How to Tell If Your Child Has One of These Reading Disorders

Especially after the last few years children’s academics Skill levels are everywhere. Depending on how well your child did at online learning (or what ever something else was going on in her life), your child’s reading level may not be at grade level. You may be wondering if this is the case “normal” or when something else is going on. If anyone has trouble reading this can not attributed to a lack of skill or time to practice, they may a reading processing disorder. Here are the signs and types of reading disorders and how you can help your child if they have one.

What are reading disorders?

dyslexia is the reading disorder we hear about most often and is most commonly diagnosed in children who are struggling with reading. It is characterized by poor spelling and imprecise reading flow. However, tHere are other reading-related learning disorders that are more commonly researched and diagnosed. These include:

• hyperlexia, a reading comprehension disorder. Ppeople with this disorder Difficulty understanding what is being read despite being able to decipher the letters and sounds.
• dysgraphia, which relates to writing. People with dysgraphia may have trouble writing, spelling, or organizing their writing.
• Dysortographya spelling disorder in which someone, despite instructions, cannot put sounds and their associated patterns together.

• speech impedimentwhen someone has difficulty pronouncing words or reading aloud, although they can read when not speaking.

Sometimes a child will have more than one disorder or dyslexia as well as ADHD or another diagnosis.

Signs of a reading processing disorder

It is important to note that children do not all learn in the same way at the same time. If your child has trouble reading, don’t immediately assume that they have a disorder. You may need a different approach or more time. However, some signs that your child may have reading processing disorder include:

• Messy handwriting
• Bad spelling
• reverse letters
• Difficulty reading or understanding language compared to peers and peers
• Difficulty organizing or coming up with something to write about
• Falling behind their peers in reading or writing from year to year
• Being able to read the words but not understand or explain their meaning
• Trouble pronouncing words

While reversing letters is a normal developmental step in learning to write, and messy handwriting can often be untrained from a child’s habit, if you notice that these types of characters are changing with time and help, it may be time to ask for help Teachers are no better at assessing whether it is a processing disorder.

How do you find out if your child has a reading processing disorder?

Your child’s teacher can be the one who raises concerns, or you can take your concerns to them. In any case, it is best to check in with your school. Paulette Selman, a school psychologist who frequently tests students for processing disorders and also works as a school psychologist Special Education Advocate in Oregon and Washingtonsays the data you want to compare includes teacher feedback, grades, test scores, and homework history, and when your teacher notices a downward trend in your child’s ability. “If they fall in the bottom 20% of the grade level, you can start raising a red flag,” she says. However, you don’t need to panic; I“Instead, make sure you speak to the teacher in a few months to see if your child has made progress compared to the other children or if they continue to fall below average.”

If they are still having problems, the next step would be an evaluation by the school, which looks for reading processing disorders but also rules out working memory problems, a language comprehension problem, or other causes of language problems.

If you notice problems and the school doesn’t agree that there is a problem, or if you decide to get tested yourself, you can have your child tested privately by a psychologist. If they diagnose something, you can take that information to the school and make a plan from there.

What will the school do to help your child?

“Nowadays, Schools have reading interventions for general education children (no IEP required) who are at the bottom of the class,” says Selman. Bbut “YeahYou should proactively monitor their progress so you know if additional services or tutoring are needed to help them catch up.”

Your child can too entitled to special education. “It used to take some sort of processing disorder to qualify for special education with Asspecific learn dability. That’s no longer the case in most states,” says Selman.

How else can you support your child?

If you can hIt’s a great idea to hire a private tutor who has experience and training in dealing with your child’s disorder and age. You can build a one-to-one relationship with your child to meet their individual needs.

“For speech-based processing disorders, it may make sense to see a speech therapist outside of school. Some SLPs have additional training or experience in assessing and treating reading problems –Check it out in your community,” says Selman.

An occupational therapist can help with dysgraphia, the writing disorder. “For visual memory or spelling, occupational therapists can teach students to mentally associate gross motor movements with letters,” says Caitlin Sanschagrin, occupational therapist and owner of Bright Spot Pediatric Therapy. She says an OT can also help you figure out which shelters are best for your child because “wWriting requires immensely more effort for these individuals because their focus and attention is placed more on writing than on the other learning tasks.” Because “dysgraphia also presents differently from person to person” and “treatments are as different as individuals and their age”, they need learning accommodations.

A warning from Selman if you’re looking for help outside of the public school system: “Beware of quackery. There are a number of companies and clinics that offer treatments and cures for various processing disorders.” She suggests parents “definitely seek independent research to back up the company’s claims. If it’s hard to tease out (and corporate websites can certainly make their programs sound earth-shattering), ask your local school psychologist or special education teacher for their opinion and consider it before making a big cash investment.”

portion Identify and treat your cHild’s processing disorder now will relieve stress and self-esteem issues as they navigate their high school years. Many students with reading processing disorders receive support and learn how to manage their disability in order to become excellent readers and learners as they grow older.