What to do if you suspect your child suffers from dyslexia

When Audrey Miller was in kindergarten, her mother Jennifer began to recognize she was having trouble blending letters into words.

Teachers reassured Jennifer and her husband Jody that it’s normal for some kids to take a while longer to catch up to their peers. But after entering the first grade, Jennifer grew more concerned when she realized her daughter was increasingly unable to comprehend her schoolwork.

“She could say the sounds of each letter, but when it came to blending those, she would say something totally off the wall,” her mother said.

This realization led to a discussion with the Miller’s family physician, who referred them to a psychologist. Determined to better understand her daughter’s struggles, Jennifer had spent the last 8 months researching learning disabilities in children. She was prepared for what came next: a diagnosis of ADD and dyslexia.

While the news was devastating, Jennifer had an idea of the challenges ahead for her family and was determined to get Audrey the help she needed.

“The last thing a parent wants to see is their child struggling,” she said.

Jennifer eventually sought the help of a dyslexia and reading program offered by LearningRx, which she had heard about from a friend whose daughter had similar challenges.

She said the process required a lot of hard work on Audrey’s part, who spent several hours each week at the LearningRx center. But that time spent gave Audrey something she had been missing—confidence.

“The improvement we saw in her, first and foremost, was confidence,” Jennifer said. “They gave her the tools to figure things out. Now she can sound out the words.”

Jennifer said that her daughter has always been your typical bright and vibrant kid. But she now sees a difference in her daughter’s confidence in all areas.

“Her teacher sent me a note recently, about how determined Audrey is and how hard she works in school,” she said.

And for any parents out there who have children with dyslexia or another learning disability, Jennifer has some advice to share—be patient and know that your child is trying his or her best.

“It’s been a learning time for me too because I’ve had to rethink the way I parent and work with my child,” she said. “The worst thing to do is become inpatient and fuss at her, like when she’s doing her homework.”

There’s still tough work ahead, Jennifer acknowledges, but she knows that Audrey is going to be able to do whatever she wants in life and that she may just have to work a little harder at it.

#DYK October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month? If you suspect your child, or someone you know, may show signs of dyslexia, read these 15 things you need to know about dyslexia.

15 things you need to know about dyslexia

1. Dyslexia is more common than you think. According to the International Dyslexia Association, as many as 15-20 percent of the population has symptoms of dyslexia.
2. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability. In fact, 8 out of 10 children receiving special education for a learning disability have dyslexia.
3. There’s a good chance one of your favorite actors has dyslexia. Folks in the entertainment industry with dyslexia include: Jennifer Anniston, Orlando Bloom, Keanu Reeves, Vince Vaughn, Henry Winkler, Harry Anderson, Danny Glover, Kiera Knightly, Jay Leno, Jim Carrey, John Lennon, Steven Spielberg.
4. Dyslexia has been around a long time. George Washington, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are believed to have had dyslexia. The first description of dyslexia is believed to be this paragraph written in 1896 by Dr. W. Pringle Morgan of Sussex, England: “Percy F.,...aged 14,...has always been a bright and intelligent boy, quick at games, and in no way inferior to others of his age. His great difficulty has been-and is now-his inability to learn to read.”
5. Dyslexia is caused by cognitive weaknesses in the part of the brain that processes sound. According to Sally Shaywitz, M.D., writing for Scientific American, “Dyslexia reflects a deficiency in the processing of the distinctive linguistic units, called phonemes, that make up all spoken and written words.” She adds that this explains “why some very intelligent people have trouble learning to read and performing other language-related tasks.”
6. Dyslexia is not related to intelligence. Did you know that many inventors and scientists have had dyslexia? These include Alexander Graham Bell, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Pierre Curie, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, astrophysicist Matthew H. Schneps, Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Carol Greider, and Arctic explorer Ann Bancroft.
7. Dyslexia can run in families. Among family members of children with dyslexia, about 40 percent of siblings and 49 percent of parents have dyslexia, too.
8. “Dyslexia” means “Poor with words or trouble with reading.” Someone with dyslexia can struggle with reading fluently, reading out loud, reading new words, and/or pronouncing words correctly.
9. Are there symptoms that parents and teachers can watch for? A child might have dyslexia if he or she struggles:
   
   1. To transfer what is heard to what is seen and vice versa.
   2. Pronouncing new words
   3. To distinguish similarities/differences in words (no, on)
   4. To distinguish differences in letters (pin, pen)
   5. With reading comprehension
10. A child with dyslexia won’t’ necessarily transpose letters. In fact, some studies show that children with dyslexia are no more prone to reverse letters than children without dyslexia. Because dyslexia is so strongly linked with letter reversal in public perception, many dyslexic children who don’t reverse letters go unidentified and untreated.
11. Cognitive skills make reading and learning possible. These are the core skills the brain uses to focus, think, prioritize, plan, understand, visualize, remember, create associations, solve problems, and more. These skills include attention, auditory processing, visual processing, short and long-term memory, logic & reasoning, and processing speed. All these skills must work together in order to grasp and/or process information. This is why even one weak skill can make reading or learning harder than it needs to be.
12. Eight out of 10 children who struggle with reading have the same weak cognitive skill. That skill is called auditory processing.
13. Auditory processing and other weak skills can be strengthened. This includes the cognitive skills that, if weak, are at the root of dyslexia. LearningRx uses proprietary, customized training programs based on years of clinical and scientific research. Our brain trainers work one-on-one with students using game-like, fast-paced exercises.
14. Cognitive skills testing can tell you if your child has weak auditory processing skills. A professional cognitive skills assessment takes about an hour and can measure the performance of seven core cognitive skills, including attention, working memory, visual processing, auditory processing, processing speed, logic & reasoning, and long-term memory.
15. Get started. If weak auditory processing skills are contributing to your child’s reading struggles, cognitive training can strengthen those skills. In the meantime, help your child enjoy experiences that reinforce that idea that reading is fun, not something to dread. Set an example for your children by choosing reading over TV or computer time as often as possible. Designate family “unplugged” times. Stock your home with interesting books. And because we are never too old to love a good story, read aloud to your child at any age!

Learn more about LearningRx here.