My daughter is in the first grade and she is having a difficult time reading. Her best friend, who is also a first grader, reads very well. Should I have my daughter tested for dyslexia?
Learning to read is one of the most fascinating processes for a parent to watch. Many of us start to read to our children when they are infants, and we take enormous pride when they learn to say their ABCs. Some children will know the text of their favorite stories so well that they turn the pages and "read" as preschoolers. Once they learn to start recognizing and printing letters, we wonder when real reading and writing will begin.
For parents who love to read, it can be very disheartening to see a child struggle with reading. It is equally difficult not to compare our children to other children. For these reasons, it is important to understand the process of learning to read to decide whether your child is doing well enough or whether she needs help now.
Reading begins with the realization that letters symbolize sounds and that the sounds are strung together to make words. Our English alphabet is composed of 26 letters that symbolize about 44 sounds, called phonemes. Frequently, children who are not yet reading will write out a bunch of letters and then ask a parent, "What word does this spell?" This is because they do not yet grasp that fundamental concept that each letter represents a sound that must be put in a meaningful order to create a word. To a three year old, S-D-T-R is just as useful as C-A-T. Research conducted through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) indicates that for children to successfully learn how to read, they must understand that the letters can be sounded out to make a word. That is, a child must understand that words can be broken down into discrete sounds.
For a long time there were two distinct schools of thought about teaching reading. One relied heavily on "phonics" or teaching the sounds (phonemes) associated with each letter, then having the child sound out each letter of the word. The second school of thought encouraged children to recognize whole words by sight rather than attempting to sound out the letters separately. The latest research indicates that understanding phonics, basically learning the sounds associated with each letter symbol, is key to beginning to read. As reading fluency progresses, children then can learn to recognize the entire word without having to sound it out.
Research has also shown that children should have developed "phonemic awareness" by the end of first grade. There are phonemic awareness skills tests that can be administered in kindergarten and first grade. These test take about fifteen minutes to administer and are highly predictive of difficulties in learning to read. For the vast majority of poor readers, prevention and early intervention through specific instruction from well-trained teachers can bring these children up to average reading skills. The term "Reading Recovery" is used in some schools. Unfortunately, if intervention is delayed until the child is in the third grade (about nine years of age), then more than half will continue to have difficulty with reading throughout the remainder of their schooling and adult life.
Dyslexia is a term that is used broadly by some to mean reading difficulty. For most educators, dyslexia represents a specific kind of reading problem that affects up to twenty percent of student. Dyslexia is related to the inability to decode written language into spoken language. Again, lack of awareness of phonemes is at the root. But it is important for parents to understand that there are other roadblocks to reading besides the decoding process. Lack of practice is one example. A poor vocabulary is another. If you have a parent/teacher conference coming up, I would suggest asking the teacher if your child is learning to read at an acceptable rate and ask her what, if any, skills tests are offered at her school. If by the end of first grade, she is still struggling to sound out words, you may want to get her reading tested.
There are many excellence sources on the World Wide Web regarding reading. One site that I really like is the Center for Development and Learning, a nonprofit center designed to help parents, students, and teaching professionals understand the learning process as it applies to all styles of learning. This site has many links to organizations dedicated to helping all students learn, regardless of their learning differences.
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