October is Dyslexia Month! Our team of Educational Specialists are celebrating by sharing their expertise.

Mary “Mo” Froneberger MAT is an educational diagnostician at Child and Family Development- Pineville.  She shares:

One of my greatest passions is evaluating and helping individuals with dyslexia. It is very important for parents and educators to know about dyslexia as approximately 15-20% of the population experiences symptoms of dyslexia.

Dyslexia is not correlated with physical difficulties with the eyes or ears. Instead it is a language-based processing disorder rooted in deficits in the phonological region of language. The International Dyslexia Association developed this definition in 2002:

“Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.”

There are common characteristics and warning signs of dyslexia particularly in school-aged children:

1. Difficulty learning alphabet letter names and/or sounds
2. Oral reading is slow or labored
3. Reads with substitutions, adds words or guesses at words
4. Poor decoding skills (not able to properly “sound out a word”)
5. Poor spelling skills (often individuals with dyslexia will spell words correctly on a spelling test, but are not able to generalize into other day-to-day writing assignments)
6. Poor fine motor skills
7. Poor handwriting
8. Trouble with recall or retrieval of math facts, especially quick retrieval
9. Writes or reads letters and/or numbers reversed
10. Doesn’t enjoy reading
11. Doesn’t enjoy writing

Diagnosis of dyslexia involves psychological-educational testing. It is important that clinicians evaluating for dyslexia have training and experience with this type of learning disability.

Read more about Mo here.

Read more about our educational services here.

Read more about psychoeducational assessments here.

Read more about dyslexia on the National Institute of Learning Development website here.