Our quick and comprehensible advice for parents on identifying and treating dylexia in children, and where to procure learning support.

Testing for dyslexia

Parents who suspect their child of being dyslexic should only turn to certain sources for information. Any evaluation should be conducted only by a certified professional, like an educational psychologist or a neurologist.

The test will mix an assessment of reading ability with an evaluation of the skills needed for rapid naming. The sequencing skills of the short term memory and non-verbal reading will also be analysed to measure phonological coding skills. An IQ test may be used to generate and determine learning weaknesses and strengths.

Successive tests may be requires to determine any external causes for leaning difficulties or disabilities, like hearing or sight problems.

Signs of possible dyslexia

The following traits are known to be signs of dyslexia, whether minor or major. Keep and eye out for them, or even conduct small tests on your child yourself.

1) Trouble learning and retaining the alphabet and numbers.#

2) Poor phonological awareness: difficulties generating or identifying rhymed words and/or calculating syllables.

3) Poor auditory discrimination: trouble with distinguishing the various speech sounds in words.

4) Problems associating word with their precise meanings.

5) Confusion when combining words.

6) Trouble developing organizational skills.

7) Problems mixing up items like left/right; before/after, and so on.

8) Trouble with word retrieval.

9) Poor phonemic awareness: trouble hearing and misrepresenting different sounds in words.

11) Trouble with the concept of - and the observing of - clock time.

Without disgnosis

Without diagnosis of their dyslexia, children can conclude that they are stupd or simply 'wrong', and may retreat into themselves. Alternatively, they could develop a savage system of self-defence and lash out at others - technically bullying.

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