Dyslexia and learning difficulties
Intervention for dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia - reading, writing and language skills.
Specific learning difficulties appear when a child has general ability in line with their age but struggles in one particular area: reading (dyslexia), writing (dysgraphia) or arithmetic (dyscalculia).
These children often carry the wrong labels - lazy, inattentive, not trying - while the difficulty is real and treatable. The sooner it is identified, the easier it is to intervene before loss of confidence is added on top.
What parents and teachers notice
- Reading is slow, hesitant and full of errors.
- The child confuses letters that look or sound similar.
- They read a word by guessing from its beginning.
- They do not remember what they read.
- Writing is hard to read, with letters omitted or reversed.
- Spelling errors repeat even after long practice.
- Difficulty with numbers, their order and with calculation.
- Homework takes far too long and ends in tears.
- The child avoids reading aloud in class.
When to seek help
In the first school years errors are normal, because the child is learning. What marks out a specific difficulty is persistence: the errors repeat in the same way and do not disappear with continued practice.
When a teacher raises a concern, when the child is losing interest in school, or when the effort they put in does not translate into results, it is time for an assessment.
How the assessment works
The assessment looks at the language foundations reading is built on: how the child distinguishes sounds within a word, how they link letters to sounds, how quickly and accurately they read, and how much they understand of what they read.
Accuracy, speed and comprehension are assessed separately, because a child may read accurately and not understand, or understand and read very slowly. The intervention plan changes accordingly.
How the intervention works
The intervention is not a repetition of school homework. The work returns to the foundations: phonological awareness, the sound-letter link, building fluency, and comprehension strategies.
Alongside that we work on practical strategies that ease the child's work in class, and on their attitude towards reading - because many of these children have built the belief that they cannot do it.
The parent's role
Parents have two tasks worth more than extra drilling: consistency in short daily work, and keeping the atmosphere free of pressure. A child with dyslexia works harder than their classmates for the same result, and that fatigue deserves recognition.
Working with the teacher helps too, since most reading happens in class.
Frequently asked questions
- At what age can dyslexia be assessed?
- Reading difficulties are assessed once the child has begun formal reading instruction. But the language foundations that flag a difficulty can be examined earlier, in the pre-school years.
- Does dyslexia go away?
- Dyslexia does not go away like a passing illness, but with appropriate intervention the child learns to read and to cope with school successfully. The objective is functioning, not the disappearance of the underlying difficulty.
- My child writes letters backwards. Is that a sign of dyslexia?
- In the first school years this is common and often transient. It becomes a concern when it persists past the point where it would be expected to resolve, or when it is accompanied by other reading and writing difficulties.
The first step is a conversation.
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