Is there something in the back of your mind that has you worried that your son or daughter might be dyslexic? First of all, I've been there and I'm sorry. It is a scary place to be and the wondering and what ifs are the worst. It's also really confusing, but thankfully the research is improving all of the time. I reached out to Carolyn Cort who was a literal light at the end of our tunnel when I felt like we were hitting road blocks at every direction in our search to get my son intervention with his dyslexia, to share some of her knowledge with us. I'll share a little bit of our personal journey, because it feels good relate and know you aren't alone, and then let's dive into what dyslexia is, what signs you can keep an eye out for and what to do if you suspect your child might need intervention, because the sooner the better!
I am a mom of two boys. My first one somehow learned to read seemingly by himself. It came very easy to him and I was amazed, but thought that must be how it is for all kiddos. My youngest had a massive vocabulary early on, but reading and writing didn't come as naturally. We ended up moving to Japan as expats just after he finished preschool and although something in my mom gut had suspicions, even at that time, that there might be an underlying issue, I kept reminding myself that every child is different and learns differently. After all, he now had the disadvantage of not being exposed to English nearly as often because the language he was hearing and written words he was seeing were predominately in Japanese. I tried my best to supplement reading activities after his full day kindergarten and also to make them interactive. He had already been diagnosed with ADHD and was an active boy, so I scoured the internet and Pinterest for fun, interactive ways to get him excited about reading words. For example, I would spend the day making labels for everything in our apartment for him to stick in the correct spots when he got home, made cards with word that when he read them correctly he could ball up and shoot into a basket, etc.
My logical mind kept telling my worried heart that at some point it would just click for him.
It hadn't clicked when we moved back to the U.S. halfway through his first grade year. I immediately sat down with his new teacher and explained my concerns. After some typical placement tests she said that he was on the lower end of the reading and writing for that grade level, but not low enough to see the reading specialist or to get any sort of intervention. He continued in that "grey area" not excelling or mastering, but not failing enough to get specialized help with the skills he was struggling with. It seemed like his classmates were moving ahead much more quickly than he was, and both he and I were feeling frustrated.
Then entered Covid. We quickly found trying to distance learn with an ADHD son was a disaster. I basically sat next to him all day asking, "did you hear what your teacher said?" or "stop making faces into the zoom camera." We decided to leave distance learning until we could get back to in person school and I would try my hand at homeschooling with the help of a retired teacher focusing 90% of our time on reading and writing. We had some fun! We read the entire "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series together- I'd do a paragraph, he'd do a paragraph, and he worked on writing with our hired teacher who was incredible at bringing to life his creative side. I was hopeful! But, a few months later when he went back to in person school it was crystal clear that no amount of reading and repetition on our part was going to really help him. There was just some disconnect. I needed to explore other options.
There were a lot of tears, surprisingly mainly on my end. We are very lucky that he has an incredible attitude about the dyslexia card he has been dealt. I had done my own online research and a few different quizzes that pointed to dyslexia. I thought about trying to go through the training to become a dyslexia tutor myself, but in the end felt really overwhelmed with trying to understand it and learn about it myself while simultaneously trying to teach and help him. Thankfully I found a tutor that specialized in dyslexia but during her initial assessment she also felt he was in the "grey area". She did decide to work with him and we were all glad she did as some progress started to unfold. That worked well for a year until she was no longer tutoring due to other advancements in her career and I felt lost all over again. Back to square one.
After paying over a thousand dollars to get a real assessment done that would tell us exactly what skills he needed to focus on (none of the tutoring or tests have been covered by insurance), we were placed on a waiting list for what is known as the best dyslexia center in our town. It was when we were on that waiting list that I started doing all my research on who else could help us in the meantime. I reached out to Boise State University's College of Education on a whim wondering if there were any students focusing their studying on dyslexia and that is where I found Carolyn. She was working on her dyslexia research and offered to work with our son to help them both better understand this learning disorder. We all learned a lot during that time and I've stayed in touch with Carolyn, even though my son is now receiving intervention at the learning center he was on the waiting list for, and I am a big fan of the work she is doing that will undoubtedly help many. I recently reached out to her to have her share some of her expertise with us and anyone else finding themselves where we were-
unsure about dyslexia, what the warning signs are and what to do about it if you suspect your child might need intervention.
I hope you find this helpful and I hope you and your child get on a great path. It will get better. I promise. -Brooke
What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a neurobiological condition that makes learning to read especially difficult for children. Often misunderstood as a visual problem, dyslexia actually originates in the phonologcial processing of language - that is, a child’s ability to identify and work with the sounds in spoken language. Imaging data confirms that a brain with dyslexia has distinct structural and functional differences from a neurotypcial brain. It is inheritable, and often co-occurs with other conditions such as ADHD or speech and language difficulties.
Dyslexia manifests primarily as a decoding or encoding difficulty. This means that children will have difficulty using the letters, patterns, and underlying structures of a word to read it or spell it. Roughly 1 in 5 children will demonstrate characteristics of dyslexia in the early grades. Without specific, targeted interventions early on, most kids with dyslexia will continue to struggle with reading comprehension and writing, making schoolwork and learning tedious, frustrating, and exhausting.
What is the treatment?
While dyslexia can’t be “cured,” the symptoms can be significantly improved through early identification and intervention. Most states have passed legislation requiring early screening for characteristics of dyslexia, and targeted intervention programs using evidence-aligned teaching practices.
Signs and Indicators
There are some common indicators of dyslexia that families may notice long before a child learns to read or enters school. While many of these are typical to early childhood development, parents of a child with dyslexia will likely see these persist longer than expected.
Late learning to talk
Difficulty pronouncing words (e.g. aminals-animals; basketti-spaghetti)
Difficulty acquiring vocabulary or using age appropriate grammar (e.g. Hers eating her snack; I goed to the park.)
Difficulty following directions
Confusion with before/after, right/left, and so on
Difficulty learning the alphabet, nursery rhymes, or songs
Difficulty understanding concepts and relationships
Difficulty with word retrieval or naming problems
Important to know:
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to adapt and change its structures and pathways. This adaptability is strongest in early childhood, which explains why early identification and intervention is so critical.
Formal diagnosis, which is done by a licensed diagnostician, is costly and therefore largely unavailable to most families. Characteristics of dyslexia can be identified through data gathered by licensed classroom teachers and specialists. Both are sufficient to qualify for support.
Most states have passed legislation outlining specific responsibilities for schools about the identification of kids with characteristics of dyslexia and using research-aligned teaching practices to give support.
The neurobiological uniqueness of a dyslexic brain is largely congruent across cultures, languages and socioeconomic contexts. What this means is that dyslexia is not caused by what a parent, teacher, or caregiver did or did not do. What can be done next however, is very much in the control of those stakeholders.
What’s a parent with concerns to do?
Start a dialogue with your child’s teacher about your concerns. Find out if the teacher has the same concerns and what data has been collected to support this.
Learn about the systems for academic support currently in place at the school, and find out if/where your child is in that system. This may give you the opportunity to invite a school-based intervention specialist into the conversation.
Seek information about benchmarks (grade level expectations in key skill areas) as well as the timelines for your child to reach those benchmarks.
Seek ideas for specific ways to support your child’s literacy development at home. This may be in place of the standard “homework” assigned to the larger group.
Helpful resources:
Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity including their Signs of Dyslexia
Carolyn Cort is a clinical faculty member of Boise State's College of Education. Her work focuses on advancing the understanding and use of best literacy practices for all kids, especially those with dyslexia and other language-based reading and writing difficulties.
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