My 6 year old can t read or write
When to actually worry that your kid still can't read
Kids learn to read at different speeds. But at what point should you actually start to worry? Here are the red flags to watch out for.
Most people view reading as a mysterious skill that becomes knowable when, as in a cartoon, a light in the brain suddenly turns on. In reality, reading happens as a series of steps that begins with letters and sounds, and grows to include words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters that contain ideas, plots, stories.
Some kids just get it—they seem to be reading naturals and are practically self-taught by kindergarten, or they’ll learn it in school no matter what method a teacher uses. For other children, it takes more time to decode language by making the connection between letters and sounds, and different teaching styles may be needed before it finally clicks. “Kids really have their own pathways to reading, and sometimes it just takes it a little longer or a different way for it to click. And then when it does it can take off incredibly. It just needs to make sense to them,” says Marianne McTavish, associate dean of teacher education at the University of British Columbia, and a senior instructor with emergent learning and literacy in the department of language and literacy at UBC.
However, experts agree that by grade two, kids should be well on their way to fluency with books. “That’s a watershed year,” says Steve Truch, the Calgary-based founder and director of The Reading Foundation, an organization that runs remedial programs in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto for students who are struggling with learning. If children are still having a hard time, he says, “Parents need to have a serious look at it.”
Not all seven- or eight-year-olds who are struggling to read have bigger issues going on, though. Here are some red flags that your kid might experience more challenges than the average student:
1. Struggling to read + a family history of reading challenges
The most common indicator that a child will struggle with reading is whether they have a family history of reading or learning issues, or dyslexia, says Truch.
“We do know from research in the last 20 years that there’s a heavy genetic component to reading difficulties,” he says. “So for example, one child in the family with a reading issue means there’s a 50 percent chance for the next sibling to have it as well.”
2. Struggling to read + previous speech delay
Even if a language delay is addressed and dealt with, Truch says reading difficulty related to the delay can still surface later on. When kids learn to read, they need to hear differences in sound—what experts call ‘phonological awareness’—and they need to grasp how language works. “For those who receive speech therapy and now speak and articulate well, the issue with reading will be related to lingering weaknesses in phonological (phonemic) processing,” says Truch. “Being able to articulate a word doesn’t mean the child can segment or blend the phonemes of that word. That is a processing level that is deeper than the articulatory level.” This is why a delay in language acquisition can precede a reading delay.
3. Mixing up letters and losing skills
Repeatedly mixing up similar letters (for example, b and d) can be a red flag if it goes on long enough. It’s still fairly common in grade one, and even into grade two, but look at it more closely if you get past age eight, says Truch: “Children who struggle with reading have more reversals for greater lengths of time, sometimes even into adulthood.” Forgetting word spelling in previously mastered words in early elementary (grades 1-3) is another common sign there may be a real reading issue.
4. Avoiding reading at all costs
In preschool and kindergarten, the majority of children love being read to and can’t get enough of books, letters and numbers. Most want to grab a crayon and start trying to print their name.
It’s the opposite in kids who go on to struggle with reading, say experts. “They don’t have a curiosity about being introduced to letters as they’re getting towards school age,” says McTavish, noting that it’s iterative. “If you don’t do well at something, you don’t want to do it. So those kids who enjoy being read to get more out of it; those who don’t get left behind.”
But the likelihood of your child falling through the cracks to emerge illiterate at the end of grade school is pretty low. Schools typically screen children for learning problems as early as kindergarten, notify parents, and begin an intervention program so those kids can catch up.
Experts warn there’s also a fine line between awareness of a delay and going overboard in an effort to close the reading gap. Parents sometimes panic and begin pushing their reading avoiders in an effort to motivate them, which can backfire. “Parents tend to really focus on the decontextualization of teaching reading. They get the flashcards, they drill them on the alphabet, have them write the letters.
Yes, those are skills the child needs, but that can also take the joy out of reading altogether,” says McTavish. “So you get into a situation where the kids will just balk.”
What can parents do if they suspect a serious reading delay?
