Signs of Reading Difficulties/ Dyslexia

• Difficulty recognising letter sounds or blends e.g. igh, ai, oi.
• Difficulty blending sounds together to form whole words e.g. n igh t is night.
• Slow to recognise words when reading.
• Have difficulty reading common words e.g. they, said, was.
• Difficulty transferring learnt knowledge e.g. sounds to decode (sound out) unfamiliar words.
• Difficulty comprehending texts.
• Struggles to read out loud.
• Stilted or slow reading.
• May avoid reading altogether.

Particularly as a child ages, they may struggle in different ways, such as they may have learnt how to read but have difficulty understanding what they have read.

Are all students with a reading learning difficulty considered to have a specific learning difficulty in reading, known as dyslexia?

• No! Other areas of difficulty such as ADHD or working memory can impact upon a child’s ability to understand and retain reading knowledge.
• Dyslexia affects 20 percent of the population and represents 80–90 percent of all those with learning disabilities. It is the most common of all neuro-cognitive disorders. (https://dyslexia.yale.edu).

Does being dyslexic mean that someone has an intellectual disability?

• No! Those with dyslexia can often be very smart. They are often very creative and think ‘outside the box’. An internet search for ‘people with dyslexia’ will show people such as Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Michelangelo and Bill Gates as dyslexic. Others such as Australians author Jacki French, movie producer Steven Spielberg and actor Whoopi Goldberg are also dyslexic.

What is dyslexia?

• Dyslexia as described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – Fifth Edition (DSM-V), used by psychiatrists and psychologists to diagnose disorders, as “a pattern of learning difficulties characterised by problems with accurate or fluent word recognition, poor decoding, and poor spelling abilities” (DSM-V 315.00 F81.0).

What to do if my child seems to be struggling in reading?

It is important to remember that your child may simply have not yet learnt the concepts and needs some additional support to bring them up to peer level in reading. So,

1. Firstly, discuss your concerns with your child’s classroom teacher who will understand your child’s reading abilities in the educational setting.
2. Discuss intervention strategies e.g. 1:1 or small group learning support for reading.
3. Engage a literacy tutor who can revisit the basic skills and move your child through the process of better understanding reading concepts.
4. Seek a comprehensive assessment with a psychologist (called a psycho-educational assessment) to investigate areas of cognitive abilities and academic skills that may be impacting on your child’s understanding of reading, and provide a diagnosis (if deemed relevant) for dyslexia. A psychologist will then provide a written report with the results, interpretation of the results, and (usually) learning strategies to support your child in reading skills development.