Does this sound like dyslexia?

She may be dyslexic. She may have undiagnosed visual or attention problems. Or, as with the majority of my students, she may be a victim of what we half-humorously call “dysteachia”.

The first thing to do is to take what one expert strongly recommends as fast proactive intervention — ie try your darnedest to teach the kid; worry about testing and formal diagnoses (a) if the problems prove highly intractable, and (b) when you have the time to — don’t waste a year of her life waiting for the tests to get done.

I work as a private tutor with students exactly like this. First I sit down with a white board and markers. I insist that the student sit in a normal relaxed posture, not supporting self on the left arm, not crawling half onto the table; the crawling onto the table is a coping skill most students take up to get more pressure on inefficient writing tools. The marker takes no pressure and so the coping is no longer needed, but the habits have to be retrained. Then have the child make large smooth movements *top to bottom* and *left to right* and *big* *counterclockwise* circles. Make them *fast* and lightly — the goal is free smooth movement, not little tight fighting with the muscles (that is the problem, not the solution.)

If the child can make these shapes, keep practicing and work into a row of l’s (lines top to bottom) still large, maybe four inches high; make sure she is moving left to right across the board; then a “comb” of repeated bumps like m but not stopping; then up and over and back, like cursive c-c-c; then loops like cursive e-e-e

Now, if the child doesn’t understand top or bottom, or line or circle, you have just put your finger on a problem — either a verbal comprehension issue and possibly auditory processing issue (one major form of dyslexia) or a visual-spatial processing issue (another form) . Try taking the child’s hand with the marker and gently guiding the shapes. If the child cannot physically form those motions, you have put your finger on another problem, a kind of dyspraxia.

Look for the child’s response. If she follows directions and is happy playing these games, you can keep working with her and re-training her writing skills from the ground up. I will be happy to email you some outlines that I have typed up giving a general plan for developing/retraining writing skills — just click my name above and ask.
In her classwork, watch that she keeps a sitting posture, and give her tools such as markers or rolling writers so she doesn’t go back to the high pressure leaning in.

On the other hand, if she looks at you with an absolute blank, if she cries and becomes upset trying to do a simple pre-writing pattern, or if she seems physically unable to move her arm freely (some people talk of trouble crossing the midline of the body, although I have never seen it myself unless allied with other dysteachia) then you know what you have to work on. Find a simple exercise she can do, even if it’s only drawing a line from left to right, and have her do it over and over for several minutes, quick and smooth. Then work on the next one, verticals from top to bottom. If she says she likes it better from bottom to top, too bad. You are trying to get her to change this behaviour. This is called *learning* on her part, and *teaching* on yours. Work for short periods of time — five to ten minutes on one exercise — but do it regularly, every day if possible, and keep asking her to do one little thing new each time. Progress is usually slow but sure.

If she shows extraordinary difficulty on one of these mini-tasks, then that is your clue that she should go for more extensive testing. But meanwhile keep teaching.

There is a huge variety of interventions that can possibly be helpful — or not, depending on her actual problems and needs. There is Vision Therapy if she has scanning problems, Listening Program and Fast ForWord if she has auditory problems, Audiblox if she has sequencing problems, PhonoGraphix or Orton-Gillingham or my favourite less expensive phonics programs for reading and spelling, and on and on. You can post here and ask about specific programs and what they will help, and people with experience will give you plenty of advice.. You can also post here and many people are knowledgeable about appropriate testing. But meanwhile, you can teach to the needs of the child now as well.

As far as the spelling, that is allied to (1) physical difficulty writing, (2) directionality problems which are evidenced in the writing — if you write backwards, you probably read backwards, and that will make a hash out of any order in spelling. Clearing up the directionality in writing is the first start on clearing up the rest. After she can write in an appropriately directional way, she probably will need re-teaching (or teaching for the first time, if it hasn’t been done) phonics, which requires order and left-to-right scanning to make sense. Only after her writing is physically under control and her reading is scanned correctly can spelling teaching make a dent in the problem. I donjt even try to teach spelling until the directionality is remediated, as it is a waste of time and a frustration for all concerned.

are often a sign of developmental vision problems. I would advise the parents to get a developmental vision evaluation, if you are in a position to do so. There is more information at http://www.childrensvision.com, and board-certified developmental optometrists listed by state at http://www.covd.org.

Typically this kind of problem responds somewhat to vision therapy, but isn’t fully remediated until a program such as Audiblox or PACE develops automatic directionality and sequencing skills. The upside-down characteristic is especially indicative of developmental vision problems.

Some dyslexia is caused by an underlying vision problem, some by an underlying phonological processing problem, and some by an underlying auditory processing problem. A child can also have combinations of these problems. The letter reversals and phonetic spelling (often due to impaired visual memory for symbols) would indicate checking out vision first. A complete speech and language evaluation would identify phonological awareness delays.

Nancy

Go to www.interdys.org. This is the website for the International Dyslexia Association. They have information about the characteristics of dyslexia. Click any picture, and a list of topics will appear on the left side click on “About dyslexia”.