How old should a child be in order to be diagnosed with Dyslexia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is working hard to identify these kids right away. The K-2 teachers are all being trained in explicit phonics instruction and there are tests the kids get early on to see if they are making adequate progress. Signs would be: child can't learn letters, can't match sounds to letters, can't put two sounds together to make a new sound ("T" plus "R" makes "TR" -they can't get that). Also, these kids can't rhyme, can't hear differences in words, like if you say fat, fan and fat, they might think they were all the same. They can't pick out that one ended with a different sound. They mix up words, like saying "basghetti" way past other kids their age. They only say parts of multisyllablic words because they can't hear all of it and remember it. So they say, "Are we 'posed to have snack now?" because they don't know it is "SUP-posed." They can't manipulate sounds. If you say C A T really slowly, and then ask them to take the first sound off and just say the last two, they can't respond "AT."

Push for early testing and don't back down. You can have private testing at GMU at a sliding scale.

Play word games with your kid and practice rhyming and isolating sounds. Use shaving cream or other textures to practice writing letters. Check with the Parent Resource Center for FCPS for other strategies. Get a private tutor who specializes in dyslexia. There is not going to be enough school time for the kind of remediation this needs - every kid with dyslexia that I have ever had only made progress when there was a tutor, also.

Thank you! I'm a director at a preschool and it's good to know these specific things so we can watch oUT for them in the spring/summer of prek. Not that all prek kids can do everything the same, but I really do think most of those exposed to reading and singing and word play (rhyming etc) should be able to tell if fat, fan are different, for example. I know that the earlier a child is diagnosed the better, and yet there is of course a wide variation in children's development, so it can be hard to tell if it's a question of a problem or just a child who isn't ready yet but will be soon.

[Anonymous]

Thank you preschool director! So many pre-K programs in this areas are doing a good job at introducing letter sounds etc that I do think some of the markers may become apparent.

I would have loved to have heard this from our preschool. And to be fair to our montessori preK - they did suggest that if only my very bright dyslexic child tried a little harder, then she would make progress on the reading work. So they did flag

I know I am a living in a fantasy world. But wouldn't it be great if we supported kids who need to learn to read differently from the beginning of kindergarten so that they never learned to think of themselves as incapable or stupid. Think of all of the emotional damage that wouldn't need to be undone.

[Anonymous]

I suspected by the end of K that my older DS had problems but most of out focus was on his severe ADHD. We were discouraged from testing in 1st but I went ahead with private testing over the summer before second. He has severe dyslexia. In my own research I realized that DH has classic mild dyslexia.

I talked to the folks who did the testing for older DS about concerns for my younger DS. They prefer testing after 6 because the battery of tests they can use increases. They did encourage me to go ahead with a lot of multisensory early instruction (letter sounds, word play, etc) even without testing. He's an early Oct baby and rising K this year, so I'm watching and waiting and communicating with the school. If he does not show progress we will pursue testing before the end of K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I suspected by the end of K that my older DS had problems but most of out focus was on his severe ADHD. We were discouraged from testing in 1st but I went ahead with private testing over the summer before second. He has severe dyslexia. In my own research I realized that DH has classic mild dyslexia.

I talked to the folks who did the testing for older DS about concerns for my younger DS. They prefer testing after 6 because the battery of tests they can use increases. They did encourage me to go ahead with a lot of multisensory early instruction (letter sounds, word play, etc) even without testing. He's an early Oct baby and rising K this year, so I'm watching and waiting and communicating with the school. If he does not show progress we will pursue testing before the end of K.

This was our experience, too. We tested our 6 + 1/2 year old mid-way through 1st grade. It turns out she has ADHD and anxiety, with some Executive Functioning issues, but they did not label her dyslexic. Our 5 year old rising Kindergartner has far more profound issues (he can now, after a year and a half of academic and speech therapy, only identify 15 letters and 9 numbers, despite having a FSIQ of 140), but both Stixrud, Children's and MCPS told us that in order to have his testing be meaningful, we should wait until he is 6 and a few months into Kindergarten (say, October or November) to do a full neuropscyh for him and initiate the IEP process within MCPS.

[Anonymous]

PP again. One other point - as with the prior PP at 9:58, we also put both our kids in multi-sensory academic therapy from the first moment we recognized possible issues (for our son this was as early as 4 years old; for our daughter, it was not until 1st grade). As you probably know, early intervention is key, and academic therapy can only help, even if their diagnoses end up being different from what we suspect (as our DD's appears to be). We have a strong history of dyslexia and ADHD in our family, hence being hyper (heheh) focused on identifying any possible issues early on.