Ultimately, if you see signs your child is struggling, your first step is to speak to the school. “Advocate for your child if you believe that something is not quite right,” says McTavish. “There are resources available—be persistent.” Truch agrees. “Most of the time a parent’s gut feeling is correct,” he says. “Whether you label the child with a learning disability or not, they need an intervention.”
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FILED UNDER: Education Learning disability Reading School School-age
7 Early Signs Your Child May Have a Reading Issue
While frequently called a “disability,” a reading issue — I like that word better — is simply a neurological condition that interferes with a person’s ability to store, process, or produce information. As a parent and educator who has dealt with learning struggles, I encourage other parents to know the signs of a reading issue — and, if a child exhibits these signs, to consider talking with a teacher or education professional about testing as soon as possible. If there is a problem, any intervention to address it will be much more effective the earlier it is undertaken.
Early diagnosis can give children important tools and support for reading — before frustration and plummeting self-esteem turn them off to reading completely. Early diagnosis means children are more emotionally invested in their learning and, generally speaking, more motivated to work hard.
The sooner kids get help, the likelier their long-term success with reading becomes.
With that in mind, here are seven common red-flag behaviors that, if observed, may recommend further investigation.
7 Early Signs Your Child May Have a Reading Issue1. Doesn’t remember letter sounds (/a/ as in apple). If the phonemes (i.e., sounds) of letters aren’t sticking in a child’s long-term memory, it may indicate a processing issue, an auditory problem, or another learning challenge.
2. Confuses look-alike letters (b / d / p) or sound-alike letters (f / v; d / t). While it’s perfectly normal for beginners to reverse and rotate letters, as children develop an understanding of language, these errors should go away.
Understood.org — one of the best websites for information on dyslexia — explains that, after age 7, if a child is still confusing letters, it’s a red flag for a bigger learning issue. For example, a person with dyslexia can’t connect the visual representation of language (the letter b or p) to the sounds the language makes (/b/ as in bear versus /p/ as in pear).
Hence the frequent confusion when writing bs and ps.
3. Has difficulty rhyming words (bat / cat / mat). The ability to rhyme shows that a child can hear language. Practice with your child and help her work on this skill. If you notice your child continuing to struggle after intervention and practice, the cause may be an inability to process the sounds of language (dyslexia) or apraxia of speech, which is a motor speech disorder.
4. Doesn’t remember sight words. Just like flash cards are meant to trigger your knowledge in a “flash,” sight words are words kids should recognize instantly. Sight words are those most commonly used in the English language, such as “the,” “a,” “her,” “to,” “it,” “was,” and “for.” Children learn these sight words so that they can easily read sentences without having to stop and sound out common words each time they encounter them. In fact, “sight” words is a bit of a misnomer: so important is it for children to speedily grasp these words that teachers use a variety of multi-sensory recall techniques, including tactile, visual, and kinesthetic approaches to mastery.
Retrieval of sight words does takes practice. If, after ample repetition, your child still can’t remember basic sight words, it could indicate dyslexia, an auditory processing problem, or a visual perception disorder.
5. Omits word endings such as -s, -ing, or -ed. If you notice a significant difference between your child’s speech and that of her peers — such as not reading the endings of words — it could indicate a phonological or articulation disorder, apraxia, or dyslexia. Ask your child’s teacher if he or she notices this, too.
6. Poor memory. Can’t remember what he reads or what was read to him earlier in a story. Children whose brains process slowly, or who have attention issues, can easily lose the thread of a story. If it takes too long to decode the words on the page, the meaning of those words gets lost — and then the child can’t remember what happened. Sometimes the child’s attention simply wanders to something else.
Differences in the neurological processes of working memory, long-term memory, and output of information can all contribute to forgetting what one has read.
(This can also be a sign of dyslexia.)
7. Spells the same word differently within the same document. Usually children misspell a word consistently. When my kids used to spell because “beacuz,” I didn’t worry much, because it was consistent: The error was always the same. But when children use different variations of a misspelled word — “bekus,” “beacuz,” and so forth — it can indicate either a writing disorder called dysgraphia or a language-based issue like dyslexia.
