Question on Testing for Dyslexia

Look in the phone book and see what psychologist does this. I live in the Chapel Hill area, and UNC, the large nedical center does it in the psychology dept. I is expensive, but in a large med center, they will allow you to pay monthly. This is a very necessary test for a child if you suspect something like this. Find out right away.

If your child is having difficulty in school as a result of suspected learning disabilities, your school system is legally obligated not only to evaluate, but to provide services to support your child's areas of weakness. Contact your school's Director of Special Ed (D.O.S.E.) and express your concerns. Do not let them take a "wait and see" stance. With budget concerns many districts will try to bluff their way out of doing what is mandated by law. Do NOT be put off. Your child's future is dependent on you to advocate for him. If there is no one in the district qualified to test your child, the district is obligated to send your child (at their cost) to a qualified expert.
My suggestion would be that you have the names and telephone numbers for several agencies with the ability to test for Learning Disabilities (Richardson and Horn in Lexington, Kraska and Associates in Lexington any local child psychologist.... If the D.O.S.E tries to waffle saying they don't have anyone to do the testing, be prepared to offer the names as an alternative.

Should you not get cooperation immediately, you have the right to contact your public advocate. Your School District has to make the information available to you. Ask THEM to provide you with the telephone number of the Public Advocates office...in this way they will know that they can not bluff you into believing there is nothing that can be done to test your child.

As a side note, many times visual development delays can look like a learning disability. There is an excellent website at www.childrensvision.com which explains the impact of visual delay on learning. click on the "Vision and Learning" tab to see the impact that visual delays can have on reading and other areas of learning.
It is important to know that visual acuity has nothing to do with visual developmental delays. Being told that your child has "normal" or 20/20 vision is not an assurance that he is processing what he sees. You will need to see an optometrist with the initials FDOC behind their name. I highly recommend Dr. Weinberg in Louisville. Visual Development Delays are remediable and can have a HUGE impact on your child's ability to read ect.
Hope this info is helpful. Good Luck!

Hi

I am a reading instructor with a child who is showing signs of dyslexia.

There are 4 types that I am aware of. It would be good to get an idea of what type you think it is. Express these thoughts to your child's teacher so he/she can watch for them also.

Your child may benefit from a different style of reading instruction. Most school are not very good at providing a syle that is good for dyslexic kids. You may need a process that is very hands on, one-on-one, interactive. Go to EBLI.com. This is a program that I teach. I am not trying to sell you anything, so know my intentions are good. EBLI is very hands on and has had great success with children who are dyslexic. It is based out of Michigan and is just beginning to get national recognition for it's effects. The owners love helping people and would be willing to talk to you at length.

If you decide you would like help there may be someone in your area to help. I am in Tennessee. Others may be in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Michigan.

There may be testing at your local University if the have a Psychology department. I have had my daughter tested at UT and am waiting to hear the results. It was much cheaper and the students that are doing the testing are guided by licensed therapists.

I hope some of this helps.

Best wishes
N. Z

Start by requesting that the school test your son for learning disabilities. If it is a public school they should be able to do that without a problem. This will help get him the beginning tests he needs to show he is having trouble and then the Exceptional Childrens Teacher would start helping him and could help with the dyslexia. My son has it and that is how we found out and he has improved so much over the past 7 years. Hope this helps if you would like to talk to me more or have more questions feel free to let me know. Good Luck!

Hey C., have you asked his doctor what he/she says about testing your son? If they don't do it they may know someone who does. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia when I was 11 years old. I went to New York to get the tests done because it wasn't well known in those days. I would think your doctor would know where you could take him to get tested. I hope this helps. Good luck! J. A.

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School systems, in any state, recognize 14 different disability categories. It sounds like your son should be tested for a learning disability, which is one of the recognized categories. Dyslexia is a very specific reading disability that falls under "learning disabilities". In other words, there isn't a specific disability category dyslexia. As I said, dyslexia is a more intense reading disability, where multiple reading problems exist, usually in the areas of phonological awareness/phonemic awareness (the ability to process/remember sounds associated with our language), memory, etc....usually dealing with word recognition and decoding. Just be advised that there are many misconceptions about what dyslexia is (such as seeing letter reversals, etc.) A lowercase b,d,p, and q all look alike when there are memory problems. Usually a child isn't "seeing" them reversed, they just have processing problems that prevent them from remembering which is which. Overall, dyslexia is a reading disability.

