October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month and what better time to dispel the myths about one of the country’s most common learning disabilities? Test your knowledge on the following misconceptions.      

Myth #1:  Dyslexia is about reversing letters.

            The most basic sign of dyslexia is not “reversed letters” as many people think, but rather weak phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness and auditory processing skills are the underlying cognitive abilities to hear and remember the smallest individual units of sound in a word.

The word dyslexia actually means “poor with words or trouble with reading.” This could mean reading fluently, out loud, reading new words, and/or pronouncing words correctly.

Some of the most common symptoms include:

1.      Difficulty transferring what is heard to what is seen and vice versa.

2.      Struggles pronouncing new words.

3.      Poor at distinguishing similarities/difference in words (no, on)

4.      Weak at letter sound discrimination (pin, pen)

5.   Low reading comprehension

Myth #2: Dyslexia is a lifelong label.

            Dyslexia doesn’t need to be a permanent diagnosis or condition. It is simply a term identifying a child (or teen or adult) who reads poorly.

            As with almost all learning struggles, the most common root cause is one or more weak cognitive skills – the fundamental tools of effective learning.

            “Cognitive skills are the underlying tools that enable us to successfully focus, think, prioritize, plan, understand, visualize, remember and create useful associations, and solve problems,” explains Tanya Mitchell, co-author of “Unlock the Einstein Inside: Applying New Brain Science to Wake Up the Smart in your Child.” “A child’s cognitive skill set is made up of several cognitive skills including auditory processing, visual processing, short and long-term memory, comprehension, logic and reasoning, and attention skills. In children with dyslexia, the weakest cognitive skills are phonemic awareness and auditory processing, although other areas may suffer as well.”

Myth #3: There’s nothing parents can do to help.

            Although Mitchell recommends a thorough, intense program of ‘brain training’ for children who have been diagnosed as dyslexic, she also offers suggestions for games that parents can do at home to improve their children’s phonemic awareness and auditory processing skills. They include:

• Sound segmenting games: Say a two-sound word, like bee or tie, and have the child tell you which sounds are in the word (“/b/” and “/ee/” for “bee” and “/t/” and “/ie/” for “tie”). Then start to increase to three-sound words like cat, (“/k/” “/a/” and “/t/”) and tree (“/t/” “/r/” and “/ee/”). This builds auditory segmenting which is necessary for spelling when children get older.

• Phonetics using building blocks: Help develop analysis skills by using blocks to make up nonsense words starting with two to three blocks. Create a nonsense word, then have the child remove one of the blocks and add a new one while verbally trying to figure out what the new nonsense word sounds like. (If they can’t read, just say the sounds for them, and ask them to try to figure out from hearing the sounds what the new word would sound like when they switch the blocks.)

• Rhyming games: Say a word and then take turns with your child trying to come up with a new word that rhymes. This develops auditory analysis, which is important for reading and spelling as well as processing auditory instruction.

      “Again, I’d suggest that parents try these exercises at home to complement a cognitive skills training program,” says Mitchell. “After working with a professional (brain trainer) in a one-one-one setting, most children who have been labeled as having dyslexia other learning disabilities like ADD and ADHD can improve from three to five grade levels.”

            In fact, according to Science Daily, a new Carnegie Mellon University brain imaging study found that the brains of dyslexic students and other poor readers were permanently rewired to overcome reading deficits after 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction.

Myth #4: Only a special ed teacher can screen for dyslexia.

Some brain training companies offer free screening tools to kids and teens to help evaluate for several types of learning issues. Here are some sample questions taken from a free online test created by LearningRx, a national brain training franchise:

1.      Does your child misread similar words?

2.      Does your child need words repeated when taking spelling tests?

3.      Is your child’s oral reading slow or choppy?

4.      Does your child make spelling errors in written assignments?

5.      Does your child have difficulty sounding out unknown words?

If you answered “yes” to three of more of these questions, visit www.learningrx.com to take the full screening test.

1.      Question: What is the most common cause of learning struggles?

Answer: While genetics, inadequate instruction and low motivation can contribute to learning and reading difficulties, science confirms that by far, the most common root cause of learning struggles in underlying cognitive skill weakness.

2.      Question: What are cognitive skills?

Answer: Cognitive skills are the underlying tools that enable kids to successfully focus, think, prioritize, plan, understand, visualize, remember and create useful associations, and solve problems.

A child’s cognitive skill set is made up of several cognitive skills including auditory processing, visual processing, short and long-term memory, comprehension, logic and reasoning, and attention skills. Each of these can also be divided into identifiable sub-skills. For example, attention is made up of sub-skills such as sustain attention (staying on task), selective attention (ignoring distractions) and divided attention (handling more than one task at a time). Each of these skills and sub-skills play a specific and necessary role, and must work in concert before an individual can learn effectively.

3.      Question: What causes dyslexia and other forms of reading disabilities?

Answer: A 10-year study by the National Institute of Health found that 88% of learning-to-read difficulties resulted from weak phonemic awareness – (the ability to blend, segment and analyze sounds).

