How to diagnose dyslexia in child
Dyslexia - Diagnosis and treatment
Diagnosis
There's no single test that can diagnose dyslexia. A number of factors are considered, such as:
- Your child's development, educational issues and medical history. The health care provider will likely ask you questions about these areas. Also, the provider will want to know about any conditions that run in the family, including dyslexia or any other type of learning disability.
- Questionnaires. The provider may have your child, caregivers or teachers complete questionnaires. Your child may be asked to take tests to identify reading and language abilities.
- Vision, hearing and brain (neurological) tests. These can help determine whether another disorder may be causing or adding to your child's difficulty reading.
- Psychological evaluation. The provider may ask you and your child questions to better understand your child's mental health. This can help determine whether social problems, anxiety or depression may be limiting your child's abilities.
- Tests for reading and other academic skills. Your child may take a set of educational tests and have the process and quality of reading skills analyzed by a reading expert.
Treatment
There's no known way to correct the underlying brain differences that cause dyslexia. However, early detection and evaluation to determine specific needs and appropriate treatment can improve success. In many cases, treatment can help children become competent readers.
Educational techniques
Dyslexia is treated using specific educational approaches and techniques, and the sooner the intervention begins, the better. Evaluations of your child's reading skills, other academic skills and mental health will help your child's teachers develop an individual teaching program.
Teachers may use techniques involving hearing, vision and touch to improve reading skills. Helping a child use several senses to learn — for example, listening to a taped lesson and tracing with a finger the shape of the letters used and the words spoken — can help in processing the information.
Treatment focuses on helping your child:
- Learn to recognize and use the smallest sounds that make up words (phonemes)
- Understand that letters and strings of letters represent these sounds and words (phonics)
- Understand what is read (comprehension)
- Read aloud to build reading accuracy, speed and expression (fluency)
- Build a vocabulary of recognized and understood words
If available, tutoring sessions with a reading specialist can be helpful for many children with dyslexia. If your child has a severe reading disability, tutoring may need to occur more frequently, and progress may be slower.
Individual education plan
In the United States, schools have a legal obligation to take steps to help children diagnosed with dyslexia with their learning problems. Talk to your child's teacher about setting up a meeting to create a structured, written plan that outlines your child's needs and how the school will help your child succeed. This is called an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Early treatment
Children with dyslexia who get extra help in kindergarten or first grade often improve their reading skills enough to succeed in grade school and high school.
Children who don't get help until later grades may have more difficulty learning the skills needed to read well. They're likely to lag behind academically and may never be able to catch up. A child with severe dyslexia may never have an easy time reading. But a child can learn skills that improve reading and develop strategies to improve school performance and quality of life.
What parents can do
You play a key role in helping your child succeed. You can take these steps:
- Address the problem early. If you suspect that your child has dyslexia, talk to your child's health care provider. Early intervention can improve success.
- Read aloud with your child. It's best if you start when your child is young, but it's never too late to start. Introducing books as a toy to babies encourages fun, learning and social interaction with caregivers. Read stories to your child. Also, try listening to recorded books with your child. When your child is old enough, read the stories together after your child hears them.
- Work with your child's school. Talk to the teacher about how the school will help your child succeed. You are your child's best advocate.
- Encourage reading time. Set aside time each day to read with your child. To improve reading skills, a child must practice reading. Encourage your child to read as skills develop. Also have your child read aloud to you.
- Set an example for reading. Designate a time each day to read something of your own while your child reads — this sets an example and supports your child. Show your child that reading can be enjoyable.
What adults with dyslexia can do
Success in employment can be difficult for adults who have dyslexia. To help achieve your goals:
- Seek evaluation and instructional help with reading and writing, regardless of your age
- Ask about additional training and reasonable accommodations from your employer or academic institution under the Americans with Disabilities Act
Academic problems don't necessarily mean a person with dyslexia can't succeed. Capable students with dyslexia can be highly successful given the right resources. Many people with dyslexia are creative and bright and may be gifted in math, science or the arts. Some even have successful writing careers.
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Coping and support
Emotional support and opportunities for achievement in activities that don't involve reading are important for children with dyslexia. If your child has dyslexia:
- Be supportive. Trouble learning to read may affect your child's self-esteem. Be sure to express your love and support. Offer encouragement by praising your child's talents and strengths. Talk to the school staff so they can provide the services and support that your child needs to succeed.
