Early Identification Of Dyslexia

A number of UK working parties have reported on the importance of training nursery and reception year teachers in the red flags for dyslexia. When this is universally practised, dyslexic children will struggle less throughout their school years. A dyslexic child may be fun, outgoing, bright, socially appropriate and well liked by other children. He or she may play well with others and tidy up when asked. Then someone hands him or her a book and his or her attitude changes, he/she may even hide under the table. He hasn't quite mastered his letters like most of his peers and he often confuses letters and numbers. He loves to look at the pictures and to listen to stories, but try to play a letter matching game or a nursery rhyme and he has a meltdown or a shutdown. Should mum and dad be worried? Yes, they should and reception or nursery school teachers may hold the key to early identification and a better school experience.

So what should Teachers of young children know?

They should know what is developmentally appropriate and when to give the parents/family some resources. A child may be showing many signs that reading is causing him some stress. He may not be able to verbalize this to anyone, but sheer avoidance of trying to make sense of this strange reading thing is a big red flag. According the International Reading Association (www.reading.org), young children should

enjoy listening to and discussing storybooks understand that print carries a message engage in reading and writing attempts identify labels and signs in their environment participate in rhyming games identify some letters and make some letter-sound matches use known letters or approximations of letters to represent written language (especially meaningful words like their name and phrases such as "I love you") If these traits are not evident, it is wise to seek advice.

What can teachers do?

Talk to the family about their observations. Ask if anyone else in the family struggles with reading and writing. Find out how much they read to their child.

Begin documenting the difficulty. This will be useful when the family is trying to get their child tested. A boatload of data cannot be ignored as something they will outgrow because the persistence of the problem is an indicator of a future struggle. Ramp up the rhyming games. Teach it very explicitly. Talk explicitly about what words are and what they do. Give them time to process your questions. This will give them opportunity to participate instead of shutting down because they have already learned they do not respond fast enough at school.

The most important thing for a teacher is not to ignore the symptoms and not to be afraid to use the term, possible dyslexia. Teachers of young children have many other children to compare with and they know when someone is struggling. They could be the key, the one person, who changes that child's life by speaking up.