Dr. Forgan’s insight on dyslexia

Florida Dyslexia Testing

Florida Dyslexia Testing

/in /by

Dr. Jim Forgan is a certified dyslexia testing specialist and school neuropsychologist in Jupiter, Florida. He has tested hundreds of children specifically for dyslexia. Jim will identify if your child has dyslexia along with its severity. He will also identify the best teaching methods and reading programs to help your child become a strong reader. After dyslexia testing with Jim Forgan you’ll have the answers you were hoping for and clear direction on how to help your child.

Florida Dyslexia Testing Expert

Call around and ask others if they are ‘certified’ to test for dyslexia and you’ll find people say they test for dyslexia but they are not ‘certified.’ There is a big difference.  Jim Forgan is certified by international dyslexia expert Susan Barton as a dyslexia testing specialist and licensed by the state of Florida as a school psychologist. Susan Barton is the creator of the Orton-Gillingham influenced Barton Reading and Spelling System that is used in school around the world.

Dyslexia Testing Process

Jim offers Florida dyslexia testing and works with families from around the state including dyslexia testing from Miami, dyslexia testing Orlando, and dyslexia testing Ft. Myers. Dyslexia testing takes four hours and can be completed in one day or over two days.   Most teens prefer to complete dyslexia testing in one day while younger children typically perform best in 2, two hour sessions. If you are coming from a distance we work with your schedule to perhaps do one afternoon session and then a morning session. There are many hotel options in the area where you can spend the night. In addition, Jupiter has the Loggerhead Turtle Rescue park, Jupiter Lighthouse, beach, and mini-golf that you may enjoy. There are many waterfront restaurants.

The dyslexia testing process begins with a parent meeting so we understand your concerns and the most important questions you want to learn from testing. After this your child starts testing and breaks are taken as needed. There is no one test for dyslexia so we use a battery of 15 plus activities to assess your child for dyslexia. These include:

Reading real and made up words
Reading speed
Reading comprehension
Spelling
Phonics processing
Rapid recall
Memory
Auditory discrimination
Sound to symbol knowledge
Symbol to sound knowledge
and other tests.

At the end of the testing process it takes us one week to score everything and write up the results. We discuss the results with you in person or by phone.

Group Dyslexia Screening Test in Florida

Jim Forgan, Florida Dyslexia Testing expert, is also available to screen groups of children for dyslexia at your school. This individual screening is ten minutes or less and ideal for schools that want to start an early intervention program to help children at-risk for dyslexia.  We come to your school to conduct the screenings. Call for additional information.

Dyslexics Learn Differently

/in /by

Many children that have reading difficulty are dyslexic. Up to twenty percent of individuals have dyslexia and dyslexia occurs from mild to severe. All children with dyslexia can read some. Many kids compensate because they are smart or have a strong memory. Dyslexics often get by in early grades but struggle in upper grades when the quantity of reading increases.

Prevent low self-esteem and emotional damage

Young children that struggle to read often feel they are not as smart as other children. Many parents tell me they worry about their child’s self-esteem because their child makes comments like, “I’m bad at reading.”  A third grade girl told her parents she was stupid because other kids read so much better than her.  According to the International Dyslexia Association, a child’s feelings of inferiority develops by age ten and after this age it becomes extremely difficult to help the child develop positive self-esteem. This is why early age dyslexia testing is so important! DON’T WAIT.

Children as young as age 5 ½ can be evaluated for dyslexia. Warning signs of dyslexia in elementary students include: family history, slow choppy reading, difficulty sounding out words quickly, and poor spelling in everyday writing. Many dyslexics can pass school spelling tests but spell the same words wrong in daily writing. Warning signs of dyslexia in older students include: disliking reading, poor reading comprehension, and slow reading speed.

If your child has dyslexia there are specific reading programs that can help your child overcome it. You don’t want to simple give your child more practice. You have to use a different reading program that is based on the work of Dr. Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham. There is a huge difference in the way to teach a dyslexic reader because dyslexics learn differently. The best reading programs to help children with dyslexia are Orton-Gillingham based and two of the most effective programs are the Wilson Reading System and the Barton Reading and Spelling System.

Online dyslexia tutoring

Another option is online tutoring using the group called DyslexiaConnect.com.  If you prefer one to one tutoring, contact us and I have a list of tutors that use these reading programs.

What is stealth dyslexia?

/in /by

Stealth dyslexia is form of hidden dyslexia.  These children are highly intelligent and often compensate for their dyslexia because they learn to rely upon their outstanding memory, keen intuition, and general smarts to work around their reading weaknesses. This type of dyslexia often goes undetected until the child is in fourth grade or older.  Then he or she starts struggling with reading longer and unfamiliar words.  Subsequently, this interferes with reading comprehension.

Your child may have stealth dyslexia if he or she is very smart and can read but does not enjoy reading. Many of these children don’t read for pleasure because it’s laborious.  These are frequent warning signs of stealth dyslexia.  You should be concerned if you check off three or more when considering your child.