- Talk to your child. Explain to your child what dyslexia is and that it's not a personal failure. Understanding this can help your child better cope with having a learning disability.
- Take steps to help your child learn at home. Provide a clean, quiet, organized place for your child to study, and designate a study time. Also, make sure your child gets enough rest and eats regular, healthy meals.
- Limit screen time. Limit electronic screen time each day and use the extra time for reading practice.
- Stay in contact with your child's teachers. Talk with teachers frequently to make sure your child can stay on track. If needed, be sure your child gets extra time for tests that require reading. Ask the teacher if it would help your child to record the day's lessons to play back later.
- Join a support group. This can help you stay in contact with parents whose children face similar learning disabilities. Support groups can provide useful information and emotional support. Ask your health care provider or your child's reading specialist if there are any support groups in your area.
Preparing for your appointment
You may first bring up your concerns with your child's pediatrician or family health care provider. To ensure that another problem isn't at the root of your child's reading difficulties, the provider may refer your child to a:
- Specialist, such as an eye doctor (ophthalmologist or optometrist)
- Health care professional trained to evaluate hearing (audiologist)
- Specialist in brain and nervous system disorders (neurologist)
- Specialist in the central nervous system and behavior (neuropsychologist)
- Specialist in children's development and behavior (developmental and behavioral pediatrician)
You may want to ask a family member or friend to come along, if possible, for support and to help you remember information.
Bringing school records is especially helpful for the evaluation done by health care providers. These records can include your child's IEP or 504 Plan, report cards, written communications from school noting concerns, and a limited number of your child's work samples.
Here's some information to help you prepare for your appointment:
What you can do
Before your appointment, make a list of:
- Any symptoms your child is experiencing and the ages when symptoms were first noticed, including any symptoms that may seem unrelated to the reason for the appointment
- Key personal information, including any major stresses or recent life changes
- Any medications, vitamins, herbs or other supplements that your child is taking, including the dosages
- Questions to ask the health care provider to help you make the most of your appointment
Questions to ask may include:
- What do you think is the cause of my child's difficulty with reading?
- Are there other diagnoses that can be associated with or confused with dyslexia?
- What kinds of tests does my child need?
- Should my child see a specialist?
- How is dyslexia treated?
- How quickly will we see progress?
- Should other family members be tested for dyslexia?
- What sources of assistance or support do you recommend?
- Are there any brochures or other printed materials that I can have? Can you recommend any websites?
- Are there any local educational resources for dyslexia?
Feel free to ask other questions during your appointment.
What to expect from your doctor
The health care provider is likely to ask you a number of questions, such as:
- When did you first notice that your child was having trouble reading? Did a teacher bring it to your attention?
- How is your child doing academically in the classroom?
- At what age did your child start talking?
- Have you tried any reading interventions? If so, which ones?
- Have you noticed any behavior problems or social difficulties you suspect may be linked to your child's trouble reading?
- Has your child had any vision problems?
Be ready to answer questions to make the most of your appointment time.
By Mayo Clinic Staff
Dyslexia Symptoms by Age
Overview
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects both children and adults. Its symptoms are different with age, and severity can vary as well. Generally, people with dyslexia have difficulty breaking down words into simple sounds. They struggle to learn how sounds relate to letters and words, which leads to slow reading and poor reading comprehension.
Dyslexia is often known as a reading disability. It’s most often identified in childhood when reading problems first become apparent. But dyslexia can go undiagnosed for years or even decades.
Dyslexia is not connected with intelligence. It is a neurobiological disorder that affects the parts of your brain involved in language processing.
Despite its biological basis, dyslexia can’t be diagnosed with a simple blood test or brain scan. When doctors make a diagnosis, they consider the results of a series of reading tests along with the symptoms reported by the person, their parents, or their teachers.
Keep reading to learn how dyslexia symptoms can vary with age, plus what symptoms to look out for and when.
The preschool years
The earliest signs of dyslexia emerge around 1 to 2 years of age when children first learn to make sounds. Children who don’t say their first words until 15 months of age or their first phrases until 2 years of age have a higher risk of developing dyslexia.
