The Dyslexia Diagnosis: Better Readers, Happier Kids

If anyone should have noticed her daughter had a learning disorder, Liz Green figured it would have been her. As a kindergarten teacher, she had been specifically trained to spot learning difficulties. But since her daughter, Hayleigh, was an excellent student and an enthusiastic reader, the subtle clues went unnoticed.

“Each night we read, Hayleigh made more and more substitution errors,” she says. “She read ‘rampant’ for ‘repellant’ and ‘habitat’ for ‘hatchery’.”

It didn’t make any sense. Ms. Green asked her daughter’s teachers about the errors, but nobody seemed particularly concerned. Until second grade.

“Hayleigh flat-lined, while the rest of the kids excelled,” she recalls.

The situation launched Ms. Green on a one-woman quest to figure out what was going on with her bright but obviously struggling daughter.

The answer? Dyslexia.

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“The more I researched and learned what it was, the true symptoms and signs began to stand out and scream dyslexia,” Ms. Green says.

However, it took a specialist who lived 150 miles away —and who had never even met her daughter— to diagnose Hayleigh’s symptoms.

The problem with obtaining a quick and accurate diagnosis, Ms. Green discovered, is that most people simply don’t understand what dyslexia really is.

“I also found that I had a lot of misconceptions about dyslexia,” she says. “So as both an educator and a parent I was blindsided due to the lack of accurate knowledge of dyslexia.”

Dyslexia Defined

If you think dyslexia is simply a matter of confusing letters, words and numbers, you’re not alone. But you’re also wrong.

“Dyslexia is not just seeing or writing words backwards and mixed up,” says Alice Womack Marsel, the director of education at Austin’s Scottish Rite Learning Center, which provides dyslexia tutoring for children in grades 1-5. “The underlying cause is an auditory difficulty: Phonological awareness.”

According to The International Dyslexia Association, dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that results in difficulty with specific language skills, especially reading. The IDA is careful to point out that dyslexia is neurological in origin: it is a deficit in the phonological component of language —in other words, the part having to do with “speech sounds”. It has absolutely no bearing on a person’s intelligence: many exceptionally smart and creative people have dyslexia. (See www.dyslexia.com/famous.htm for an exhaustive list of famous people with dyslexia—you’ll be surprised and amazed.)

Dyslexia doesn’t seem to be any more prevalent in one gender, ethnic or socio-economic group than another: it affects all nearly equally. And although there isn’t verifiable proof, some believe that dyslexia runs in families: anecdotal evidence suggests dyslexic parents are very likely to have children who are dyslexic.

Given this, dyslexia is far more common than you might think: Roughly one-in-five people has a language-based learning disability, according to the IDA.

Despite this, early diagnosis and intervention still lags, mostly due to lack of information or misconceptions. A recent Roper Starch Poll found that 44% of parents who noticed their child having difficulty learning waited a year or more before acknowledging their child might have a learning disorder. Even more alarming, perhaps, is that fewer than one-third of children with reading disabilities receive specialized school services to assist them.

Early detection really is key in helping children with dyslexia. Many schools nationwide do not offer dyslexia screening until first or second grade, when reading problems become more apparent. However, some experts contend that dyslexia indicators can be present as early as preschool. (For dyslexia indicators, please see sidebar Dyslexia: Early Detection Is Key.) What is clear is that the earlier intervention can begin, the better.

Dyslexia & The Law

Two U.S. laws guarantee children with dyslexia and related disabilities the right to receive specialized services at school and work: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) ensures that all people with disabilities, including school-age children, cannot be discriminated against by any entity that receives federal funds, while the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides for specialized educational assistance for those who attend public schools.

Texas is one of just a few states in the country to specifically single out dyslexia within the law. Texas Education Code §38.003 mandates that students in public schools be tested for dyslexia and related disorders and that “each school district shall provide for the treatment of any student determined to have dyslexia or a related disorder.” [A “related disorder” includes auditory imperceptions, dysphasia (difficulty recalling specific words), dysgraphia (a writing deficiency) and developmental spelling problems.] And Texas Administrative Code §74.28 is exhaustively comprehensive about the rights of children with dyslexia, and those of their parents, when it comes to education. It details everything from how kids can be tested, and by whom, to “individualized, intensive, multi-sensory, phonetic methods” that can be used to educate dyslexic kids. (To read the law in its entirety, log on to: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter074/ch074c.html)
In 1998, the Texas State Board of Education amended the guidelines for assisting those with dyslexia. The resulting document, The Dyslexia Handbook: Procedures Concerning Dyslexia and Related Disorders, gives school districts and parents additional information regarding the state's dyslexia law. The handbook was revised in 2007.

Most recently, in June 2009, Governor Rick Perry signed House Bill 461, which provides for —but does not require— licensure for Licensed Dyslexia Therapists and Licensed Dyslexia Practitioners. Among other things, the bill requires a Masters level degree for licensure as a Licensed Dyslexia Therapist.

School Accountability

All of these laws can be dizzying for parents. But the bottom line is that help is available, as are strong advocates for intervention. One of them is Allyson Frost.

Ms. Frost is the dyslexia specialist for the Austin Independent School District. Her easy manner belies a steel backbone when it comes to advocating for kids. She is passionate about dyslexia education and adamant about the need for early detection and intervention.

“I believe if we say ‘let’s wait and see’ we can be doing something,” she says.

Ms. Frost certainly doesn’t take a lackadaisical attitude when it comes to dyslexia education. She hosts seminars for teachers and administrators to instruct them how to identify dyslexia, and gives monthly workshops to help parents navigate their way through the sometimes confusing maze of dyslexia identification and assistance. (This month she is speaking at Gallindo Elementary on Oct. 7 and 14; for more information, please call 414-6645.)
The latter is important, because the system can be rather slow and confusing.