  • Underachievement relative to intelligence
  • Inattention or apparent carelessness
  • A disparity between oral and written expression
  • Poor word-by-word sounding out
  • Impaired, choppy, oral reading but stronger silent reading
  • Difficulty reading short words (in, to, that) and may substitute
  • Problems in math or instructions on tests
  • Severe difficulties with spelling in everyday writing (not on tests)
  • Very messy with penmanship
  • Feelings of not being adequate enough

Often people will try to explain your child’s difficulties on inattentive and careless, not trying hard enough, or from having unrealistic school expectations.  School staff may say that your child is too smart to have a disability.  The school staff may also tell you your child is not failing enough to have a learning disability.  If you hear things like this from your child’s school staff get it touch with me. After all, you don’t want your child punished for something he or she can’t help but you need an evaluation to understand if it’s actually  dyslexia or something else.

Stealth Dyslexia Warning Signs

The above warning signs of stealth dyslexia are in stark contrast to the gifts where these children excel.  Children with stealth dyslexia are often great builders because they have great visual-spatial abilities and strong 3D mental rotation.  These children see the big picture.  They have language strengths with oral language and have a rich vocabulary.  Children with stealth dyslexia are often interesting to talk to and can carry on a good conversation because of their strong critical thinking and general fund of knowledge.

Contact our office if you suspect your child has stealth dyslexia and we can test to find out.

Jupiter Dyslexia Reading Tutor

/in , /by

Learning to read doesn’t have to be a struggle and you can receive help from a Jupiter Dyslexia Reading Tutor. We help parents help their child overcome reading difficulty with a one to one individualized approach designed to meet each child’s unique needs. When it comes to learning to read a one size fits all approach is not effective.

If your child’s not reading up to par then consider specialized reading tutoring. Most tutors offer a general approach but our tutoring is highly specialized. We use methods that are based on effective research and that work.

We use Orton Gillingham based reading methods that are based on effective research and that work.  These types of programs are one-to-one and highly effective because they teach a child to read using the six most common syllable types in order from most to least common.  This ensures your child experiences a lot of success which builds confidence and self-esteem.  We use the Barton Reading and Spelling System, the Wilson Reading System or the Lindamood-Bell Reading Program.

There are five main areas that your child has to master in order to become a proficient reader. The five areas are: understanding sounds, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

For example you may read the next sentence but not understand; “The cognitive fluency impaired the prefrontal cortex and inhibition which affects his theory of mind.”  Did you understand it? If not then you had a vocabulary breakdown. If this were your child, we’d help your child by teaching vocabulary within the context of reading.

It’s important to pinpoint the reading breakdown and then provide support.  Your child may have a specific deficit that only reading specialists can identify.  If you are already providing tutoring but it’s general homework help or general tutoring then this is not the right tutoring.  Jupiter reading tutoring is highly specialized and specific to help your child obtain the maximum reading gain in the least amount of time.

Your child doesn’t have to shed tears over reading. If your child struggles with reading, come see the dyslexia reading specialists at Forgan Educational Services and our Jupiter dyslexia reading tutor.

Special Reading Tutoring

/in /by

Special reading tutoring is a completely different approach to helping children with persistent reading difficulty learn to read.  Young children with dyslexia or challenging reading difficulties learn best with a reading curriculum that is different in two important ways: how and what children are taught.  First, the children must be taught how to read using an approach that is a specialized multisensory approach as children with dyslexia or chronic racing difficulty learn best when all their learning channels are activated.  This means your child must hear, see, say, touch, and manipulate the information they are learning. They are learning via a specialized one-to-one reading program that most schools don’t offer.

Second, what your child learns must be different from the regular education way to teach reading.  Your child must be taught in a manner that is systematic, explicit, direct, and content controlled.  There are several reading programs available that are highly effective for helping children with reading challenges.  The key is to know which reading program is best for your child.

If your child is in early elementary school, these are the critical years for helping him or her with the foundational skills needed for success in middle and high school.  In other words, don’t wait and start special reading instruction now or valuable time will slip by.  This is an investment in your child’s future and in his or her self-esteem and confidence.   Special reading tutoring is different from homework help so if you’ve tried tutoring in the past and thought it did not work come see us.  We tutor differently using the most effective reading tutoring programs for kids with all kinds of reading and reading comprehension difficulties.  Spending money now will pay off in the long run. I know because I’ve done it wit my own child.

The longer you wait, the harder it is to overcome a reading challenge.  When you wait to start until your child is older, in addition to the special reading tutoring, you’ll also be trying to change your child’s negative attitude toward reading.

Children who require special reading tutoring and receive it at an early age have a more positive attitude toward reading when they are older.  My associates will help you and we offer special reading tutoring in the Jupiter, Tequesta, Palm Beach Gardens, and North Palm Beach areas.  It may be tempting to take a wait and see approach but if you have the right special reading tutoring program, the right tutor, and the right number of times per week, your child will learn to read to his or her potential.

We can help; call today.