Dr. Forgan’s insight on dyslexia

Dyslexia Warning Signs

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As a certified dyslexia testing specialist, I test a lot of children suspected of having dyslexia.  A mom recently brought her second grade son for testing because his iReady/MAPP scores were low, he was saying he was the worst reader in his class, there was family history of reading difficulty, and her motherly instinct told her something was interfering with his ability to learn to read.

Classic Dyslexia Warning Signs

These were classic dyslexia warning signs.  The iReady/MAPP testing that children take give scores that show their reading level.  However, the scores the school considers ‘low’ don’t always align with real life because schools focus on helping the ‘extremely low’ kids.  Kids with dyslexia are smart and can fake reading because they memorize words but may still struggle with fluency and decoding.

It’s a dyslexia warning sign when an elementary age child is saying,  “I’m not smart.”  Simply put, young children don’t want to go to school and fail.  In a class of 20 kids, all the kids know the top and bottom readers. They know which kids’ papers are returned with a teacher’s red marks on it.

Your child is at risk for dyslexia if you have a diagnosed or a suspected family history of reading struggles.  Dyslexia is genetic and more than 50% of children identified have a family member who was not a good reader and might not like to read as an adult.

Parent Instincts Are Often Correct

If you are the parent, trust your instinct as you know something is underlying your child’s reading struggles.  In my years of experience, moms’ instincts are highly accurate.  Testing provides answers, future direction, and can put your mind at ease.

If you suspect dyslexia, we can help you!  Call our office as we test children ages 5.5 through college for dyslexia, ADHD/ADD, gifted, and other processing disorders.  Call (561) 625 4125

Reading Comprehension Struggles

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Reading comprehension is a complex task involving your child, the text, and the multidimensional task of reading. These variables combine to create reading comprehension.

Your Child

Consider your child. To achieve reading comprehension, your child must bring a positive mindset, background knowledge, and reading skills to what they read. If your child is a reluctant or struggling reader, does he have a positive mindset about it? If not, how can you change it?

Your child’s prior life experiences contribute to reading comprehension. Consider yourself assembling furniture. When you’ve previously put together furniture, that experience helps you anticipate assembling the new piece. Every time your child learns or experiences something new they make connections and store it to use later when encountering new material. Thus, what type of varying experiences or knowledge are you giving your child?

The Text

The text or books your child reads contributes to his or her understanding. Like the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, you don’t want the text your child reads to be too easy or too hard, but just right. Find out your elementary age child’s Lexile level and pick books within that range. Learn more at lexile.com or talk to your local librarian.

The Task of Reading

The act of reading is multi-dimensional and includes quickly sounding out words, reading speed, and vocabulary. If your child is reading aloud to you and mispronounces words, only correct the words that change the meaning.  Using a book at your child’s Lexile level, simultaneous read aloud with your child to build reading speed. Stop periodically and take turns describing what each person is picturing in their mind as visualizing helps with comprehension.  Teach your child a new vocabulary word each week and practice using it during the week.

If you want to increase your child reading comprehension, allocate sufficient time to work on it, read with your child, provide varied life experiences, and work on skills.  If you need a specialist, just reach out. (561) 625 4125

Give the Gift of Reading This Year

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Give the gift of reading to your child this holiday season.  Since reading is foundational for academic success, your child’s reading needs to be on or above grade level.  Here are three ways you can help improve your elementary age child’s reading.

First, trust your instinct and seek understanding. Most moms (and some dads) instinctively know your child’s reading is behind.  Teachers have good intentions but I repeatedly have a scenario play out when parents come to me even though the teacher says, “Don’t worry.” We test and uncover the child has dyslexia.  Honestly, smart kids compensate for weaknesses.  Also, it’s a ton of work for a teacher to refer a child for school-based testing so some teachers keep pushing kids along without getting to the root cause. Come in for testing to give yourself understanding, peace of mind, and direction. If you on the fence about testing, first read “Overcoming Dyslexia, Second Edition” by Dr. Sally Shaywitz.