However, not all people with speech delays develop dyslexia, and not all people with dyslexia have speech delays as children. A speech delay is just a cue for parents to pay attention to language development.
Children from families with a history of reading difficulties should also be monitored closely for dyslexia.
Other dyslexia warning signs that arise before age 5 years include:
- having problems learning and remembering the names of letters in the alphabet
- having difficulty learning the words to common nursery rhymes
- being unable to recognize the letters of their own name
- mispronouncing familiar words or using baby talk
- being unable to recognize rhyming patterns
Keep reading: What causes developmental delays? »
Kindergarten and first grade
Around age 5 or 6 years, when kids begin learning to read, dyslexia symptoms become more apparent. Children who are at risk of reading disabilities can be identified in kindergarten. There is no standardized test for dyslexia, so your child’s doctor will work with you to evaluate their symptoms.
Signs that your kindergartener or first grader may be at risk include:
- not understanding that words break apart into sounds
- making reading errors that aren’t connected to the sounds of the letters on the page
- having a history of parents or siblings with reading problems
- complaining about how hard reading is
- not wanting to go to school
- showing problems with speaking and pronunciation
- having trouble sounding out basic words like “cat” or “map”
- not associating letters with sounds (for example, that “p” sounds like “paa”)
Early intervention programs usually focus on phonological (word sound) awareness, vocabulary, and reading strategies.
Second through eighth grade
Many teachers are not trained to recognize dyslexia. Children who are intelligent and participate fully in class often slip through the cracks because they are good at hiding their reading trouble. By the time your child reaches middle school, they may have fallen behind in reading, writing, and spelling.
Signs of dyslexia in grade school and middle school include:
- being very slow in learning to read
- reading slowly and awkwardly
- having difficulty with new words and sounding them out
- disliking or avoiding reading out loud
- using vague and inexact vocabulary, like “stuff” and “things”
- hesitating while finding words and answering questions
- using a lot of “umms” in conversation
- mispronouncing words that are long, unknown, or complicated
- confusing words that sound alike
- having trouble remembering details, such as names and dates
- having messy handwriting
Read more: Vision-based therapies may not be needed for all dyslexic children »
Young adulthood: High school and college years
High school and college involve a new set of challenges for students with dyslexia. They face far more rigorous academic challenges when quick reading comprehension is essential. High school and college students are assigned more reading material. They must also learn to work with several different teachers, all with different expectations.
Without treatment, some people’s childhood dyslexia continues into young adulthood. Others’ will improve naturally as their higher learning functions develop.
In addition to the signs already seen in childhood, dyslexia signs in young adulthood can include:
- requiring a great mental effort for reading
- reading slowly
- rarely reading for pleasure
- avoiding reading out loud in any situation
- pausing and hesitating often while speaking
- using a lot of “umms”
- using vague and imprecise language
- pronouncing names and places wrong frequently
- having difficulty remembering names
- confusing like-sounding names
- missing quick responses in conversation
- having limited spoken vocabulary
- having difficulty with multiple-choice tests
- considering themselves stupid despite good grades
Dyslexia in adults
It’s unknown exactly how many adults have dyslexia. A lack of a uniform definition of dyslexia makes it hard for researchers to study. Various estimates suggest that as many as 5 to 10 percent of the population may have dyslexia. It’s typically diagnosed in childhood, but some people are never diagnosed. If you’ve always had trouble reading, there’s a good chance you could have dyslexia.
Symptoms you might recognize in yourself include:
- You rarely or never read for pleasure.
- You hate reading out loud in front of your coworkers, friends, and children.
- You have trouble understanding jokes, puns, or turns of phrase.
- You struggle with tasks that require memorization and repetition.
- You have time management issues, or things take much longer than you think they will.
- You have trouble summarizing things you read.
- You have trouble doing math.
Learn more about dyslexia in adults »
How to get help for dyslexia
For children with learning problems, the earlier you intervene, the better. Start by reaching out to your child’s school. Get the teacher’s opinion. If your child’s reading level is below what the teacher expects for their age, then you should consult your pediatrician.
