Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that is diagnosed based on a specific set of developmental and skill deficits related to reading and spelling. 

In this article, Dr. Davenport shares a summary of his 25 years’ experience assessing and addressing students’ symptoms of dyslexia.  Much of that experience was gained at the Shelton School and Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, two of the nation’s leaders in developing and providing research-based assessment and remediation techniques for children with dyslexia. 

Identifying the Symptoms of Dyslexia

Years of strong research shows that the child with dyslexia struggles to understand and use individual sounds in spoken words.  These deficits in phonological awareness result in very specific reading and spelling difficulties.

• He struggles to sound-out most words accurately.

• He has numerous mispronunciations when reading stories and textbooks.

• His reading is often slow, hesitant, choppy, word-by-word.

• He has extremely poor and highly inconsistent spelling in written work.

Spelling is often the most telling: Even after studying hours and hours and making a good grade on the weekly spelling test, the child with dyslexia struggles to spell words correctly and consistently within his written work: his spelling is often way off base, and cannot be easily read. For example, within the same passage, the word vacation might be spelled multiple ways including “vustjin”, “thasjn”, or any other odd combination of letters.

Research-Based Remediation

Children with dyslexia require a very specific type of research-based reading instruction provided by a specially trained professional:

• Direct explicit teaching of phonological awareness.  The focus should be on segmenting, isolating, and blending sounds within spoken words.

• Direct and systematic teaching of phonics skills.  The child should be taught specific sound and letter rules for reading and spelling in a highly structured way.

• Practice using words, sentences, and stories to engage the application of the sound and letter rules your child has been taught.

• Repeated reading practice to improve your child’s ability to read words, sentences, and stories fluently (so it sounds like he is talking).

Accommodations for Students with Dyslexia

School accommodations for students with dyslexia include making adjustments for reading and spelling challenges without watering down concepts or content.  Accommodations should include allowing the use of audiobooks, additional time for completing reading assignments and tests, and adjustments for grading spelling on writing assignments. Additional recommended accommodations are available from Dr. Davenport.

Need Help Identifying Your Child’s Needs?

Contact us to schedule an assessment for dyslexia.

(c) 2009-2019, Monte W. Davenport, Ph.D.