Let’s be very clear: A reading issue does not mean we are in any way deficient as parents. Nor does it mean that our children have low intelligence. My own daughter tested in the ninety-eighth percentile for intelligence but in the thirty-first for processing. She’s smart. But when children struggle with processing, sometimes they can’t get the information into their long-term memories fast enough. Then it’s gone, and they can’t remember what they read — regardless of how intelligent they are.
Consider too that vision resides in the brain as well — and that many of the processing components of seeing can’t be tested with a vision chart. For example, one of my children’s eyes stopped tracking across the page about in the middle. We worked with a skilled vision therapist, and it helped.
[RELATED: No More Robot Reading: How to Help Kids Read with Expression]
All that having a reading issue means is that a child’s brain learns differently. And when we discover this difference — be it slow processing, vision problems, dyslexia, or something else — it means we can help our children become better, happier readers.
For more signs that your child may have a reading issue, and for information on what to do next, visit The National Center for Learning Disabilities, LD Online, and Wrightslaw. Free evaluations are available through public schools , if the school agrees that your child needs evaluating. You can also ask a private psychologist or learning specialist to do an independent assessment, though unfortunately this can cost somewhere in the range of $2,000-5,000.
Once you test, you can determine whether your child needs reading intervention or simply more time to develop. Either way, you’ll be glad to know — and glad you’re equipped to give your child the learning support that’s right for her.
Dyslexia - a disease or a norm. Corrective exercises
Have you noticed that your child has more difficulty learning to read and write than others? He can't remember the alphabet and sits for hours to read a couple of words, and your efforts to fix the situation turn into a lot of stress for both of you? Chances are your child has dyslexia.
But do not rush to despair. In this article, we will explain what this violation is and what to do to help your child learn to read and write on an equal basis with others. nine0003
Get comfortable and let's get started.
Is dyslexia a disease or a norm?
First, let's understand how the dyslexic brain works.
You know that our brain consists of left and right hemispheres. The left is responsible for logic, language, speech, reading, numbers, consistency, rationality. And the right one is for imagination, intuition, feelings, images and spatial thinking.
Dyslexics have more active right hemisphere and frontal lobe. And when reading, it is more difficult for them to focus on the letters, link them into syllables and words, and understand the meaning of what they read. nine0003
For these children, letters in words look like hooks and are remembered as pictures. That is, in order for a dyslexic to learn a word and attach a meaning to it, he needs to remember the picture from the hooks in great detail. And then he already guesses what might be written there. As a result, reading turns into torment and takes a lot of time and effort.
Is dyslexia normal? On the one hand, no. Because it interferes with normal development.
But on the other hand, dyslexics are absolutely normal children who, outside the learning process, are no different from their peers. Their brains just work differently. nine0003
Moreover, it is among dyslexics that most of all geniuses and outstanding people are. As proof of this, such names as Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney, Hans Christian Anderson, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Quentin Tarantino and several others.
How do people with reading and writing disorders become famous writers, actors and directors? Logically, this is hard to believe. But in fact, this is because dyslexics are very good at making up for their lack in life. They are more diligent and purposeful than ordinary people, because they want to prove to themselves and the world that they are no worse than others. And as we said, because their brain works differently. nine0003
Yes, of course, we understand that this is not easy for you. After all, the child falls behind in school, is subjected to ridicule by classmates and pressure from teachers.
His self-esteem drops and he withdraws more and more into himself.
Therefore, the sooner you start to act, the easier it will be for your child in the future.
Symptoms and causes of reading and writing disorders in children
Of course, it is quite difficult to detect dyslexia in a small child. Violations appear when the child begins to prepare for school or already goes to the first grade. nine0003
Here are the main symptoms that indicate dyslexia:
- the child cannot recognize letters that he already seems to have learned;
- swaps letters in words while reading;
- jumps from line to line;
- guesses more than reads;
- writes mirror;
- does not understand where is left and where is right;
- does not learn the rules and makes many mistakes in words;
- makes mistakes even when cheating;
- is in the clouds in the classroom and does not understand what the teacher is talking about.
But at the same time, the manifestation of one or two signs does not mean that others will necessarily appear. Everything is individual here. But even if one of the symptoms appears, you should not relax either.
