What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, that results in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia often experience difficulties with both oral and written language skills, such as writing, and pronouncing words and writing. Dyslexia affects individuals throughout their lives; however, its impact can change at different stages in a person’s life. It is referred to as a learning disability because dyslexia can make it very difficult for a student to succeed without phonics-based reading instruction that is unavailable in most public schools. In its more severe forms, a student with dyslexia may qualify for special education with specially designed instruction, and as appropriate, accommodations.

Who is qualified to diagnose dyslexia?

Individuals qualified to diagnosis dyslexia are professionals with extensive clinical training in diagnosis and assessment in a graduate level program. Degrees may be masters or doctorate degrees in Education, Psychology, Speech Language Pathology, or Educational Psychology. Evaluation by a neuropsychologist is not needed for a diagnosis of dyslexia. Speech-language pathologists who perform this testing should have specialized training and experience in the diagnosis of dyslexia.

What does a dyslexia evaluation include?

A dyslexia evaluation is a comprehensive process, not a single test. Dyslexia testing typically takes 3-6 hours. I prefer to schedule this testing in the morning, so that your child is not tired after school. After the evaluation is complete and the results have been analyzed, we will schedule a parent discussion. I will review the diagnosis, if there is one, and explain the results of the evaluation. This is a great time for parents to get all their questions answered. Recommendations, next steps, and any additional resources will be provided as well.

During our meeting, you will receive a comprehensive written report. The report will include background/history, clinical observations, discussion of scores and performance on each test administered, a diagnostic summary, and recommendations.

Tests Administered

All tests administered in a dyslexia evaluation are standardized norm-referenced tests. The test will provide information on the following skill sets:

• Oral reading fluency (both reading accuracy and reading speed)
• Reading of nonsense words in isolation (decoding/word attack skills)
• Reading of sight words in isolation
• Reading Comprehension for passages
• Phonological Awareness (sound awareness)
• Phonological Memory (working memory for sounds)
• Rapid Naming (tests of visual-linguistic retrieval/processing speed)
• Spelling
• Written Expression (sentences and a paragraph or essay)
• Auditory Memory (word lists, sentences, and/or paragraphs)
• Working Memory
• Sequencing

The following questions and answers have been provided by the International Dyslexia Association.

What causes dyslexia?

The exact causes of dyslexia are still not completely clear, but anatomical and brain imagery studies show differences in the way the brain of a person with dyslexia develops and functions. Moreover, most people with dyslexia have been found to have difficulty with identifying the separate speech sounds within a word and/or learning how letters represent those sounds, a key factor in their reading difficulties. Dyslexia is not due to either lack of intelligence or desire to learn; with appropriate teaching methods, individuals with dyslexia can learn successfully.

What are the signs of dyslexia?

The problems displayed by individuals with dyslexia involve difficulties in acquiring and using written language. It is a myth that individuals with dyslexia “read backwards,” although spelling can look quite jumbled at times because students have trouble remembering letter symbols for sounds and forming memories for words. Other problems experienced by people with dyslexia include the following:

• Learning to speak
• Learning letters and their sounds
• Organizing written and spoken language
• Memorizing number facts
• Reading quickly enough to comprehend
• Persisting with and comprehending longer reading assignments
• Spelling
• Learning a foreign language
• Correctly doing math operations

Not all students who have difficulties with these skills have dyslexia. Formal testing of reading, language, and writing skills is the only way to confirm a diagnosis of suspected dyslexia.

What are the effects of dyslexia?

The impact that dyslexia has is different for each person and depends on the severity of the condition and the effectiveness of instruction or remediation. The core difficulty is with reading words and this is related to difficulty with processing and manipulating sounds. Some individuals with dyslexia manage to learn early reading and spelling tasks, especially with excellent instruction, but later experience their most challenging problems when more complex language skills are required, such as grammar, understanding textbook material, and writing essays.

People with dyslexia can also have problems with spoken language, even after they have been exposed to good language models in their homes and good language instruction in school. They may find it difficult to express themselves clearly, or to fully comprehend what others mean when they speak. Such language problems are often difficult to recognize, but they can lead to major problems in school, in the workplace, and in relating to other people. The effects of dyslexia can reach well beyond the classroom.

Dyslexia can also affect a person’s self-image. Students with dyslexia often end up feeling less intelligent and less capable than they actually are. After experiencing a great deal of stress due to academic problems, a student may become discouraged about continuing in school.

Are there other learning disabilities besides dyslexia?

Dyslexia is one type of learning disability. Other learning disabilities besides Dyslexia include the following:

• Dyscalculia – a mathematical disability in which a person has unusual difficulty solving arithmetic problems and grasping math concepts.
• Dysgraphia – a condition of impaired letter writing by hand—disabled handwriting. Impaired handwriting can interfere with learning to spell words in writing and speed of writing text. Children with dysgraphia may have only impaired handwriting, only impaired spelling (without reading problems), or both impaired handwriting and impaired spelling.
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorders (ADHD) can and do impact learning but they are not learning disabilities. An individual can have more than one learning or behavioral disability. In various studies as many as 50% of those diagnosed with a learning or reading disability have also been diagnosed with ADHD. Although disabilities may co-occur, one is not the cause of the other.

How common are language-based learning disabilities?

15-20% of the population has a language-based learning disability. Of the students with specific learning disabilities receiving special education services, 70-80% have deficits in reading. Dyslexia is the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties. Dyslexia affects males and females nearly equally, and people from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds nearly equally.

Can individuals who have dyslexia learn to read?

Yes. If children who have dyslexia receive effective phonological awareness and phonics training in Kindergarten and 1st grade, they will have significantly fewer problems in learning to read at grade level than do children who are not identified or helped until 3rd grade. 74% of the children who are poor readers in 3rd grade remain poor readers in the 9th grade, many because they do not receive appropriate Structured Literacy instruction with the needed intensity or duration. Often they can’t read well as adults either. It is never too late for individuals with dyslexia to learn to read, process, and express information more efficiently. Research shows that programs utilizing Structured Literacy instructional techniques can help children and adults learn to read.

How do people “get” dyslexia?

The causes for dyslexia are neurobiological and genetic. Individuals inherit the genetic links for dyslexia. Chances are that one of the child’s parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles has dyslexia. Dyslexia is not a disease. With proper diagnosis, appropriate instruction, hard work, and support from family, teachers, friends, and others, individuals who have dyslexia can succeed in school and later as working adults.