Often parents voice concerns that their child is just not achieving despite their apparent "brightness".  There may be a number of reasons for this, but very often the issue is dyslexia.  The child's school may have completed an evaluation but the results were perhaps too murky to make it clear what the problem is.  Schools are often very reluctant to use the term, dyslexia.  My role as an educational therapist is to sit down with the parent, review the school reports, listen to the parent's concerns and try to put it all together.  I might offer to conduct a brief assessment that would help nail the diagnosis.

 Dyslexia – Definition

The definition of dyslexia, as approved in 2002 by the International Dyslexia Association and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health, is as follows:

• Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin.  It is characterized by difficulties with 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 definition is scientifically grounded in a great deal of research.  Dyslexia is one kind of language-based learning problems that can fall anywhere on a spectrum between annoyance and severe limitation.  Dyslexia means problems with the words you speak, the words you hear, and the words your see.  It affects more than reading and is usually experienced for life.  For example, it can scar one’s self-esteem.  It is more common than any other kind of learning disability.  However the good news is it responds to expert, informed instruction.

Dyslexia – Assessment

Assessment for reading problems is the process of gathering information to identify the factors contributing to a student’s difficulty with learning to read and spell.  The purpose of assessment is to develop a learner’s profile of strengths and needs that leads to a blueprint for intervention.

Comprehensive assessment usually requires assessment of intellectual functioning, such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) from which a great deal of information can be derived pertaining to how the child learns best.  Secondly, the child’s level of academic achievement is determined for a variety of classroom subjects.  Information from parents and teachers contributes to understanding the child’s development and the educational opportunities that have been provided.  Finally, supplemental assessments in oral language skills, word recognition, decoding, spelling, phonological processing, automaticity/fluency skills, reading comprehension, and vocabulary are completed to confirm or rule out the specific cluster of symptoms of dyslexia.  A thorough written report presents scores and the evaluator’s expert observations and interpretations, as well as recommendations for intervention if needed.

A brief assessment focuses on the specific cluster of symptoms that typically points to dyslexia in addition to the information gathered from the parent interview.  When intellectual functioning and academic achievement have already been assessed in an evaluation, the informal assessment provides additional information on the supplementary tasks mentioned above to help clarify the child’s abilities and struggles.  At times, the informal assessment is conducted as a starting point toward ultimately describing the child’s full profile of abilities and needs.  An informal assessment often includes the following:

•  Gray Oral Reading Test – IV (GORT-4) - Oral reading and reading comprehension; miscue analysis.
• Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (C-TOPP) – Phonological assessment. 
•  Informal tasks of word recognition, decoding non-words, spelling and free writing
• Student interview to gauge oral language skills and emotional factors related to academic struggle.