CAUSES OF DYSLEXIA:
You are probably asking yourself: “Why did this happen to us? What could have led to these violations? Let's try to answer your questions. But you will have to strain and remember the past. nine0003
1. Heredity
You may not know this. But if at least someone in your family or spouse's family suffered from dyslexia, then this can be inherited even after several generations.
2. Problems during pregnancy and childbirth
There are a variety of options: infection during pregnancy, placental abruption, anemia, post-term pregnancy, cord entanglement during childbirth, etc. As a rule, the consequences of these problems appear later time.
nine0003
3. Smoking, use of alcohol or drugs before or during pregnancy
Everyone knows that it is desirable to plan a pregnancy. And everyone knows that at least six months before conception, you need to give up all bad habits and undergo a complete medical examination. But does everyone do it? Of course not! Everyone has their own reasons for that. But in any case, children pay for the mistakes of their parents.
4. Problems and diseases in a child in the first years of life
There are also different reasons: concussion, traumatic brain injury, infectious diseases (rubella, scarlet fever, chickenpox, whooping cough, poliomyelitis, measles) and neuroinfections (encephalitis, shingles, meningitis, botulism, neurosyphilis).
Of course, finding the cause of dyslexia in a child will not fix the situation, but at least you will stop being tormented by the question “Why?”.
Now let's move on to practice.
Types of dyslexia in primary school children and corrective exercises
Dyslexia - dyslexia is different. Therefore, we will separately go through each of its forms and give specific recommendations.
1. OPTICAL DYSLEXIA
Occurs due to a violation of the formation of a spatial-visual representation of the shapes, size and color of objects. A child with optical dyslexia cannot draw a letter from a model or from memory, does not recognize it, and cannot add missing elements to it if necessary. It is very difficult for such children to master reading and writing, so a special approach is needed when learning. nine0003
Corrective exercises
- Learn the letter
Here we work on spatial-visual perception.
Place the child with his back to you and draw a letter on his back with your finger.
So repeat the pattern until he guesses the letter.
This exercise is good for developing imagination through sensations. When you draw letters on a child's back, images appear in the brain that it attaches to a particular letter, thereby remembering it better. nine0003
- Transformer letters
Do not do a lot at once - 3-4 pieces will suffice. Ask the child to look carefully and try to remember the shapes and arrangement of the matches in letters. Then ask him to close his eyes and remove the match from one letter.
The child's task is to find the damaged letter and complete the missing element.
This exercise trains memory and improves letter recognition.
2. PHONEMATIC DYSLEXIA
A child with phonemic dyslexia spells words, confuses sounds, rearranges letters and syllables in words. Yes, this is exactly the case when reading is not only the most useless activity for a child, but also unbearable torture.
Corrective exercises
- Cross out the letters
The exercise is suitable for children who already know the alphabet.
So, take an old unnecessary magazine or book and ask the child to cross out all the letters "T" in one paragraph in 5-10 minutes. And next time, ask him to cross out all the letters "T" already on the entire page. Then gradually ask to cross out not one, but two letters in a paragraph, and so, as the speed of the child increases, add more and more letters.
This exercise will help your child concentrate better on letters and make fewer reading mistakes. nine0003
- Count the sounds
Here you just read the word to the child and ask him to count the sounds in each word.
This exercise will allow the child to learn to identify sounds by ear and not confuse them in words.
3. MINISTIC DYSLEXIA
Or, in simple terms, semantic dyslexia, manifests itself in the difficulty of mastering all the letters and the inability to distinguish them. The child has a speech memory disorder, and he cannot connect the sound and the visual image of the letter. nine0003
Correction of this type of dyslexia requires exercises that develop interhemispheric symmetry, auditory-verbal and visual memory.
Corrective exercises
- Find the extra syllable So that there are several syllables in front of the child: “PI”, “MI”, “ZI”, “VI”. And one of the cards should be with a different vowel, for example, "BA". nine0003
Then ask the child to find the extra syllable and explain why it is extra.
- Add the desired syllable
So, you and your child have all the same cards with syllables.
Now think of a word that ends with one of these syllables. For example, "bor-BA" and read it without naming the last syllable. The child must find the desired syllable among the cards and add it to the word. Thanks to these exercises, visual and auditory memory is trained.