[Anonymous]

This is 9:58 again ... one other reason I'm waiting until DS is established in K is to pursue testing through the school if we think testing is warranted. I posted the article from Decoding Dyslexia AZ and I've talked with Mindwell Chantilly. They gave me essentially the same advice as in the DDAZ article on getting comprehensive testing covered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP again. One other point - as with the prior PP at 9:58, we also put both our kids in multi-sensory academic therapy from the first moment we recognized possible issues (for our son this was as early as 4 years old; for our daughter, it was not until 1st grade). As you probably know, early intervention is key, and academic therapy can only help, even if their diagnoses end up being different from what we suspect (as our DD's appears to be). We have a strong history of dyslexia and ADHD in our family, hence being hyper (heheh) focused on identifying any possible issues early on.

Where did you find multi sensory academic therapy for such a young child? Our family has a similar risk pattern so I would love to know more about this option.

[Anonymous]

Before 2nd, that way you can get intervention before 3rd.

In 3rd kids switch from learning to read to reading to learn and if they can't read it is an issue.

[Anonymous]

My youngest was diagnosed in 2nd grade. It took until my oldest was in 5th to get diagnosed. I saw the signs but everyone at school told me he was fine. His 1st neuropysch was when he was in 1st grade and they didn't catch it at that time.

So I would say definitely by mid year of 2nd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My youngest was diagnosed in 2nd grade. It took until my oldest was in 5th to get diagnosed. I saw the signs but everyone at school told me he was fine. His 1st neuropysch was when he was in 1st grade and they didn't catch it at that time.

So I would say definitely by mid year of 2nd grade.

Well the ideal and the reality seems to be different. Our neurophysch also said we should have caught it at 2nd grade, especially because the earlier it was caught the more time for intervention especially before getting into the upper grades where the workload in reading and writing really take off. We didn't catch it until 5th grade - I think it depends on the teachers, parents and how "severe" the dyslexia is. While my brother has dyslexia we all still missed the signs - we had no push to do a neurophsy in 2nd grade and I'm doubting we would have at 4K until the situation changed and it was obvious that there was an issue.

[Anonymous]

My DC was finally diagnosed at the beginning of 2nd grade. IMO, it was several years too late for him. He was on the "watch" list since kindergarten, but the school never informed us of that until after he received his IEP mid 2nd grade. So, they were noticing something as early as kindergarten. Plus in preschool, when he was about to turn 3, I self referred him to Child Find and they said he was just above the level where they would offer services. So, something was evident at as early as that. I had no idea what, I just knew that there were a number of things that were wrong. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have pushed for earlier intervention. DC has profound dyslexia and dysgraphia.

I think that there are tests that can be developed to absolutely flag students as early as three. RAN errors, trouble with printing, defiance during preschool when asked to do anything in art, but no refinance in any other part of the day, trouble learning the letters of ones name (even if it is only four letters), trouble with pronunciation - were all things that were present in my child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP again. One other point - as with the prior PP at 9:58, we also put both our kids in multi-sensory academic therapy from the first moment we recognized possible issues (for our son this was as early as 4 years old; for our daughter, it was not until 1st grade). As you probably know, early intervention is key, and academic therapy can only help, even if their diagnoses end up being different from what we suspect (as our DD's appears to be). We have a strong history of dyslexia and ADHD in our family, hence being hyper (heheh) focused on identifying any possible issues early on.

Where did you find multi sensory academic therapy for such a young child? Our family has a similar risk pattern so I would love to know more about this option.

Well, it was a bit of a lark. A brilliant, kind, wonderful MCPS speech pathologist by day / private academic therapist by night, began working with DS at age 3 for articulation, upon referral of a friend and neighbor who also has dyslexic kids with some articulation issues/delays. By age 4, our DS' speech was better, and it was clear he was having serious issues identifying letters and numbers, so we asked her if she could start incorporating some multi-sensory academic therapy in her work with him - she said she had been thinking it was time to do just that, and was completely on board. She had experience in various techniques, actually developed a binder of materials and games tailored for him (!) which she updated every few weeks, and she had done that work for him for the last year and a half. They now do about 80% multi-sensory phonetic work, 20% speech, per lesson. Sadly, she is moving out of the area THIS WEEK! Ugh. We are so sad - she was an absolute treasure.

We have found, through ASDEC, a new academic therapist who will start working with him next month before the school day commences.

Generally, I have heard there are a few programs out there that may offer multi-sensory programs suitable for 4 yo's, the year before K, though I get the sense that trained academic therapists who have worked with kids that young are not easy to find. If you are looking, the ASDEC, Wilson and Lab School resource folks may have some suggestions / referrals, even if their traditional offerings begin at K.

GL!