Next, you can teach your child using a specialized reading approach.  The Barton Reading and Spelling System was designed for parents and educators to use one-to-one with children.  Learn more at BartonReading.com.  If you prefer, hire a specialized reading tutor to teach your child since many kids work better with someone other than a parent. I have a list of professional reading tutors at JimForgan.com/tutor.

Third, provide a fun way to read. With your younger child, build a pillow fort and read inside the fort. Create a ‘secret’ reading space, tree house, or unique area for reading.  Regardless of age, read to your child. As you read aloud, periodically stop and discuss what each person is picturing in their mind. This develops reading comprehension.  Older kids might like to listen and read along using Audible.

We offer dyslexia, learning disability, and ADHD/ADD testing to help you give the gift of reading to your child. Call us today at (561) 625 4125

Three Ways to Give the Gift of Reading

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Give the gift of reading to your child this holiday season.  Many elementary age children struggle with reading and COVID-19 and virtual learning have widned the gap.  In addition, if you were your child’s teacher during the lock down, you saw first-hand how hard reading was for your child.  Since reading is foundational for academic success, your child’s reading needs to be on or above grade level.  Here are three ways you can help improve your elementary age child’s reading.

Gift Number 1

First, use the computer based reading program Nessy at Nessy.com. This reading program is for children in kindergarten through fifth grade and it is based on Orton Gillingham reading principles.  Nessy helps children with dyslexia as well as children with weak phonics.  It has built in assessments, adjusts to your child’s reading level, and provides games and characters as rewards.  I recommend using the Nessy program 4 days per week.  It’s not free but is reasonably priced at $12/ month or less if you purchase annually.

Gift Number 2

Next, you can teach your child using a specialized reading approach.  The Barton Reading and Spelling System was designed for parents and educators to use one-to-one with children.  To use the program you should first take and pass the tutor screening.  Then purchase levels from BartonReading.com.  Each level comes with training on DVD so you can watch the training and then use the program with your child.

Gift Number 3

Third, make reading fun.  Struggling readers find reading laborious and mentally draining so they don’t want to pleasure read.  Regardless of their age, read aloud to your child.  This builds vocabulary and keeps the love of reading alive.  As an alternative use Audible or Bookshare.com and listen to an audio book together.  Young kids enjoy graphic novels like the “Dog Man” series.  Use the book “Create Your Own Graphic Novel: A Guide for Kids” by David Chiu to work with your child and create your own graphic novel.  This provides a fun way to read, write, and draw.  Who knows, your child could become a bestselling author.

We offer dyslexia and ADHD/ADD testing so call 625-4125.

Common Causes of Reading Problems

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Common Causes of Reading Problems.  Reading is a critical life skill but up to twenty five percent of kids struggle with learning to read. Common causes of reading problems include having a breakdown in one of the five main areas of reading.  These areas are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, or comprehension. Testing your child can identify the problem so you can provide specific support.  Then your child will gain reading confidence.

Phonemic awareness is the awareness of sounds and how they work in words.  This is a foundational reading skills and a breakdown can interfere with reading and spelling.  Phonics is understanding the relationship between letters and their sounds.  A breakdown here interferes with your child’s ability to quickly and automatically sound out unfamiliar words.

Your child’s reading fluency is important because fluent reading frees up your child’s thinking power to focus on understanding what is being read.  If your child lacks fluency they spend so much mental energy on pronouncing the words that they often don’t understand what they read.

Some children read words but don’t understand their meaning.  For example, “The pig did a jig.” Your child might not know a jig is a type of dance so a vocabulary weakness interferes with comprehension.  Reading comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and in kindergarten through second grade kids learn to read but from third grade on kids read to learn.  Your child will struggle in most academic areas if he or she struggles in reading comprehension.

Additional causes of reading problems include weakness in memory, attention, language, or processing speed.  Let’s figure out your child so you can provide support where it’s needed and build areas of strength.  With the right help your child can become a strong reader and even love to read.

We offer reading testing for dyslexia, learning disabilities, and processing problems.  Ready to help your child? Call 561-625-4125.