Dyslexia: Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment

Understanding Dyslexia

Dyslexia is also known as a reading disability. It is a learning disorder characterized by reading difficulties. The difficulties are caused by struggles in identifying speech sounds and interpreting how they relate to letters and words. It impacts the areas of the brain that are responsible for language processing.

Dyslexia Assessment

A dyslexia assessment Oregon entails gathering information about a childÕs or teenÕs birth history, family history, and child development, including speech and language development and early education. It also includes a review of school records, any previous assessments or diagnoses, as well as early interventions such as speech and language therapy.

Key areas the assessment examines are as follows:

• The childÕs or teenÕs awareness of and access to the sound structure of their oral language,also referred to as phonological awareness.
• The ability to remember sounds, syllables, and words, also known as phonological or language-based memory.
• The rate of naming objects, colors, digits, or letters.
• Understanding what is heard, also known as receptive vocabulary.
• Understanding symbol-to-sound relationships, which also referred to as phonics abilities.
• The ability to use symbol-sound associations to identify words, also known as decoding.
• The ability to read accurately to facilitate comprehension of a story, i.e., oral reading fluency.
• Spelling and writing skills at the sentence and paragraph levels
• Strengths and weaknesses in

Following the assessment, the information gathered is analyzed, and a report summarizing all intake information and history is written. The report describes in detail the referral questions or concerns that prompted the assessment. The report usually includes standard scores and percentile ranks.

Other information, such as the childÕs or teenÕs age and grade level, may be included in the dyslexia test report, but only as an approximation, and should never be used as measures of academic achievement.

Dyslexia Signs

dyslexia Symptoms Lake Oswego can be difficult to detect before a child begins school. However, there are some early warning signs that can alert you to the presence of a problem. The following symptoms may indicate that your child is at risk of dyslexia:

• Late talking
• Slow learning of new words
• Learning new words takes time.
• Word formation issues, such as confounding words that sound similar.
• Having difficulty remembering or naming letters, numbers, or colors.
• Difficulty learning or playing rhyming games as a child.

When the child reaches the age of going to school, the teacher may be the first to notice a problem. It is usually pronounced at this stage because the child is expected to learn to read and write.

When a child reaches school age, the following signs indicate that he or she may have dyslexia:

• Reading at a level below what is expected for their age.
• There are issues with processing and understanding what is heard.
• Problems remembering the order of events.
• Difficulty recognizing or hearing similarities and differences between letters and words.
• Inability to sound out an unfamiliar wordÕs pronunciation.
• Difficulties in spelling words correctly.
• Taking an unusually long time to complete tasks that require reading or writing.
• Avoiding reading-related activities.

The signs of dyslexia in teens are similar to those of dyslexia in children, with minor differences due to the personÕs age. Among the most common signs in teens are:

• Difficulty reading, particularly when reading aloud.
• Slow and laborious reading and writing, as well as spelling difficulties and avoidance of reading-related activities
• Name or word mispronunciation, as well as difficulty retrieving words
• Having difficulty understanding jokes or expressions with hidden meanings or idiomatic expressions.
• Difficulties with story summarization and learning foreign languages.
• Difficulties remembering and completing math problems.

Dyslexia Symptoms

The primary symptoms of dyslexia are difficulties decoding or reading single words, poor reading fluency, and poor spelling.

The symptoms associated with literacy issues will include phonological deficiencies and specific language-based difficulties, impaired comprehension and writing skills, and an inability to master spelling.

Poor reading is also a dyslexia symptom. It is characterized by the affected child or teen having a limited vocabulary and background knowledge as a result of their below-average reading abilities.

Dyslexia Treatment

Dyslexia can be treated using educational approaches and techniques that are tailored to the needs of the affected child or adolescent. Executive functioning coaching, cognitive behavioral therapy, applied behavior analysis, parent training, speech-language services, and educational therapy are a few examples.

The earlier treatment begins, the better. Early dyslexia testing can assist dyslexia treatment providers in developing appropriate interventions for the affected child or teen.

Need help with your childÕs or teenÕs dyslexia?

If you need assistance with your childÕs or teenÕs dyslexia testing and treatment, or if you want more information on dyslexia testing Portland Oregon services, please call The Whole Child Collective at (503) 832-6094 or (503) 387-3941. You can also email them by clicking here.