Understand that it takes time for doctors to make a diagnosis of dyslexia. First, they need to rule out other possible causes of your child’s reading problems. Your pediatrician might refer you to any of the following specialists:
- pediatric psychologist
- clinical or educational psychologist
- learning disabilities specialist
- speech pathologist
- ophthalmologist (eye doctor)
- audiologist (hearing specialist)
- neurologist (brain specialist)
If you suspect that you might have undiagnosed dyslexia, it’s never too late to seek help. Adult education programs can help most people significantly improve their reading and writing ability at any age. Talk to your family doctor about getting an evaluation.
How to identify dyslexia in a child, where to go and examples of famous dyslexics
If your child writes with mistakes, reads haltingly and faints at the thought of going to school, do not rush to hire tutors. Maybe he just has dyslexia.
Olga Stepanyan
“In the third grade, the teacher advised my parents to transfer me to a special school. She said I have retarded development syndrome, ”Maria Parfyonova informs me, as soon as we sit down at a table on the roof of the Bardeli bar, in which the daughter of journalist Leonid Parfyonov and culinary specialist Elena Chekalova successfully works as a manager. Parfyonova Jr. has been developing public relations without any delay in the trendy 15 Kitchen+Bar, and she is also trilingual and easily conducts secular discussions about history. But Maria is dyslexic. Like every tenth person in the world. nine0003
“Even today, few people know about dyslexia, and in my childhood, they didn't hear about it at all,” says Maria. “At school, they didn’t consider me a person: “Twenty-two mistakes in dictation! Well, what can we take from her?” Only one teacher ventured to suggest that Masha was not just lazy or lagging behind in development, and advised changing the public school to a private one. Her parents transferred her to the Golden Section. And then the girl was diagnosed with dyslexia. This is the name of the violation of the ability to master reading and writing while maintaining the ability to learn. nine0003
A dyslexic perceives text as images, in other words, sees pictures instead of words. Words that do not cause him visual associations, he simply skips when reading. Often, by the end of a sentence that other children can read with ease, the dyslexic is exhausted from nervous tension. It is almost impossible for him to retell what he read. Also, dyslexics do not see errors in the spelling of words and numbers. Often such a child swaps letters or numbers: for example, when solving a problem in arithmetic, he writes “5 +5 = 01” or draws “E” in writing in reverse. It is especially difficult for millennial children: in the era of social networks, Grammar Nazis lie in wait for dyslexics not only in Russian lessons, but also on Facebook. Maria Parfyonova, for example, stopped writing posts with adverbial phrases. “I don’t know how to coordinate them,” she says. “And people comment: “Nature has rested on you!” Such oddities infuriate unprepared teachers and overly ambitious parents. “My acquaintances with dyslexia - now successful adults - told how their fathers in anger kicked out the doors of children's rooms, broke desks. They thought the child was just being lazy,” says Maria Piotrovskaya, founder of the Moscow Association of Parents and Children with Dyslexia. Naturally, they fell into a deep depression. Teachers are no better: trying to make the student catch up with the rest in terms of performance, they forced him to read aloud under a stopwatch. It's a huge stress for a child." nine0003
Maria Piotrovskaya herself, former head of the board of directors at Renaissance Credit Bank, left the world of finance and audit when her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. Maria tried to figure out what it was. It turned out to be easier to reduce the debit to the credit. In Russia, only speech therapists and neuropsychologists can tell about dyslexia with knowledge of the matter - narrow specialists, to whom they go in the direction. In the system of education and social support, dyslexia was also not heard; at the legislative level, the rights of dyslexics are not protected in any way. Maria opened her association in October with the support of Ruben Vardanyan and his charity project Philin. The initiative was supported by GITIS, since dyslexia is a common diagnosis in people of creative professions. And the State Hermitage, which is headed by Maria's father Mikhail Piotrovsky. Now the museum is preparing a program for schoolchildren, built not on memorizing texts, but on visual images. nine0003
Every tenth person in the world suffers from dyslexia. But there are no official statistics and schools for such children in Russia.
