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Parent’s Quick Start Guide to Dyslexia

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My new dyslexia book, Parent’s Quick Start Guide to Dyslexia, was recently released and provides you with an immediate overview of dyslexia and specific steps you can take to support and help your child. Each chapter is packed with detailed and helpful information, covering identification, public schools versus private settings, and how (and when) to seek professional help. Topics include a wealth of research-backed activities, nurturing talent and creativity, motivating your child to read, and more.  Offering straightforward, easy to understand, and evidence-based information, this book is a go-to resource for caregivers parenting a child with dyslexia.

I’ve been diagnosing children with dyslexia for a while and providing parents this type of information in our review sessions. For those that know me, I’m a get to the point fast type of guy.  Now you can get trusted, get to the point help for your child with dyslexia in my new book.  Time is too valuable to waste so let’s do what is best to help your child and let’s do it now!

 

Nurturing Creativity In Dyslexics

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All children with dyslexia need to believe they excel at some area in their life.  This helps develop our self-esteem and healthy self-esteem advances success in life. Self-esteem is developed by combining our internal beliefs with our external feedback. Thus, our self-esteem is a combination of how we view ourselves and how we believe others view us.

Dyslexia Self Esteem

We want your child with dyslexia to develop healthy self-esteem and feel good about him or herself. So, in what area does your child excel? Although it might be academic related, it might not. Perhaps your child believes she is talented at mathematics. Other kids might believe they are science expert with a deep knowledge of space or fossils. Your child’s natural talent might be athletics and being a fast runner, best basketball free thrower, dancer, or figure skater. Does your child have innated musical ability? Recognize and reinforce your child’s strength area.

If you need ideas consider reading, The Dyslexia Empowerment Plan: A Blueprint for Renewing Your Child’s Confidence and Love of Learning. Author Ben Foss describes his own struggles with dyslexia and provides you with a new perspective that remediation what is broken in your child is not the ultimate goal.  He explains, “There are specific attitudes and habits that will have a huge impact on whether your child will be able to apply her strengths at school and beyond.”

Nurturing Creativity in Dyslexics

Since children develop at different rates you can provide your child with opportunities to sample various activities, athletics, arts, and hobbies to gauge their interest and talents. Some activities will be tried and shelved while others might continue to develop and be refined throughout adolescence. It’s often our natural strengths that carry us through in life and shape our career choices. Your child is smart in many ways so help other family members and teachers understand your child’s natural assets.  Someone has to recognize your child’s gifts and we hope it’s you.

Concerned About Your Child?

Call to discuss your child as we test children ages 5.5 through college for dyslexia, learning disabilities, ADHD, depression, anxiety, and other processing disorders.  Call (561) 625 4125.

Categorized: Dyslexia self esteem

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

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

Could It Be Dyslexia?

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Could it be dyslexia that is holding your child back? Dyslexia is a type of reading learning disability that affects 1 out of 5 children.  Julie brought her seven-year-old son in because her instinct told her he was behind in reading.  The classroom teacher told her he was doing OK and there were worse off students in her class.  Julie did not want to settle for ‘OK’ and knew that her son’s struggles were real. While he enjoyed when she read to him, he resisted, read slowly, and became squirmy when it was his turn to read.  The testing showed he met the dyslexia criteria and she felt relieved to have confirmation about what her motherly instinct told her.  She hired a specialized reading tutor and now her son is on his way to overcoming his dyslexia.

Could it Be Dyslexia? Dyslexia Warning Signs

These are dyslexia warning signs in elementary school students.

difficulty learning to tie shoes

trouble memorizing address, phone number, or the alphabet

can’t create words that rhyme

messy handwriting, letters that are formed differently and don’t sit on the line

letter or number reversals continuing past first grade

slow, choppy, inaccurate reading:

guesses based on shape or context

skips or misreads prepositions (at, to, of)

ignores suffixes

can’t sound out unknown words

poor spelling

often can’t remember sight words

difficulty telling time on a clock with hands

trouble with math memorizing multiplication tables

difficulty memorizing a sequence of steps

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is more than reversing letters and numbers. The International Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as, “Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficultieswith 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.”

This means to test for dyslexia your child’s testing must include a test of phonological processing.  There is not one definitive dyslexia test so your child needs to take a battery of tests which includes reading real and made up words, reading speed, reading comprehension, spelling real and made up words, and many others.

Consider dyslexia testing if you believe your child has three or more warning signs.  The younger your child is when you confirm dyslexia and start specialized reading instruction, the better the outcome. Call us at (561) 625-4125 or visit JimForgan.com.