Diagnosing Dyslexia

Do you suspect that your child has a learning difference? Don’t worry, because you are not alone. Many parents who think their students have learning difficulties have a hard time confirming or denying that thought. So today, we will talk about some signs that a child might have a learning difference like dyslexia.

One of the most common symptoms is when the child’s oral reading is choppy instead of fluent. This usually shows that the child is having trouble comprehending the words. Another common effect is that a child will often get confused between two very similar looking words like “horse” and “house”. Some other symptoms are:

• Skipping over lines

• Recognizing a word on one page, but forgetting on the next

• Skips smaller words like “at”, “the”, “a”, “in”, etc.

• Using context clues/pictures to make up the next parts of the story

• Ignoring punctuation

• Reading words in the wrong order

But the most common symptom by far is when the child tries to avoid reading because it is natural for them to feel exhausted and frustrated.

Diagnosing a child with dyslexia is crucial. The main reason why evaluation is important is for documentation, which ensures that students with dyslexia are accommodated for both school and college entry exams. While early intervention is the most ideal, it is better for a student to be diagnosed late than never.

A typical dyslexia evaluation covers:

1. History

Dyslexia is passed down through generations, so it is always a great start to see if anyone up the family tree had dyslexia

1. Oral Language Skills

Oral Language Skills are tested to see how the child flows with their sentences. This is a huge part of the evaluation since this is one of dyslexia’s most common side effects. This also includes how well children can listen and comprehend, and then reply using their thoughts on what was said.

1. Word Recognition

Word recognition tests a child’s ability to read single words. This again is a main side effect of dyslexia, and is a big factor in the evaluation.

Following this structure has helped many dyslexic children, and has definitely been proven beneficial.