Hello C.,

My son is Dyspraxic which creates struggles in a number of areas. Initially he was diagnosed by his pediatrician, but was later assessed by an occupational therapist and verified. It most certainly is something that the school has the faculty to assess for. You just need to know what to ask for.
Put in writing that you are requesting that the school perform a "full psycho educational evaluation". It needs to be in writing, they will have a certain number of days (in SC it's 45 days) to perform, conclude and meet to discuss the results with you.
Good luck
PS If your son is dyslexic, you would do well to research and find out what accomodations would help him in school and in life so that when he is done being assessed, if he is dyslexic, you will be prepared to tell the school what you need and would like them to do for your son while he is in school.

Ask your son's doctor, he could probably help with a referral. You should also try speaking to a school counselor again. Don't mention dyslexia specifically, talk with the about your son having a hard time in school. There is a procedure that schools (public ones anyway) have to follow. Ask for a referral into a special education program.

Dyslexia is another term for a reading disability. It is usually due to problems with either the auditory side of reading (called phonological processing) or the visual side of reading (called orthographic processing) or both. For example, the word "cat" has three sounds /k/ /a/ /t/ - you need to be able to hear and discriminate all those sounds to link them up to letters and learn "phonics" and sound out words. Then, you need to be able to remember spelling patterns of irregular words. Reading and spelling are opposite processes of each other and so are often equally affected. Dysgraphia is the term for a writing disability. This is usually a combination of problems with handwriting/motor coordination as well as problems with staying on the lines, letter formation, bunching letters and words together, punctuation, grammar, and organizing writing.

You should know that it is not entirely true that the school does not test for dyslexia - the school tests children to determine if they need special education - this is usually a combination of special accommodations at school like extra time on tests and preferential seating and special instruction with a special education teacher either in the regular classroom or being pulled out for a certain amount of time per day. If your child is having trouble staying on grade level, they will have a meeting with the pre-referral team (usually called SST or SAP) to determine what they can do to help him in the regular classroom before resorting to testing. If the strategies that team puts into place aren't working, they might go to testing. You can speed up the process by writing a letter to the principal requesting psychoeducational testing for the purpose of determining special education eligibility. If you do that, the school will have 90 days to do the testing. They will not necessarily tell you "he has dyslexia" but they'll tell you whether he qualifies for a learning disability and for special education in the schools.

Kids with dyslexia need very specialized tutoring using "multisensory and direct instruction in phonics" as well as specific instruction for learning sight words, increasing fluency, improving reading comprehension, and improving spelling. Keep in mind that while reversals of letters or numbers is common for kids with dyslexia, it is also developmentally normal until about the age of 8 or the third grade. If it's still happening often then, or if your child is mirror writing before then(writing everything backward) then you should be more concerned.

I have some referrals for private testing if you're interested, but for a good private evaluation it usually does cost between one and two thousand. $600 would be extremely cheap, and I'd question what kind of information you'd really be getting from that. Some insurance companies will cover some portion of psychoeducational testing if there is a question about a psychological disorder like ADD/ADHD or anxiety or something like that. Other companies have special programs or health savings accounts you can use. But keep in mind, if you do a private evaluation, you are most likely going to have to get some private tutoring after that if he does have dyslexia.I have some great referrals for tutors. The schools will most likely only provide the specialized instruction if your son is not on grade level.

If you are in NC - check this out:

Check out this website which will tell you more about your rights in a public school if your child has a disability: http://www.wrightslaw.com

Also look at this site -http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/ec/ and click on "Procedural Safeguards - Handbook on Parents Rights" which tells you more about the process for evaluation through the schools.

Hi, my name is R., i think you need to go to the local board of education and ask to speak to the head of the speech/language dept. I they can test him , they should be able to tell you what you need to do next. If that doesn't work try calling vanderbilt childrens hospital for imfo. Good luck., R.