Support for Dyslexia

If your child is diagnosed with dyslexia or a related learning disability, The Reading Clinic offers proven research-based programs designed to treat deficiencies in specific skill areas of reading – as well as in other academic areas (vocabulary, oral and written expression, math) and in speech and study skills.  

The Reading Clinic can also refer you to experienced psychologists and educational diagnosticians for the purpose of getting an evaluation for your child. 

The Reading Clinic provides a service that most schools cannot as they lack the type or intensity of program necessary to treat dyslexia. To quote Margaret Byrd Rawson, a former IDA President:
“Dyslexic students need a different approach to learning language from that employed in most classrooms. They need to be taught, slowly and thoroughly, the basic elements of their language—the sounds and the letters which represent them—and how to put these together and take them apart. They have to have lots of practice in having their writing hands, eyes, ears, and voices working together for conscious organization and retention of their learning.”

The Reading Clinic can support your child who has dyslexia with multi-sensory, research based programs proven to improve these reading-related skill areas:

What can be done about Dyslexia?
The good news is that with proper diagnosis and use of educational methods backed by research, students with dyslexia can learn to read on par with their peers. There are research-based multi-sensory programs with a track record of effectively treating dyslexia. The International dyslexia Association (IDA) provides information about dyslexia including information about multi-sensory research-based programs that work.

What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a language-based disability that refers to difficulties with specific language skills, especially reading and that occurs in people of all backgrounds and intellectual levels.  Among types of learning disabilities, dyslexia is the most common affecting 4-5 % of the population. If they do not receive special help, children with dyslexia usually read at levels significantly lower than expected despite normal or above average intelligence.

What are Warning Signs that a child may have Dyslexia?

In Pre-school and Kindergarten

  • Speech delay compared to most children

  • Difficulties pronouncing words

  • May have difficulty with rhyming or clapping hands to rhythm of a song

  • Difficulty telling a story in the correct sequence

  • Fine motor skills may develop more slowly than in other children

In Early Elementary Grades

  • Difficulty remembering simple sequences (e.g, count to 20, or recite the alphabet)

  • Trouble understanding that words rhyme (e.g., knowing that hat rhymes with cat?

  • Difficulty perceiving words that begin with the same sound (e.g,.bug, boom, and big all start with b)

  • Struggles to recount spoken directions or recall names of people and places

  • Struggles with understanding of right-left, up-down, front-back

  • Letter reversals, such as d for b and/or word reversals, such as tip for pit
      (note: children often reverse letters before age 7 but if this symptom persists into grade school, then it is a warning sign)

Early Diagnosis and Treatment is Essential

If your child appears to fit the warning signs listed here or if you have a family history of dyslexia, then consider an evaluation of your child.