4.      Question: What about kids with ADD/ADHD?

Answer: With the right program, most children who have been labeled as having ADHD, ADD or other learning disabilities can improve from three to five grade levels and about half the students no longer require medication.

5.      Question: How do you determine which cognitive skills are strong and which are weak?

Answer: A professional cognitive skills test is the only way to pinpoint the exact cause of learning problems. Call 832.482.3082 to schedule an appointment for a cognitive skills test.

6.      Question: Is there anything parents can do at home to help?

Answer: Parents and teachers can watch for common traits that children with weak cognitive skills often display, including:

            • Difficulty paying attention

            • Poor test scores, grades or reading comprehension

            • Poor memory

            • Difficulty organizing activity

            • Poor study and work habits

            • Taking a long time to complete tasks

            • Disinterest (or dislike) in school

You can take a full online evaluation at www.learningrx.com to help  further identify your child’s weak cognitive skills.

            Like all medications, there are risks and side effects associated with taking stimulants: insomnia, loss of appetite, irritability and perhaps most common – a sense of emotional “numbness.” And while some parents swear that the benefits have been enough to get their children back on track in school, there is a growing movement toward non-drug therapies to help kids with ADHD. One therapy that has proved particularly effective is called “cognitive skills training.”

What are cognitive skills?

            Unlike tutoring or computer-based programs that focus on behavior management or specific academic skills, cognitive skills training helps children with learning disabilities attend to and process information.

            “Cognitive skills are the essential, but often overlooked fundamental tools of effective learning,” explains Dr. Ken Gibson, founder of LearningRx, a national franchise that specializes in cognitive skills training. “Learning isn’t about how much you know, but how effectively you process or handle the information you receive. Cognitive skills are the mental mechanisms that process incoming information.”

            Unlike academic disciplines, cognitive skills are not the subject taught in school classrooms. “Most parents – and some educators – are unaware that there’s a difference between cognitive and academic skills,” says Gibson. “Cognitive skills are the underlying tools that enable kids to successfully focus, think, prioritize, plan, understand, visualize, remember and create useful associations, and solve problems.”

How are weak cognitive skills identified?

            Cognitive skills are not easy to see or recognize through casual observation. They function behind the scenes as you process the information received from every possible source – sound, touch, sight, and even information received from yourself when you are thinking, speculating, or recalling. Because of this ‘behind the scenes’ nature, an appropriate assessment test is essential for the identification and treatment of weak cognitive skills.

            There are, however, common traits that children with weak cognitive skills often display, including:

            • Difficulty paying attention

            • Poor test scores, grades or reading comprehension

            • Poor memory

            • Difficulty organizing activity

            • Poor study and work habits

            • Taking a long time to complete tasks

            • Disinterest (or dislike) in school

            Parents can take a full online evaluation at www.learningrx.com to help them further identify their child’s weak cognitive skills. To schedule a cognitive skills assessment, please call 832.482.3082.

How does cognitive skills therapy help?

            A child’s cognitive skill set is made up of several cognitive skills including auditory processing, visual processing, short and long-term memory, comprehension, logic and reasoning, and attention skills. Each of these can also be divided into identifiable sub-skills. For example, attention is made up of sub-skills such as sustain attention (staying on task), selective attention (ignoring distractions) and divided attention (handling more than one task at a time). Each of these skills and sub-skills play a specific and necessary role, and must work in concert before an individual can learn effectively.

            “Good programs use intense focused training to strengthen weak skills,” says Gibson. “It’s just like practicing the piano to improve your skill level. There are specific programs and exercises that specialize in identifying and strengthening weak cognitive skills. With the right program, most children who have been labeled as having ADHD, ADD or other learning disabilities can improve from three to five grade levels and about half the students no longer require medication.”

“We were so thankful to find a program that gave good results right away,” said Isidro and Luz  (last name omitted for privacy), whose son experienced cognitive skills training. “Joshua had such a bad habit of chewing on his sleeves. A week after he started the program he stopped this habit. A month later we noticed how he started focusing, being more responsible with his schoolwork and his home duties too. Later friends started noticing how calm he was getting. We truly recommend (cognitive skills therapy) programs to anybody.”

For Sheila and Sam, there was no question that cognitive skills training drastically changed their son’s love for reading. “Yuri struggled significantly with reading before the classes. Now he is reading everything he sees – posters, cereal boxes, street signs, etc. He loves being able to ‘do it himself.’ He also is better able to focus on what’s important and ignore the other noises going on around him.”

            For those parents who are considering Ritalin – or whose child is already taking it – cognitive skills training may offer a more natural approach to learning disabilities. Just be aware of the benefits of the therapy: improved attention, higher grades, better performance, increased self-esteem, and perhaps most important – a new love for learning!

For more information or to book an assessment, please call 832.482.3082. You may also stop by our office located at 4840 West Panther Creek, Suite 205.

            Wendy Burt is a full-time freelance writer and editor with more than 1,000 published pieces. She is also the author of two books for McGraw-Hill.