“Our main task now is to explain to teachers and parents that if a child receives low grades, this does not mean that he is lazy or does not want to study,” says Maria. - The next task is to help change the legislative framework. To be sure that tests for dyslexia are carried out before entering elementary school and moving to middle school. We are also working to ensure that the school has teachers who are certified to work with such children in the lower grades - for starters. At least one per school. Diagnosis is usually made between the ages of five and nine (in England, diagnosis is made at age four). So the sooner teachers start working with such a child according to a special scheme, the more likely it is that he will graduate from school perfectly, he will be able to realize himself in any profession, avoiding psychological problems. nine0003
“Dyslexia is considered to be inherited. But our experience shows that this is not necessary,” explains Inessa Khvostova, Managing Director of Lucullus Educational Consultants. - By the way, it is more difficult to identify dyslexia in girls than in boys: apparently, because they are more successful at hiding problems with their studies. That is why it was previously believed that the risk group was mostly boys.
To demand changes in Russian laws, we need statistics. She, of course, is not. “We go to schools ourselves,” says Maria Piotrovskaya. - Not only in Moscow, but also, for example, in Chechnya and Ingushetia. In these regions, there are also many schoolchildren with dyslexia, in addition, education is bilingual, and this is an additional burden for children.” The association is developing teaching methods for children with different perceptions, which are going to be transferred to the Ministry of Education. The luminaries of science are working on it: psycholinguist Tatyana Chernigovskaya, neuropsychologist Tatyana Akhutina, vice-president of the Association of Speech Pathologists of St. Petersburg Alexander Kornev. And Piotrovskaya and her colleagues conducted free master classes called “Underachievement is curable” in five secondary schools in Moscow. The teachers came and honestly admitted that in every class there are underachieving students with characteristic features. nine0003
Parents come to the association's small office on Gogolevsky Boulevard. The center “Club Intellect 135” operates there, where a neurologist of the highest category, Gullzhan Sakbayeva, works with children. She still has few wards: most mothers, having learned about the diagnosis, pretend that everything is in order, they just need to hire tutors. Or they disown dyslexia as a deadly disease.
“I stopped posting gerunds on Facebook. And people comment: “Nature has rested on you!”
Alexandra Shishmareva, a student of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, also has dyslexia. At the master classes of the association, Alexandra acts as a speaker. “As a child, I truly hated school,” she says now. - It got to the point that she began to get sick with everything that was possible, just not to go to class. The godmother sent me to St. Petersburg to the candidate of psychological sciences Elena Nikolaevna Chesnokova. For ten days, from morning until late at night, she worked with me according to the adapted American Orton-Gillingham system. For example, we sculpted the letters of the alphabet from plasticine - first from A to Z, then from Z to A. When I returned to school, my literacy gradually improved. Last year, Shishmareva received high scores at the Unified State Examination in Russian and Literature and eventually entered the history department of Moscow State University without exams. nine0003
Despite the best efforts of volunteers and philanthropists, there are no schools in Russia that specialize in teaching dyslexics. Even in the advanced Golden Section, where they took on the daughter of Leonid Parfenov, there is no individual approach to such students, says Maria. “Nobody gives you extra time on tests,” she says. - Because then the parents will come and ask: "Why is Masha allowed more than my Vita?" Although in the "Golden Section" there were still many advantages compared to a regular school. For example, I studied Russian not with the class, but with a speech therapist, three times a week. With the teacher of the European Gymnasium, Maria Markovna Kazbek-Kazieva, Parfenova developed literacy: “She has her own methods for memorizing spelling rules. Maria Markovna pulled from a deuce to a four in a year. Two more years and I would start to write normally in Russian.” And the stories of Sergei Dovlatov helped the girl learn to read: “He writes the way people say. Also, reading his prose aloud, you can practice intonation - there are no long sentences, like, for example, Tolstoy's. nine0003
In the United States, dyslexia is considered a "special feature". This is the definition given by the National Institutes of Health and the International Development Association. Dyslexia is included in the Education with Disabilities Act, which is in force in thirty-seven states.
