What is Dyslexia?

I am seeing many clients whose parents are concerned that their child may have dyslexia.  What is dyslexia?  Just because a child is reversing letters or numbers does not indicate a diagnosis of dyslexia.  This is a common myth.  Backwards writing and reversals are common amongst all children during early writing development.  Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin.  Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent  word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.  
Phonological awareness performance is the single strongest predator of decoding ability.  What is phonological awareness?  It is a very important skill that your child needs to lean and be exposed to as early as possible!  Phonological awareness is awareness of sounds in words, awareness of rhymes and identifying beginning/ending sounds in words.  It is blending, segmenting and manipulating sounds in words, etc. 
The National Reading Panel identifies the 5 crucial components of reading: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension.  The first 3 (phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency) are the primary areas of deficit in dyslexia. 
When should you be concerned?  If your child is having difficulty with rhyming, identifying sounds in words and  identifying words accurately and fluently.  A longitudinal study (Catts et al, 1999) found that poor results on a phonological awareness screening in kindergarten correlated highly with reading difficulties in 2nd grade.  Phonological processing deficits are the primary language problems associated with dyslexia.  However, these deficits rarely occur in isolation from difficulties in vocabulary, grammar and narration.  Bottom line, if you think there might be a problem, have your child evaluated.  Early identification is crucial for remediation in areas of deficit.  For example, treatment of a language disorder in preschool may prevent a reading or learning disability in elementary school.  

Contact The Speech Circle at 781-812-0190 for a free consolation today!