Does My Child Have Dyslexia? Do I?

Have you ever wondered if your child might be dyslexic?

When you look at your child’s struggles, does it remind you of what you went through in school?

As a part of our assessment process at Stowell Learning Centers, parent’s fill out an intake questionnaire. I can almost always tell by what the parents write whether a student is likely dyslexic because there are some common characteristics. Here’s an example. The parent writes:

We have noticed some continued struggle with reading and with homework problems. Also with some basic skills like holding a pencil. He is so smart and a very curious and engaged learner but when it comes to reading and writing he gets incredibly frustrated, which seems to be inhibiting his growth.

He says he wants to succeed and "do better.”He feels he is doing ok but sometimes he calls himself "dumb.”

His acting coach recommended dyslexia testing.

Notice that this student was described as “so smart,” curious, engaged, motivated to succeed, and as an actor. But…he was “incredibly frustrated” when it comes to reading and writing and sometimes calls himself, “dumb.”

Does that sound familiar? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a similar scenario from parents.

This student’s testing did indicate dyslexia as well as dysgraphia, which is often seen along with dyslexia and something that we will discuss in depth in another blog.

So how do you know if you or your child might be dyslexic??

Here are some common indicators:

Dyslexia is considered to be a hereditary neurobiological thinking style. If your child has slow or laborious reading or spelling and you have a family history of dyslexia or others in the family who struggled in a similar way, it is likely that your child is dyslexic.

By definition, those with a learning disability have average to above average intelligence. Dyslexia is the most common language based learning disability. In our experience, dyslexic individuals are very often highly intelligent, which is one of the reasons their difficulties are so frustrating to them. They are aware that they should be able to do better and consciously or subconsciously put a great amount of mental energy into covering up or coping with their challenges with reading and writing.

While every person with dyslexia is unique, they often have a creative visual spatial thinking style that lends itself to excelling in the creative arts, building, mechanical abilities, or sports. Your child might be a Legomaster, the car packer, or the go-to person to fix things in your home because they have the ability to mentally see how everything fits together without reading instructions!

Chances are, when you think about dyslexia, problems with reading and reversing letters and words immediately come to mind. But did you know that among the defining factors of dyslexia are particular strengths?

Dyslexic individuals typically have “big picture” thinking, strengths in situational awareness, high rapid real world visual perception, and dynamic spatial problem solving and reasoning. They can mentally see things from many perspectives and often describe their thinking as three-dimensional.?

This is why dyslexic individuals appear to be over-represented in fire departments and among entrepreneurs.?

Your child with dyslexia may be highly empathetic or charismatic. I’ve known many dyslexic students who can talk or charm their way out of anything! One of the real challenges for these kids is that their social abilities can mask their challenges.?

Dyslexia is a learning disability in reading. It affects people differently, but generally students with dyslexia will have difficulty reading at a good pace without making mistakes. This can affect comprehension. Parents often tell me that their child has a comprehension problem because they score poorly on reading comprehension tests, but more often than not, we find that it isn’t a comprehension. It’s a reading problem. The child loves to be read to and comprehends well when someone else is doing the reading.

There are usually both visual and auditory components to dyslexia, but one of the biggest factors in dyslexia is an auditory processing ability called phonemic awareness - the ability to think about the sounds inside of words.

Here are some symptoms that you might see if your or your child are struggling with dyslexia:

• Difficulty with remembering, discriminating, or blending letter sounds
• Sounds out every word and doesn’t recognize words that they just read when they show up again on the page
• Guesses at words based on a few letters in the word
• Misreads the word but gets the meaning (i.e. reads cat for kitten or physician for doctor).
• Has or had difficulty with naming, sequencing, or writing letters of the alphabet.
• Cannot decode new words; dependent on their fund of memorized words?
• Letter and number reversals after age 7
• Their oral expression much stronger than written expression because they write with words they can spell
• Can memorize spelling words for the test but can’t remember them later to use in writing
• Confusion with small common sight words such as the, of, and if when reading. This one takes a little explanation: Dyslexic thinkers can visualize pictures and things easily. Connecting words with a mental picture helps students retain the words (for example, the word cat can be connected with the image of a fluffy, 3-dimensional cat). But what is an “if” or a “the?” Because many of these small, common sight words aren’t easily connected with a concept or image, they trigger confusion or disorientation for the dyslexic student when reading.

A number of years ago, a mom called me, desperate for help for her brilliant 9-year-old son. Derek was in a special class at school and his reading goal for the year was to learn “10 survival words.” Ten words - in one year! When I heard that, I thought, “No one ever expects this boy to read.”?

When I met Derek, he was friendly, charming, and confident. He was also a non-reader. Derek was profoundly and classically dyslexic.?

Derek had all of the symptoms we talked about earlier. He was confused about the alphabet and letters symbols. Sounds made no sense to him at all. He became extremely disoriented when he looked at the print - feeling like the letters and words were moving all over the page.

Over a period of two years, we worked with Derek’s mom to provide him with the kind of instruction that developed the underlying auditory and visual processing skills needed to support reading. He learned to read and write, exited special education, and went on to graduate from honors classes in high school. I found out later that Derek was a talented singer and actor and was so happy to hear that he was able to pursue those passions in college.

If you wonder if your child might be dyslexic, download the At-A-Glance Dyslexia Screener at https://stowellcenter.com/dyslexia/ . Feel free to share it with your child’s teacher and pediatrician. This is a first step in understanding why your child can be so brilliant or talented in some areas but struggle with reading and homework.?

Having dyslexia or a learning disability can be quite traumatic. These kids go to school every day afraid that they will be singled out in front of the class and embarrassed by their poor reading, spelling, or slow work. They live in fear that their peers will notice that they can’t do the work.?

Recognizing dyslexia helps you, your child, and the teacher understand that this is not your child’s fault, or the result of laziness or lack of motivation. That change in perspective will make a huge difference.

Help your child embrace their dyslexia. Explore it together. Learn about the talents and struggles of famous people with dyslexia. Dialogue with your child about what would be helpful in class and help them advocate for themselves with the teacher. This becomes empowering for everyone.?

Jill Stowell, M.S.

Author: Take the Stone Out of the Shoe: A Must-Have Guide to Understanding, Supporting, and Correcting Dyslexia, Learning, and Attention Challenges

Founder/Executive Director Stowell Learning Centers where we help children and adults eliminate struggles associated with dyslexia and learning disabilities.?

www.stowellcenter.com

Listen to this episode on the podcast: https://stowellcenter.com/2023/02/03/episode-49-is-my-child-dyslexic-am-i/