I have a child who has a Full Scale IQ in the high average range (118) but whose level of academic achievement in the areas of reading, spelling, writing, and phonological processing are all in the average range (Standard Score of 100 or under). The thing is she is receiving straight A’s in all her classes but is very frustrated about how slow she reads. Does she have a learning disability? I know there is enough of a discrepancy between her IQ and level of achievement for her to qualify for a LD but since she is doing so well in school gradewise, I am told that she won’t qualify for a learning disability because there is not a significant impairment in her school functioning. Is this true?
Thanks in advance for all of your help and advice.
Re: Does my child have a reading disorder?
Hello parent:
You didn’t mention the age or grade that your daughter is in. This could make a big difference in understanding the reading process that she is coping with. I would talk to a reading specialist in your area, perhaps for a diagnostic workup.
Check out the following books on Amazon.com:
Sally E. Shaywitz Overcoming Dyslexia
Building Fluency: Lessons and Strategies for Reading Success
I would also check into audio books. See if your daughter likes listening to audio books. There are also audio books available that you can follow along in the regular book. Often matching being read to and following along is also a good way to increase fluency. Also one of the best ways to increase fluency in reading is rereading the same chapter or article several times.
James Nuttall — Michigan
Re: Does my child have a reading disorder?
Thanks for your input. To answer your questions, my daughter is in the 4th grade and reads about 20 words per minute below what the school expects for a child in her grade. Her teacher has also noticed difficulty with her level of reading fluency and comprehension. She has also mentioned that my daughter is having difficulty learning new concepts presented in her textbook(especially in science) and needs these concepts to be taught to her again. That is why I think she has some learning difficulty even though her report cards are not reflecting that. I also she how she struggles at home with her schoolwork and how frustrated she gets.
Does my child have a reading disorder?
I get the impression that it is not a difficulty with word recognition?
What could be helpful, is Speed Reading. Here’s a link to a site where you can download a free version, that you could try out:
http://www.reallyeasyreader.com/index.html
Re: Does my child have a reading disorder?
Go to greatleaps.com and go to the passages section. Have your daughter read a 7th grade story of interest for exactly one minute. If the speed is lower than 120 words per minute and/or there is a high error rate. Report and there is many on the line who would be willing to help. Ken Campbell
Re: Does my child have a reading disorder?
I’m not a reading expert, althought I’ve done quite a bit of reading in the area. Your description sounds most like a fluency issue. Here is a book by a national expert on fluency that may help:
The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension by Timothy V. Rasinski
The book is available at amazon.com
Jim Nuttall — Michigan
Hi Caligirl,
Learning Disability equates Learning Difficulty, which she doesn’t appear to have any difficulty with?
Whilst their could be an underlying problem, causing her to read slowly? Such as ‘Tracking’ problems.
She might also just need to learn some skills for reading faster?
What is her current reading speed?
Geoff,