read?

Dyslexia has been linked to genetics, and is often found in several people in one family. It is a neurological processing issue. Often a person with dyslexia will have strengths including: artistic, athletic, mechanical, musical, creative problem solving and intuitive people skills.

How is it diagnosed?

Often a diagnosis starts with an awareness of a problem by the parent or teacher. Your family physician is the first place to start after that, and then you will see a specialist who will give a battery of assessments to determine if there is indeed a problem. This specialist is typically a neurologist or educational psychologist and the tests include reading ability, short term memory, sequencing, nonsense word reading, IQ, vision and hearing tests. There are various degrees of severity of dyslexia.

How is it treated?
There is no cure for dyslexia. Since people with dyslexia process information differently, different strategies are taught to help them function normally. Common accommodations provided through a school on an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) can include:

Untimed tests
Oral tests
Reduced spelling lists
Accept dictated homework
Do not force oral reading
Reduce homework
Grade content, not spelling or handwriting
Reduce copying tasks
Reduce essay tests

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