Do all dyslexic children struggle with reading?

Do all dyslexic children struggle with reading? The simple answer is no. Which may come as a surprise to you, unless you happen to live with a child who appears to be reading perfectly well for their age but whose spelling or handwriting lags behind.

I recently screened a child who was clearly very intelligent. His parents had a feeling that their son was dyslexic. It ran in the family. They knew the signs. The school said that in on-line screening tests that they had done, their son had performed well and that they had no concerns. How can he have a problem? They said, he performs to the average in tests. 

Yet each day, his parents observed, was clearly a struggle for their son who had issues with things like remembering instructions and copying off the board and had poor handwriting and spelling. He was also very good at grasping big concepts, had an excellent vocabulary and an encyclopedic knowledge of things like animals.

I did a more in depth screening and found traits of mild dyslexia. When the parents told the school, they were surprised and struggled to accept the results. They couldn't reconcile the child's reading skills and test results with dyslexia.

I can understand why the school was baffled. But the thing is, if a child of above average intelligence is only performing to an average level in literacy then something is wrong. 

I started looking into the whole issue of exceptionally clever children and dyslexia. Some professors call it 'stealth dyslexia' and it's more common than you'd think. Many children with stealth dyslexia are never identified and it is only as adults, either in higher education or beyond, that people realise that dyslexia is the root cause of lots of things they find difficult.

Children with stealth dyslexia will read well. Particularly to themselves and when words are in context e.g in a story. Some, but not all, may struggle to decipher words out of context e.g unrelated words in a list. But it is with spelling and particularly with handwriting that the problems are most evident. They may also struggle with working memory, with sequencing, with time and with organisational skills.

I suppose what this child's experience has shown me, is that if you have any concerns about your child, then act on them. One thing that I have learnt over the years, as a teacher, tutor and parent is that parent's intuition is usually correct and always worth investigating. 

Next time, I'll explore constructive ways that you can help your school to understand your child's needs and practical ways that you can support them at home. 

In the meantime, if you'd like to know more about stealth dyslexia then click on this link:

  http://www.davidsongifted.org/search-database/entry/a10435


If your child is struggling then contact me today to get them the help and support they need to succeed.