In the UK, dyslexia was introduced into the Chronically Ill and Incapacitated Persons Act in 1970. In 1987, the European Dyslexia Association was founded in Brussels, representing the interests of dyslexics in the European Parliament and UNESCO. “When I left to study in Europe, I was in shock,” recalls Maria Parfenova. - At the City University of London there is a disability center where they work with you. For the UK, this is an absolutely normal story. By the way, I must say thanks to the Golden Section school: in a letter of recommendation from there, they wrote to me that “due to the imperfection of the Russian education system, Maria’s grades are lower than they could be.” nine0003
Secondary education in the UK is based on either the A Level system or the IB program. The latter is better adapted for teaching children with special needs and more suitable for dyslexics. In Moscow, for example, the European Gymnasium, the MES, the Anglo-American Gymnasium and the President School work according to the IB system. “In history lessons in an ordinary Russian school, events are told according to the textbook, concisely,” explains Maria Parfenova. - And in the IB system (I studied it at school in Italy), students are recommended to use visual materials as much as possible. For example, while studying the history of the Cold War, children watch a real American propaganda newsreel. Then a visual comparative analysis of events is made. I can now draw this sign from memory. nine0003
The sooner a child is diagnosed with dyslexia, the more likely it is that they will not have problems with learning and socialization in the future. “A child with dyslexia is extremely difficult to learn if the education system is built around reading, writing and remembering large amounts of information,” says Leslie Shaw-Wall, director of Foremarke Hall Repton Preparatory School in Derbyshire. “In Britain, various programs have been developed to educate such children.”
Angered dads knock down the doors of children's rooms, break desks. Teachers force the child to read under the stopwatch. nine0019
First, the degree of dyslexia is determined: minor (several characteristic features), mild, moderate, severe. Children with a severe form are usually sent to private schools that specialize in working with dyslexics. “But in fact, there is no need to apply to special schools,” says the director of Foremarke. “Most dyslexics study in regular schools – in the UK there are regulations that require an individual approach to the education of children with disabilities and special needs. ” Dyslexics are given twenty percent more time on tests, and they take exams in a separate class. nine0003
It is important to know the main thing about dyslexia - it is not a disease, it cannot be cured. It is called "the gift that is always with you" - so poetically Ronald Davis, founder of the Center for the Study of Reading Problems in Burlingame, once called dyslexia. Often dyslexia is indeed a gift. Children who read and write with difficulty often have well-developed non-verbal thinking. They master many skills much faster than their peers and show creative abilities, such as an exceptional ear for music. They differ in sociability, often succeed in painting. nine0003
“According to Fernett and Brock Eide, authors of The Benefits of Dyslexia: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain, people who can’t focus on the little things tend to see the situation in a complex way, to imagine how processes will develop over time,” says the head of the London office of the educational agency Connexus Academic Advisors Vlad Konyashkin. Seeing relationships that elude others is another virtue of dyslexics. Pay attention to how your child draws conclusions. Dyslexics are distinguished by the ability to reason when the facts are not enough or they often change. Adding three-dimensional spatial perspectives is easier for dyslexics. In the future, they can work in the field of design, architecture, be engineers, builders, inventors, organic chemists.” nine0003
But even if the child is still out of tune, playing the twenty-fourth capriccio of Paganini, it is definitely not necessary to give up and take him out of school. After all, Steve Jobs was also diagnosed with dyslexia. And mathematician Alan Turing, who deciphered the supercomplex German code during the war. And even the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Winston Churchill.
8 signs your child may have dyslexia
“Most people think that dyslexia comes down to the inability to read and write,” explains Vlada Konyashkina, head of the London office of the educational agency Connexus Academic Advisors. - It's a delusion. These children face other challenges as well.” nine0003
A dyslexic differs from a child with low IQ in that:
1. He lacks organizational skills.
2. He has trouble doing things sequentially (for example, a child has trouble doing a math problem because they confuse the order of steps in a solution).
3. There are difficulties with the perception of time.
4. The child is constantly distracted.
5. He often has mood swings.
6. When reading, it seems to him that the letters are moving, and he confuses their sequence. nine0003
7. There are problems with the speed of information processing and memorization.
8. It is difficult for a child to build complex sentences with a complete thought.
Dyslexics remember information better if it is presented in the form of concrete examples or stories from life, rather than abstract reasoning. For example, your child is likely to remember perfectly well who and what gave his sister for her birthday two years ago, but not his class schedule.
Where to run
How dyslexia is diagnosed and where special children are taught, says Inessa Khvostova, Managing Director of Lucullus Educational Consultants. To diagnose or rule out dyslexia, a child is asked to listen, read, and remember sequences of words, numbers, or colors. Thus, short-term and long-term memory, the ability to analyze information, the level of attention and concentration are checked. They will also offer tests for logic, for reading comprehension, for verbal and non-verbal thinking, as well as tests for intelligence. nine0003
However, dyslexia does not imply a lack of intelligence and does not put an end to education and career. For example, my dyslexic husband is an architect. He can only draw if he listens to an audiobook. And I, for example, can’t listen to audiobooks at all: attention is scattered.
