Don't panic if dyslexia is diagnosed!

You’ve probably known for ages that something has been up – your child seems to be behind in reading and you’ve noticed that they don’t write as much as others in their class.

This is a big worry for a lot of parents who, quite rightly, bring this up with their child’s school.  I find, quite often, that their concerns are then brushed under the carpet, usually being told that their child is developing slower than others. This can, of course, be right as children do develop at different rates. At some point parents may decide to look for an underlying cause. In most cases this will mean paying for an assessment to be done by either a specialist teacher or an educational psychologist (if you’re lucky your school may do an initial dyslexia screening).Whatever happens here, it does still come as a shock when you’re told that your own child has dyslexia.

What does this mean? In general terms it means that their reading and writing skills are being hampered by one or a number of things. These usually fall under the categories of a slow processing speed ie it takes your child longer to work through things and a poor working memory which will mean it is harder for the child to hold information in his/her head ( important in reading, writing and maths). A major issue is a poor understanding of the letter/sound correspondence ie knowing what sounds to make for each letter or combination of letters in a word. Some children with dyslexia also have a poor awareness of time and coordination.

Try not to panic! It can take some time to come to terms with this and a lot of parents will try and question why this has happened. In my opinion there are lots of positive action you can take which include the following:

1. Ensure your child has an interest or hobby which they enjoy. This is important to maintain self-esteem. Some of my students enjoy drama, dancing and playing drums!

2. Read with your child as often as possible. Read some pages together, you read some pages, your child can read as much as they are comfortable with ( even if a few words/ sentences at a time). This will help them enjoy reading without it becoming a battle ( which nobody enjoys). It also helps them to read more interesting books.

3.Ensure your child’s teacher is aware of the assessment and their difficulties. They may need reminding now and again! However, this area of teaching is gradually improving…..

4. Get them specialist help. This could be in the form of employing a specialist tutor or buying a programme which has been developed for dyslexic children. The crux of any tutoring/ specialist learning programmes is building up the student’s knowledge of words in a step by step way, using multi-sensory methods. In essence, this just means getting the student to see, hear, speak and write simultaneously.

Many children, with the correct help, make extremely good progress at school and pass many exams ( including English Language). Some, like Richard Branson, go on to be multi-millionaires!