4. AGRAMMATIC DYSLEXIA
A child with agrammatic dyslexia has a pronounced speech impairment. This is manifested in the incorrect naming of the number, gender and cases: “he went”, “grandmother had”, “they say”, etc.
Corrective exercises
- Say the missing word
The meaning here is that you are reading fairy tales or poems already familiar to the child and intentionally skipping words.
For example:
Kind Doctor….
He is under …. sits.
Come to him for treatment
Both the cow and ……
The child should try to name the missing words correctly.
The exercise works on automatic memorization of cases, declensions, numbers. nine0003 5. SEMANTIC DYSLEXIA
Or, in simple words, I look into a book and see a fig. This is a form of dyslexia in which the child reads absolutely normally, but does not understand the meaning of what they read. That is, his mechanical reading does not turn into conscious.
Corrective exercises
- Explain the meaning Then ask what he understood. If nothing, then read again yourself and ask again, at the same time explaining to him incomprehensible points. nine0003
For analysis, it is better to choose more complex sentences so that the child can present a more detailed picture.
- Anagram text reading
For example: “Eahl Gerka through rkeu. Vdiit Gerka in rkeu rak.
According to the results of research by scientists from an English university, we do not read the letter, but the whole word.
The main thing is that the first and last letters in the words are in their places. Such texts can be searched on the Internet and printed out for classes.
Practice has shown that such simple exercises can help a child move from mechanical to conscious reading in 2-3 weeks.
General advice for parents of children with dyslexia
Most importantly, dear parents, be patient and treat your child with understanding. Do not scold, do not reproach and do not press. He needs to feel that you are on his side.
Accept the situation as fact and take action. In addition to self-study at home, be sure to take your child to a psychologist, psychotherapist and speech therapist. Doctors will conduct special tests to determine the form and severity of dyslexia.
And if you do not have such an opportunity or you have no time to study with your child on your own, try reading lessons in our online school.
90% of success in the fight against dyslexia and in education depends on teachers. A special methodology, an exciting class format and experienced patient teachers will help your child learn to read correctly, quickly and consciously. Your child will love reading with all his heart and will keep up with his peers. nine0003
Why does our method work? Because while working with different children around the world, we not only learned to look at the world through their eyes, but also learned to think like them.
Want to see how things are going? Sign up for a free trial lesson! We also invite you to watch the materials of our webinar on early learning to read.
Patience to you and success!
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See also:
7 simple games to learn letters
Why is it important to teach a child to read by syllables?
Reading and speech: how to instill in your child a love of books
My child does not want to read - what if he has dyslexia?
Photo courtesy of logomedprognoz.
ru Olga Azova, Director of Logomed Prognosis Medical Center, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences.
What causes dyslexia– What is dyslexia? nine0006
– Dyslexia is a partial impairment of the reading process caused by various reasons, including those due to the immaturity or impairment of higher mental functions.
The following features of reading in a child speak of dyslexia:
- phonemic problems associated with difficulties in recognizing phonemes, even in strong positions the child reads the word incorrectly (" Shenia " instead of "Zhenya"),
- analytical and synthetic problems, when a child allows distortion of the sound-syllabic structure of a word (“ nileyka " instead of "ruler") or does not master the principles of syllable fusion (generally cannot read a word of several syllables).
- optical problems that manifest themselves in the difficulties of assimilation of the images of letters, their elements, and in general with optical-spatial disorders and features of visual gnosis (the child does not navigate the sheet, does not see the rulers).
- mnemonic disorders, which manifest themselves in the impossibility of remembering a letter,
- agrammatical problems are typical for those children who have already mastered the reading skill, but make mistakes during "fluent" reading. Or this is one of the signs of "guessing" reading, when the child reads the beginning of the word, and then "substitutes" the wrong ending. nine0480 With semantic dyslexia, different mechanisms of violation are observed:
- the wrong type of learning to read - letter-by-letter reading "stacking" (when a child reads a list of individual letters instead of a word: B, A, B, A),
- a poor lexicon,
- a poor level of mastery grammar (separately “pencil” and “ruler” the child knows, but after reading the task “show the ruler with a pencil”, he cannot complete it).Often dyslexia is mixed, when the child has different types of reading disorders. This happens if the child before school had severe speech disorders, or he was silent for a long time, or these are combined disorders in the structure of other defects (with cerebral palsy, various syndromes).
nine0003 If the child is physiologically and mentally healthy, studies according to the general education program, the school speech therapist deals with the problem. If dyslexia is associated with problems of the physical and mental health of the child, then other specialists should be involved in the work - a child neurologist, psychologist, neuropsychologist, massage therapist.