Every single child in the state of Texas is evaluated for dyslexia beginning in kindergarten, when they take the Texas Primary Reader Inventory. The TPRI, as it’s known, is mandated by the state to measure a child’s reading progress and discern any reading difficulties. Teachers use the results to help determine whether children need special services to assist them in learning to read. If a teacher believes a child may be struggling with dyslexia, the child’s case is presented to the campus’ Impact Committee for evaluation and possible intervention. Each campus has its own Impact Committee and dyslexia specialist, though, so intervention and services can vary from campus to campus.

This process can take a long time, and occasionally it doesn’t result in a decision parents like. The Impact Committee has the power to determine whether to offer a child special services, and sometimes it decides intervention isn’t necessary. When this happens, Ms. Frost says parents should ask how the committee arrived at its decision, including what evidence was presented on their child’s behalf.

“I encourage parents to be an advocate for their child,” she says, which includes calling her if they need help with their struggling child. Although each campus determines individual intervention services, as the district’s dyslexia specialist, Ms. Frost is there to assist concerned parents and work as a parent-school liaison when needed.

Parents may also seek an independent assessment from a neuropsychiatrist or another qualified dyslexia specialist. AISD will accept a dyslexia diagnosis from a certified professional, and will consider services based on that diagnosis.
In any other city, it might be difficult to find someone who can diagnose dyslexia. In Austin, we’re lucky: we have two organizations solely devoted to dyslexia diagnosis and education.

Scottish Rite Learning Center

The Scottish Rite Learning Center is one such organization. Founded by the Scottish Rite Masons in 1989, the center operates an after-school program for dyslexic kids ages 7 to 12, as well as monthly informational workshops for parents and others interested in learning about dyslexia.

Although the organization strongly recommends that parents first seek dyslexia identification and assistance from their child’s school, it does provide comprehensive psycho-educational evaluations by licensed psychologists for students who may need or want a second opinion. The center believes these tests are more in depth than those administered by most public schools.

“These [tests] cover much more than a dyslexia screening, giving a fuller picture of a child’s strengths and weaknesses,” says Ms. Marsel.

For children who are identified as dyslexic, the center offers Orton-Gillingham-based courses, a system of instruction advocated by the International Dyslexia Association that shows how sounds and letters are related and work to form words. The organization also offers a newer program, developed by the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas in 2007, called Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia, which incorporates the five components of effective reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.

In addition to its classes for children, the Scottish Rite Learning Center also offers training for academic language therapist certification, as well as workshops for parents that cover a variety of topics related to dyslexia and reading.

The Rawson-Saunders School

For parents of dyslexic children who have exhausted public school services with little success, there is the Rawson-Saunders School, a full-time private school for students with dyslexia in Austin. The school serves roughly 100 kids in first through eighth grades who have been professionally diagnosed as dyslexic. The diagnosis itself is important: “The assessments need to provide information to substantiate if the student has a profile of dyslexia and would benefit from the RSS academic program,” says Lynn Hoover, the school’s assistance director and director of curriculum.

That program includes a full spectrum of individualized instruction, beginning with an emphasis on phonological awareness — how each student interprets the spoken word. The school then provides sequential, systematic and multi-sensory methods to teach reading and writing, as well as one-on-one instruction with an academic language therapist. Like Scottish Rite, the school also uses an Orton-Gillingham-based instructional method, which is known in dyslexia circles as the gold standard for teaching those with dyslexia because it integrates visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic learning.
But perhaps what is most unique about the school is its overall approach toward dyslexia: the diagnosis isn’t viewed as a “disorder” but as a gift, which in turn comes with creativity and intelligence, says Steve Wolf, a parent whose son attends the school. Students are actively encouraged to develop their intellect and self-confidence; their unique way of learning is not considered a “disability”. Certainly, the school’s students benefit from this approach. Case in point: last December, two Rawson-Saunders students formed their own company and competed at the Children’s Business Fair.

The Rawson-Saunders School is unique in other ways, as well: it is one of only a few full-time schools in the country devoted specifically to teaching kids with dyslexia. And given that some 20% of kids will not learn to read or write without specialized instruction, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, it is clear the school fills a deep need.

“This is precisely the role RSS plays in the educational community,” says Ms. Hoover.

Future Success

Despite myths to the contrary, there is absolutely no doubt that children with dyslexia can learn. In fact, they can become excellent readers, and proficient spellers and writers, if they receive the appropriate instruction, according to the International Dyslexia Association.

“Students with undiagnosed dyslexia are often described as ‘lazy’ and ‘not trying’; some are thought to be slow learners and many dyslexic individuals think they are stupid,” says Ms. Marsel of The Scottish Rite learning Center. “[But] in reality, these individuals are intelligent and often have other strengths and abilities—they are trying harder than the rest of their peers.”

Ms. Green knows this first-hand: after her daughter received intensive instruction, her reading improved dramatically and she is now reading at grade level. The experience has made Ms. Green into something of a crusader for early dyslexia diagnosis and intervention. She encourages parents to pay close attention to how their children are learning their ABCs. Although many language inaccuracies are developmentally appropriate, parents shouldn’t necessarily consider persistent errors “baby talk.”

“It’s when the signs and symptoms begin snowballing that a parent really needs to be proactive and not wait for the school to say something,” she says.

She’s also adamant that dyslexia isn’t a dire diagnosis, but rather a diagnostic key that will help a child unlock her full potential.

“Dyslexia isn’t a bad thing; it’s a hurdle. It’s a learning and ongoing process,” she says. “Hayleigh is very intelligent and has many strengths. It is this that we focus on.”