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Dyslexia test

For many children, school is a natural progression. In Kindergarten and first grade, they work on learning their alphabet and then, afterward, learning to read. But for some children, this natural progression does not go as planned. Teachers, parents and the students themselves will notice that they are not making progress in reading, or not keeping up with the rest of their peers in their class. If this lack of progress continues, students will probably be sent to the school counselor for testing to find out about learning disabilities. One common learning disability that can severely interfere with a student’s ability to read and learn is dyslexia. The school counselor will usually give a child a dyslexia test if he or she is showing the inability to read. If they do turn out to pass (or, depending on how you look at it – fail) the dyslexia test, counselors and teachers will plan a curriculum that will help them overcome their dyslexia and lead a normal school life.

But first, what is dyslexia and how does it affect a child’s ability to learn? First, it is important to note that the presence of dyslexia does not mean that a child is stupid or mentally retarded. Sadly, before modern science and school systems understood the nature of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, this sort of thinking was far too prevalent. This is especially sad considering that dyslexia is the most common learning disability that children face. Dyslexia is merely an impairment in the brain that causes it to be unable to translate graphical images into meaningful language. Children with dyslexia generally have normal intelligence and normal speech. On the other hand, they usually have difficulty interpreting written language, and sometimes even have difficulty interpreting human speech. Though sometimes people think dyslexia is a vision problem (and in fact, some dyslexia treatments involve special readers) most children suffering from dyslexia have normal vision.

If your child is given a dyslexia test, the test administrator or doctor will likely ask you several questions about your child’s past and present symptoms. Developmental symptoms that indicate a child might be suffering from dyslexia include talking later in life than children in their peer group, difficulty adding new words to their vocabulary, and difficulty rhyming words. Once a child is in school, the symptoms on a dyslexia test will become more apparent. In fact, a child’s teacher is often the person to notice dyslexia symptoms. First of all, they are trained to notice learning disabilities, and second, they often are tasked with teaching children reading and writing – abilities that have directly to do with dyslexia.

A child may be chosen for a dyslexia test if he or she consistently reads below grade level, seems to have problems processing what he or she hears or following oral or written directions, trouble comprehending more than one command at a time, trouble remembering things in sequential order (i.e. such as a sequence of numbers), the inability to pronounce unfamiliar words, difficulty spelling, and more trouble than usual in foreign language classes. Child with dyslexia may also see or perform “mirror writing.” Mirror writing occurs when a child writes or perceives letters backward. For example, a child might see a lowercase “b” when the actual letter present is a lower case “d.” It is important though, not to take only this symptom as a reason to do a dyslexia test. Children under the age of 8 often perform mirror writing, even if they do not have dyslexia. This appears to be some sort of trick of brain functioning and not a surefire sign of dyslexia.

Last updated on Sep 30th, 2010 and filed under Neurological Disorders. Both comments and pings are currently closed.