Dec 27

Detect dyslexia in children, symptoms and support

What is dyslexia in children?

Dyslexia is a congenital disorder in which the child has difficulty reading, spelling and understanding words. The cause is unclear, but normally the language development of children with dyslexia is slower than that of their peers. Recording new information such as sounds, words, stories, and texts is often difficult for them.

How can I recognize dyslexia in my son?

In children with dyslexia, reading and/or spelling require a lot of effort, although the child usually has average intelligence. Classmates seem to learn to read and/or write much faster, even though the child practices and works hard.

Symptoms of dyslexia

Signs that indicate that a young child may have dyslexia:

– Delay in starting to talk.

– Learn new words at a slow pace.

– Problems to form words properly, such as inverting the sounds of words or confusing words that sound similar.

– Problems remembering or saying the name of the letters, numbers, and colors.

– Difficulty learning children’s songs or playing rhyming games.

Once your child is in school, the signs and symptoms of dyslexia may become more visible, including:

– A reading level below what is expected, for the age of your child.

– Problems to process and understand what he hears.

– Difficulty finding the right word or formulating answers to questions.

– Problems remembering sequences of things.

– Difficulty seeing (and occasionally hearing) similarities and differences between letters and words.

– Inability to pronounce an unknown word.

– Difficulty to spell.

– Take more time than usual to complete tasks that involve reading or writing.

– Avoid activities that involve reading.

Reading issues

Children with dyslexia are sometimes divided into two types:

– Children read very slowly, but quite accurately. Reading takes time and leads to slow and repetitive reading.
– Other children read quickly, ‘guessing’ and with many mistakes. Words or letters are omitted or added, letters or words are reversed or words are replaced by other words that fit the sentence.

Writing issues

They omit letters in a word or place letters in wrong places of the word or phrase.

Trouble speaking, listening and remembering

A child with dyslexia has difficulty processing the sounds of language in the brain. This has consequences not only for reading and spelling but also for other linguistic activities such as speaking, listening and remembering. You may notice, for example, that your child has difficulty remembering or seems to forget certain tasks, especially the longer and more complicated ones.

Problems with other skills

In children with dyslexia, too, there is often a difficult and inadequate automation of learning certain skills. For example, they find it difficult to identify quickly and correctly what is on the left and on the right, what is above and below, and it is not always easy to identify colors.

Your child does not have to present all the symptoms of dyslexia. Each child is unique, so the many of the identification marks are different for each one.

Dyslexia can be diagnosed after a thorough examination. Dyslexia is only considered to exist when there is not enough improvement in reading and / or spelling, despite additional supportive help, since at least five percent of children of primary school age have dyslexia. . Because children with dyslexia tend to be slower in school, they are sometimes considered less intelligent than their peers. However, there is no relationship between dyslexia and intelligence: children with dyslexia have no inferior intelligence than children without dyslexia.

When to see a doctor?

Dyslexia in children is often diagnosed in school. If you suspect that your child is dyslexic, it is not always necessary that you immediately consult your doctor. You can talk to the school. If the school considers it necessary, an investigation into the nature and severity of reading and writing problems may be requested. If it is convenient, you can get additional help. It is also possible to contact a psychologist or a support pedagogue who can do an exam and if it is necessary to establish guidelines and a support plan.

Who diagnoses and who treats dyslexia?

As we said before, the most appropriate thing is that the assessment is carried out by a multidisciplinary team, so each person can apply the tests that correspond to their professional area. For example, the speech therapist, together with the psychologist, psychopedagogue or pedagogue, could perform a very complete evaluation.

How does dyslexia develops?

When reading, the letters must be converted into sounds, and the image of the word must be recognized. The idea is that in children with dyslexia, especially reading automation, it is not well established. This is probably because a small area of the brain works differently. The child should always consciously consider what sound belongs to a letter and how the word should be pronounced as a whole. And when spelled, a child with dyslexia has a hard time automatically converting a sound into the correct letter and sequence of letters.

A child with dyslexia has no problem understanding the language, but the laborious processing of sounds influences language comprehension. That is why children with dyslexia often have difficulty remembering a lot of information about language in a short period of time. As a result, sometimes a complex assignment cannot be carried out, because too much information is given at once. Many dyslexics have problems with the fast and correct processing of linguistic information.

It is also thought that children with dyslexia, information processing and automation are generally more difficult to process, not only during the reading process. It is particularly evident in the reading process, because it is very complicated. If there are problems with reading and playing in the family, there is a greater chance that he will also be dyslexic.

Additional drawbacks you should prevent

For some people, dyslexia is an important limitation in their daily lives; Nowadays it is almost impossible for a person to do without reading and writing. Therefore, it is important to recognize dyslexia in time and seek help if necessary. The recognition of the disorder alone is important for children; Your bad grades will be seen in a different way. Once dyslexia is known, it can be taken into account at school and be able to make a plan to work on it.

Fear to fail

Some children also have problems that have arisen as a result of dyslexia. Because the child has difficulty reading and writing, for example, this can cause uncertainty or fear of failure. The child is afraid of making mistakes and does not dare to do, because in his opinion he will continue to fail. Some children with dyslexia also experience feelings of anger or sadness, because reading and writing are not easy or because they are afraid of making mistakes.

Intimidation

Some children with dyslexia are also intimidated by their classmates because they find it strange that they make many mistakes. This can reduce the child’s motivation to go to school. You may go to school reluctantly or even start missing classes.

Dyslexia never goes away, it cannot be cured. But a child can learn to deal with it as well as possible. Some children can, with the right help, overcome their reading and spelling problems or limit them as much as possible.

It is important that children with dyslexia receive special attention in the field of reading and writing. This helps them, among other things, to gain confidence in themselves and, in turn, motivates them to continue learning.

How to treat dyslexia with my child?

It is important that your child gain self-confidence. You should know that your parents know how much effort you need to read and write. This also means that you must understand that it is not laziness but goes beyond that.

It is important that you never punish reading and writing errors, but emphasize things that are going well. It is also important to keep in touch with the school, where they monitor their progress. You can help your child at home, but try to make it fun, he thinks, that he is already working hard at school. At school, the teacher can pay more attention to your child, doing different tasks. It is also good to pay attention to your strengths and let you practice more, for example, with a private support teacher.

Do you suspect that your child may have dyslexia? Do not wait to consult, children with dyslexia benefit from support as early as possible. As parents, we can make an important contribution.

All the information that we give you in this article is for orientation since each person is different, so to establish a diagnosis and treatment it is essential that you go to your pediatrician.