How Speech Therapy Can Help Dyslexic Children

Dyslexia is a type of learning disorder that affects your ability to read.

For this reason, it can also be considered a reading disability.

This disorder involves problems identifying speech sounds and their relationship to letters and words.

This relationship is sometimes called decoding.

While there is currently no known cure for dyslexia, early assessment and intervention can minimize the impact of the condition on your child’s life.

But don’t worry, dyslexia is not caused by any challenges with intelligence, hearing, or vision.

In fact, dyslexia speech therapy is a great resource to help your child grow and overcome any difficulties they may otherwise face with the disorder.

Take a look here at a local speech therapy clinic that can help.

Now, let’s find out more about dyslexia.

What Is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is considered to be a learning disability that can make it harder for your child to read.

This is because dyslexia causes challenges with decoding, which is the process of identifying speech sounds and how they correlate within words.

It’s also common for people with dyslexia to have other challenges like dysgraphia, dyspraxia, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Dyslexia is not at all related to your child’s intelligence, even though it may appear this way.

The challenge is with the part of their brain that processes language, which is why reading is affected.

If you suspect your child might be dyslexic, you should have them assessed by a speech language pathologist early.

This is because treatment is most effective when started early, especially because it minimizes the opportunity for the disability to affect their education.

With the right supports and treatment, your child can excel in school and graduate from university, setting them up for a successful career in their chosen field even if they are dyslexic.

Signs Of Dyslexia In Children By Age

But what exactly does dyslexia look like in children?

The short answer is that there is a range of severity that characterizes the condition.

It goes from mild to severe, and looks a little different depending on the age of your child.

All of the symptoms will be related to their ability to read and understand the sounds that make up words.

Before They Start School

Before your child is school age, dyslexia could look like:

• Limited vocabulary growth
• Speaking at a later age
• Difficulty saying words correctly including reversing sounds
• Challenges learning songs or rhyming
• Trouble naming letters and numbers

After They Start School

Once your child is in school, dyslexia symptoms are a bit more reading focused.

Signs to look out for include:

• Problems processing and understanding speech
• Challenges finding the right words while talking
• Reading below their expected age
• Trouble seeing or hearing the difference in letters and sounds
• Routine reading or writing tasks taking too long
• Avoiding reading or writing activities
• Spelling and sounding out words creating frustration

Why Are Some Children Dyslexic?

Right now, there’s no exact reason why some children have dyslexia and others don’t.

Genetics are thought to impact your risk factor for developing it because there are certain genes related to language processing that can predispose you to the disorder.

That is to say, dyslexia can run in families and is generally the most common learning disability found in both children and adults.

It is estimated that dyslexia affects about 20% of the population.

How Can Speech Therapy Help?

Like we said before, while there is no cure, speech therapy can greatly help your dyslexic child; especially if you start early.

This is because dyslexia is ultimately a learning disability since it affects your child’s ability to read, which in turn can impact their education.

Starting early will reduce the effect of the condition on your child’s education.

Your child’s speech therapist will focus on building your child’s phonological processing skills.

This is their ability to identify and understand language sounds, which supports their ability to process spoken and written words.

Now, there are a few difference activities that your child’s speech therapist can use to build your child’s phonological processing skills.

You can break down phonological processing skills into three main parts:

• Phonological awareness
• Phonological working memory
• Phonological retrieval

Phonological awareness is the ability for your child to understand sounds and how they work together to form words.

Phonological working memory is the short-term memory that helps your child remember words and sounds so that they can put them together to develop their phonological awareness.

Exercises that improve their phonological working memory including using words in a sentence or thinking of words that have similar sounds.

Phonological retrieval is your child’s ability to remember the letter shapes that represent letter sounds.

Your child’s speech therapist will create activities to help them practice each of these skills to improve their phonological processing skills, which supports their ability to read and write.

Your child’s speech therapist should be knowledgeable about dyslexia and be able to educate you so that their treatment can continue outside of sessions.

This is helpful because it is important you get your information from an authoritative source.

There is a lot of misinformation out there about learning disabilities in general, including dyslexia.

Being educated by your child’s speech therapist reduces the chances of getting misinformation.

How Can You Help Your Dyslexic Child?

Once you’ve been educated by your child’s speech therapist, the next step is working with them to continue their activities at home.

This is so that they continue to practice and improve their skills.

Your child’s speech therapist may have you encourage your child to learn and try new things, even if it’s hard.

This will get them used to trying new things so that doing the same tasks in school becomes easier.

It can be helpful to speak to your child’s teacher’s too, because they may have some helpful take home tasks for you to do with your child.

You should also read a lot with them.

Practicing reading together will help them feel comfortable and supported as they do a challenging task.

Encouragement and praise will go a long way to building your child’s confidence.

Your consistent emotional support can give your child the motivation to keep practising, even when it gets hard.

Book Your Appointment With The Voz Institute Today

If you’re worried your child might be dyslexic, you’re in the right place.

By doing the research and contacting a speech language therapist, you’re already supporting your child.

We can help evaluate your child and create a tailored treatment plan to help them.

Remember, it’s possible for dyslexia to go undiagnosed for years.

Your child won’t grow out of it and there’s currently no known cure.

But no matter what age, it’s always possible to get help and improve.

The sooner you start, the less of an impact this learning disability will have on their education.

Book your appointment with The Voz Institute today.