Dyslexia

What is dyslexia: Dyslexia is defined in the Webster’s Concise Dictionary as “an impairment or loss of the ability to read”. It comes from the Greek dys meaning bad, difficult or defective and , lexis meaning speech, or lexicos pertaining to words.

Most simply put dyslexia is a difficulty with reading, spelling and writing skills in a child, adolescent or adult of normal intelligence.

A child or adolescent who appears to be a bright, inquisitive learner but is not learning these skills at the expected rate for their age and intelligence will most likely be suffering from some frorm of dyslexia.

Dyslexia however is a name for a cluster of symptoms, more like a syndrome than a singular difficulty, which is why so- called dyslexic people can be very different from each other. This is also why there is so much confusion amongst parents and professionals when faced with a child who is bright but not learning to read, write and/or spell as expected.

Dyslexia also appears to run in families and is more common in boys than girls.

Children and adults with dyslexia can show many different “ symptoms”. Some of these symptoms can be seen to be within the above definition of dyslexia, but many cannot be readily seen. In addition there is such a wide range of symptoms to be seen in this group that in some countries including NZ, the term dyslexia was discarded for many years in favour of “specific learning disability” or “specific learning difficulty”.

The term was first used over 100 years ago and has gone through many stages of redefinition. In Great Britain, Canada and the USA dyslexia has long been recognized as a very real learning disability, and policies, strategies and funding have been put in place to support dyslexic students in these countries.

In New Zealand the Ministry of Education only acknowledged that dyslexia existed as a legitimate learning difficulty or disability in 2007. The Ministry is currently involved in a consultation process to decide on policies and resources to support children with this diagnosis.

Is my child dyslexic?

If your child shows some of the following symptoms, he or she is likely to fall under the “ label” of dyslexia.

Note: These signs are very commonly found in young children in the first 2 years of school ( 5-6 years) before the visual perceptual, spatial and auditory systems are sufficiently matured for easeful learning of these complex cognitive tasks.

If your child has just started school and is only 5 years old there may be no need to worry. Your child’s teacher will probably say “ let’s wait and see, he may grow out of it” and this is good advice.

However if they persist beyond the age of 7 or above, then there is cause for concern.

Spatial Awareness and Fine Motor Skill Symptoms

• a persistent tendency to write letters and numbers backwards beyond the age of 7 years
• a persistent tendency to begin writing on the right hand side, at the bottom or in the middle of the page
• a persistent tendency to run all of the words together when writing, leaving no spaces between words
• untidy printing, difficulty forming the correct shape of the letters or starting letters from the bottom

Visual Perception / Eye Functioning Symptoms

• poor visual memory for the shapes of letters, can do it correctly one day but has forgotten by the next
• confusion between letters such as b, d, p, q , g and when reading and writing
• poor visual memory for the shapes of words ( slow to spell and recognize frequently used words)
• poor visual skills, which may include difficulty tracking along a line of words. (the eyes may stray to the line above or below, or skip over words)
• a tendency to reverse the order of letters in words both when writing and or reading. For example “dog” for “god”, or “was” for “saw”.
• a tendency to omit, skip over syllables or reverse the order of syllables in a word when reading or speaking. For example “shinesun” for “sunshine”,
• a difficulty seeing words as individual units. The dyslexic reader may not see the spaces between words on the page and may run the end of one word into the beginning of another, seeing completely different letter combinations as one word
• difficulty learning spelling patterns such as –ing, -ough, as well as common basic words such as little, come, some, which, where, when etc.

Auditory Discrimination (Listening) Symptoms

• difficulty associating and remembering the shape of a letter with its sound
• difficulty discriminating the differences between similar sounds such as short vowels ( a, e, i, o, u,) or sounds such as sh and s, h and f, p and b , b and d, or n and m
• difficulty pronouncing longer words beyond the initial consonant or syllable
• a persistent tendency to mishear the order of sounds or syllables in a word. For example jipamas for pyjamas , hopsital for hospital or even a combination of difficulties resulting in biscetti for spaghetti

Many of these difficulties manifest in our children when they first begin to speak and can bring us much delight and enjoyment. However as the child’s auditory ( listening) system and his visual systems mature with age these should drop away and by the age of 7 years such errors in speech should be rare.

"I don't want my child to be labelled"

Many parents who bring their children to me say that they do not want their child to be labelled, especially in the state school system. They believe that such labelling will lead to a pigeon holing, lack of opportunity and a negative judgement of their child. They are afraid that their child will be put at a disadvantage as they move through the school system.

It is true that previous generations of children have suffered from the effects of inappropriate labelling. In fact many of the parents of the children we see in our clinics have suffered their entire life from being labelled “dumb, because they could not learn to read, write and spell like the other children in their class.

They may also have been overtaken in their reading levels by younger siblings. As a result the label of “dumb” may have been used in the family, or at the very least self applied, further damaging their self esteem.

Many of these same individuals have gone on to become highly successful adults, establishing flourishing careers and businesses, often self employed, in areas of their interest and expertise. However this has always been at great effort and cost to the individual who has had a very difficult road to follow while overcoming the negative effects of this particular label.

However in the modern educational environment things are starting to change. If a child has a learning difficulty or disability, a label (or giving the difficulty a name) can be most helpful both for the parent and the child.

If your learning challenged child can be identified as having a recognized learning disability or difficulty, this “ label” can in fact lead to the “opening of the door” for your child. It may mean that his specific learning needs will be recognized and attended to within the school system . He may be awarded additional educational resources, funding and eventually the most precious experience of all: the joy of learning.

In the event that sufficient help for your child is not offered within the school system term you as a parent will at least have a tool to advocate for you child and also seek out the most appropriate assistance for your child, either within the school or out side it.

What do I do if I suspect my child has dyslexia?

First of all talk to your child’s teacher. If your child is very young, his teacher may try to reassure you that there is nothing to worry about and that he will probably grow out of it. If your child is under the age of 6 years they are most likely to be right. If the difficulties you are concerned about are sporadic and gradually fading, then a regular check in with your child’s teacher at Parent Interview time may be sufficient.

We must remember that young children do not have the physiological maturity to cope with literacy skills until the age of 6 or 7 years and that boys are generally 6 months behind girls in this maturation process.

That is one of the reasons children in Australia, USA and most European countries do not start primary school until the age of 6 or 7 years.

Children are long sighted until the age of 6- 6 ½ so that is a strain on their visual system to focus their eyes on a page of print ( one of the reasons the print in beginning readers is so large).

Most children of 5 to 6 years of age also have difficulty sitting still for any longer that 15-20 minutes, and then only if engrossed in a story or picture book.

However if these difficulties persist beyond the age of 7 years and your child is struggling to keep pace with the other children in his class it is time for the school to take a closed look.

Assessment:

At the present time the best place to go for an assessment to see if your child is dyslexic is SPELD.

Look in your local phone book for the SPELD listing. It will give you a phone number of the SPELD parent contact in your area. He or she will guide you through the process of getting an assessment.

SPELD assessors are fully qualified psychologists with additional training in educational psychology and educational testing.

Most SPELD assessors will do a Spend battery of tests to see the exact form of the difficulty as seen in your child, as well as a cognitive skills (IQ) assessment.

This gives important information about your child’s strengths and weaknesses. In the typical dyslecic the spead of cognitive or intellectual scores over the different tasks will be wide.