No two dyslexics are the same. Dyslexia manifests itself differently for each person: one with dyspraxia, the other with attention deficit disorder.
Recommendations are based on test results in each individual case. The school is chosen the same way. For example, the More House school in Surrey, England is suitable for children with a complex form of dyslexia: there they study a maximum of five subjects instead of the generally accepted twelve, and besides, teachers teach them overtime. nine0003
Seaford School in Sussex and Bryanston School in Dorset work well with medium uniforms. Almost thirty percent of the students in these schools are dyslexic.
Even Eton and Winchester Colleges will accept students with a mild form of dyslexia (there are eight percent of such special students). Children are engaged with the teacher individually or in mini-groups.
Famous dyslexics
You don't have to have an A in penmanship to go down in history. nine0096
Richard Branson
Founder of the Virgin Group and top business role model in the 2000s, he left school at sixteen but wrote nine motivational books. Everywhere there is at least a line about dyslexia. Knowing his peculiarity, Sir Richard surrounded himself with professionals who excelled him in academic excellence, and delegated most of his authority to them. And he began to come up with new projects. Branson has neither a certificate nor a diploma so far. But there is a fortune of almost five billion dollars. nine0003
Michael Phelps
The number one swimmer has the record number of Olympic medals. And in the children's medical record - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyspraxia (disorder of the motor apparatus, in which there are problems with coordination).
Steve Jobs
Dropped out of school several times and only lasted one semester in college. I never really learned how to write and read. And, probably, that is why he gave humanity a phone that can independently select words in messages. nine0003
John Lennon
Entered teachers into a stupor by not being able to spell a single word, confusing consonant words and writing, changing letters in places. Now these texts are sung all over the world.
Vladimir Mayakovsky
An irony of fate: the poet, whose poetry is torture for dyslexics, himself suffered from a text perception disorder. Hence the stanzas "ladder", and ignoring punctuation marks. Reading to Vladimir Vladimirovich never came to fruition: materials for his poems were collected by Lilya Brik. nine0003
Photo: anne menke/trunk archive/photosenso, rex features/fotodom; ap,zuma,Abaca Press/tass
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Definition, Characteristics, Types, Symptoms, Exercises and Treatment
Prevention and Treatment of Dyslexia
How to help a child with dyslexia? Before starting any therapy, the child must be diagnosed with dyslexia . This is not an easy task as schools often do not have the proper tools to detect dyslexia. Even if a diagnosis has been made, it is not always possible to help a dyslexic child. Sometimes he can be transferred to a special school, if there is one nearby. However, most of the burden falls on the parents. They need to be on the lookout and detect the problem as early as possible. Dyslexia is important to notice in time. nine0099 The sooner treatment for childhood dyslexia is started, the better for the child . He will receive support, the opportunity to overcome the disorder and prevent possible suffering and a decrease in self-esteem.
How to treat dyslexia? It is very important to observe the child daily, without wasting precious time and without waiting for more serious symptoms to begin the correction. The most effective treatment for dyslexia is its early recognition ! It is necessary to minimize developmental difficulties and begin to apply the correct treatment. nine0003
Scientific Validation: Studies that show the effectiveness of the CogniFit program in correcting childhood dyslexia
The CogniFit personal training program improves the cognitive skills of dyslexic students.
It was noted that when students with dyslexia exercised on the CogniFit personal training program, their brain activity, working memory and reading efficiency increased significantly (the number of correctly read words per minute increased by 14.73%). The improvement lasted up to six months after the end of training, positively affecting dyslexia. Read the study nine0003
Dyslexia is much more common than is commonly thought. It affects about 90,099 10% of the 90,100 population. Dyslexia is a learning disorder of neurological origin that makes it difficult to read, write, and generally decipher letters and any other language symbols.
What is it like to be dyslexic? When reading, dyslexics focus all their attention on decoding sounds and pronunciation of the word, resulting in a collapse in working memory that does not allow the brain to allocate resources to other higher tasks, such as understanding the text. nine0003
Some studies define dyslexia as a deficit in neural connections related to speech processing. Words are difficult for dyslexics to visualize because dysfunction of neural connections makes it difficult to access speech information stored in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain responsible for phonetic processing.
