Reply to Outside of School Resources and IEP for newly diagnosed dyslexia

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Someone diagnosed dyslexia in a five year old who hasn't started kindergarten yet? That is incredibly concerning. I would hold off on pursuing tutoring or extra supports and instead see how your child does in kindergarten reading instruction. [/quote]

I know you mean well, but you are wrong. Dyslexia is neurobiological. You can identify a dyslexic brain in an FMRI at 18 months. The core deficit in dyslexia is phonological, basically the ability to hear and separate individual sounds in the unbroken stream of speech. It is such a tiny thing, but it is essential to reading. If you can teach that skill before the child is taught phonics they have the possibility to learn to read “normally”. If they go into phonics instruction with the core deficit unremediated they can’t learn phonics. You need to be able to segment the speech sounds before you can’t map them to letters.[/quote]

No, I'm not. For background, I am a psychologist and diagnose learning disabilities. First, just because something is neurobiological does not mean it can be identified at any age with brain scans. While there are certain neurological differences that we can see on scans, these differences are not diagnostic. This is true for many diagnoses (e.g., autism, depression). Second, phonological processing is core to dyslexia. However, early deficits in phonological processing may indicate children who are at risk for dyslexia, but are not enough to diagnose dyslexia. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in reading. If someone is not yet at an age where they can be developmentally expected to read (and have also not been in school yet), they cannot be reliably or validly diagnosed with dyslexia. [/quote]

I believe there may be new research you aren’t familiar with. Age appropriate phonological awareness (and there is a skill set that is developmentally appropriate for every age) isn’t just correlated with dyslexia, it is predictive of struggle acquiring reading. And improving phonological awareness at age 5-6 is preventative - it makes reading failure less likely. This child does not need phonics yet. That isn’t age appropriate. She needs explicit phonological awareness training, and moving into linking speech sounds to letter shapes.

I know many professionals prefer a watch and wait approach. It is risky, though, because kids with dyslexia can get turned off school and internalize reading failure very early. By first grade many dyslexic kids already have experienced repeated failure and are starting to have negative behaviors and coping strategies. When they do begin to read they rely on guessing and rote memory. It is unnecessary suffering.

I truly say this with respect for you and what you do for kids every day. Consider whether the research supports early diagnosis and referral to services. I believe it does, as do the dyslexia professional associations I belong to.

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Which dyslexia professional associations recommend diagnosing pre-kindergarteners with dyslexia? I'm eager to do more reading if this is true. [/quote]

I’m not at my desk now, but I’ll find the links and post when I can.[/quote]

Thank you! I look forward to reading. I do think we agree about the importance of early intervention. The disagreement is if it is appropriate/accurate to diagnose a SLD in reading in a child who is too young to have started reading instruction. [/quote]

Yes, we are on the same page with early intervention. And I'm sure we agree that to intervene you need to identify kids who have phonological deficits, and you can do that at age 5. All kids should be screened at that age in school. The definitive text book for dyslexia intervention by Birsh and Carreker recommends screening, identification, and intervention in pre-k, k, and 1st (sorry, I don't have a link for that - its page 230, though). The International Dyslexia Association recommends screening and identification in K with immediate intervention. My professional association, the Academic Language Therapy Association, recommends the same with the information that a formal diagnosis is useful and must be made by a psychologist, but doesn't specify age. As these are all educational resources they stay in their lane and don't discuss age for formal psycho educational assessment. So our difference is between the words "identification" and "diagnosis." And important difference for you and me, but probably semantics for most families.

So I will stay in my lane, too, which is intervention when a child is identified as having deficits consistent with a later diagnosis of dyslexia. I will defer to you on when a proper psychological assessment can be considered valid. Maybe we could agree that if a child has been identified has having poor phonological skills in pre-k or k, parents should know their child is at risk of dyslexia and they should take action to help them catch up?

You may have seen this, but the results from Harvard's Nadine Gabb's new publication are important, I think. A description is in this article in the Harvard Gazette, and there is a link to the publication for anyone who wants to read it. The Gazette article is here: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/06/reading-skills-and-struggles-manifest-earlier-than-thought/ . I am not sure whether your concern about diagnosis at age 5 is that the assessment can't be conducted with fidelity that young, or that those with identified deficits consistent with dyslexia might just be slower developing and will catch up. Regardless, I think this study does suggest that we can identify kids really early with a combo of phonological assessment and maybe family history. Maybe our tools aren't there yet? I have no desire to label kids prematurely, or worry parents, or have families spend oodles of money they don't need to spend. I don't even care if we use the word dyslexia until kids actually struggle with reading. I just want kids to get help early so they can succeed, however we achieve that.

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Thank you so much for sharing! Starting to look through these resources now. I agree that we are on the same page, and that it is key to identify kids who are at risk for reading problems as early as possible. And yes, this is different that diagnosing a learning disability. Great conversation, thank you![/quote]

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