Dyslexia can be inherited, so often several family members suffer from this disorder. It occurs in children with normal intelligence, without any mental, physical or cultural problems. Reading difficulties do not affect other cognitive abilities. On the contrary, dyslexics often have heightened senses and develop high intelligence and creativity, which is why dyslexia is sometimes called the disease of creative people, the "disease of geniuses" and is even considered a sign of genius. nine0003
Not all types of dyslexia are equally severe, but it is important to diagnose and treat it as early as possible to avoid possible developmental problems, low self-esteem, frustration, school failure or sleep problems in children.
Dyslexia in children
Dyslexia in children can be detected as early as preschool age . Symptoms of dyslexia can persist into childhood, adolescence, and even into adults.
Although every child is unique, Children with dyslexia tend to speak later, have poorer listening comprehension, and have a vocabulary less than than other children their age. Often they confuse letters such as B and Z (or P and b), or the order of the letters in a word, they find it difficult to concentrate.
Decreased attention may be caused by cognitive fatigue. Children with dyslexia have to make a lot of effort when reading and writing, so they get tired and lose concentration more quickly.
Brain activity of an ordinary person Reading Dyslexic Brain Activity Reading
Since children with dyslexia need support and encouragement from parents and teachers, it is important to detect dyslexia at an early age. By providing your child with the right supplies, you will help him cope with school.
The sooner treatment is started, the greater the chance of minimizing problems that may be caused by dyslexia. If left untreated, as they grow older, people with dyslexia can become depressed, experience increased anxiety, their self-esteem drops, and they may even drop out of school. nine0003
Dyslexia and the brain
Children with dyslexia have certain neurological disorders. The cells that make up speech processing neural networks are not organized properly, making it difficult to decipher words and understand the meaning of what is read.
Effective reading requires processes of understanding, interpretation and learning. The way the brain processes text is called "lexical strategy". Problems with access to vocabulary in dyslexic children are associated with:
- Impairments in linguistic information processing. nine0204
- Problems with working memory.
- Problems with the speed of information processing.
Signs and symptoms of dyslexia
The symptoms of dyslexia vary from child to child and are not constant and may even change within the same day. In addition, as the child grows older, the symptoms may also change.
Signs of dyslexia:
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Problems with reading.
Difficulty deciphering letters and any language codes or symbols, making reading difficult. Children with dyslexia often distort the pronunciation of words, have poor processing and reading comprehension, and find it difficult to read fluently, so they usually do not like to read. nine0204
Types of dyslexia. Classification
Although some symptoms are common to dyslexia, scientists have identified several types of dyslexia. First of all, genetic and acquired forms of dyslexia are distinguished.
How can dyslexia be diagnosed?
Dyslexia affects such cognitive abilities as working memory, speed of reaction and information processing, as well as executive functions. . Poor development of these cognitive skills may indicate dyslexia. nine0003
Is there a cure for dyslexia?
Is dyslexia curable? Dyslexia is a chronic disorder that does not improve with age. However, this is not a cause for alarm, since dyslexia manifests itself in different ways at different stages of human development.
Most important - early diagnosis of dyslexia . The sooner we offer the child tools to help him adapt to the learning process , the more likely he is to optimize his mental resources and be able to live a full life. nine0003
How to treat dyslexia?
If a child is diagnosed with dyslexia at an early age, then an individualized correction program may be involved, since at an early age children are more likely to develop alternative strategies that will help them adapt to the educational system. In early childhood, the brain is more plastic and prone to creating new neurons, so the sooner the use of tools to strengthen the neural networks associated with language and speech processing, the more likely it is to compensate for impaired functions. nine0003
Early detection and treatment of dyslexia can help prevent emotional distress.
If you suspect dyslexia, it is best to seek a diagnosis from a specialist, such as a speech therapist, who will help identify existing difficulties and prescribe specialized exercises to improve cognitive abilities responsible for speech and language. Otherwise, a person may suffer at a cognitive level due to a lack of concentration, impaired working or short-term memory, information processing speed and other cognitive abilities that we need daily. nine0003
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