When dyslexia is a disease of geniuses– Very often on different sites devoted to dyslexia, you can see translations of foreign articles or materials based on a foreign approach to the problem. How does the foreign approach differ from the Russian one? nine0006
- This question is very important. For example, I tell students about this at lectures and even included this question in the exam papers. Moreover, participating in international conferences on dyslexia, I am more and more convinced of the importance and correctness of the domestic approach in interpreting the mechanisms of dyslexia.
Speaking about the diagnosis of dyslexia, the Russian school of speech therapy very consistently paints the mechanism of disorders, which we spoke about above. Among these disorders there is a special type - "optical dyslexia": difficulties in mastering the image of a letter, mixing graphically similar letters, their interchanges (Z-V, Z-E, P-B, T-G, etc.). Letters and lines “dance” in a child, as if he does not see letters, he may not perceive some font, spaces, transition from one line to another, letters merge, stick together, look in different directions, and other similar problems. nine0003
Foreign specialists, speaking of dyslexia, most often have in mind only this, its optical variety. And here we must understand: the condition of children with such a problem, even with all its complexity, is generally much easier, because they have no problems with the development of speech and the associated mental retardation.
Sometimes, on the contrary, they even begin to talk about the peculiarity and genius of such children: their optics are bad, and everything else, perhaps, is compensatory - perfect.
Some of it is a myth, but some of it is true. Among the children who underwent correction with me, there were those who had a great penchant for drawing and music. nine0003 As a rule, children with optical dyslexia, in addition to working with a speech therapist, need to consult both a psychologist and a neuropsychologist.
You may need to consult a neurologist, who can offer both massage and exercise therapy, cerebellar stimulation in rehabilitation activities to help develop basic reading functions.
Russian - great, powerful, terribly complex
Also, regarding the difference between domestic and foreign approaches, we must remember that we are the owners of a very beautiful language, which is included in the top three most difficult languages in the world . Many languages of the world are not so complex, there is not such a multi-stage grammar, a limited number of cases and genders, which means there is no variability in endings. And what about our participles and gerunds, phonemic language processes that gave us the beauty of the language, but at the same time problems!
We have paronyms, synonyms, quasi-homonyms - a lot of words that differ from each other by one sound.
Many languages in the world simply do not know this problem, they do not divide sounds according to deafness-voicedness, hardness-softness, hissing-whistling and various sonoras. nine0003 Therefore, our domestic approach to dyslexia is wider - and concerns language problems, the formation of mental functions: phonemic perception, phonemic analysis and synthesis, underdevelopment of the lexical and grammatical structure of speech, mnestic and receptive processes, and, of course, visual analysis and synthesis, spatial representations.
Clarifying terms
In order to competently understand the literature on the problem of interest to us, parents need to know several terms. nine0480 In addition to dyslexia, Russian science distinguishes alexia - a complex complex disorder when a child cannot be taught to read in principle. In such children, the assimilation of the image of a letter is impaired, there may be a gross violation of speech, mental retardation, or complex combined forms of disorders;
There are two writing disorders - dysgraphia and agraphia , and a written language disorder - dysorphography .
Foreign manuals distinguish between legosthenia - when a child has both dysgraphia and dyslexia at the same time. But domestic experts do not use this term as unnecessary, because there are dysgraphia and dyslexia and indeed very often they are combined.
Diagnosis " hyperlexia" put, children with autism spectrum disorder - when children read mechanically, not really understanding the meaning of what they read. Such children, for example, by captions can learn a foreign language, or remember and reproduce a large amount of “complex” information, but they do not understand its meaning.
How do you know if a child will have reading problems?– Is it possible to recognize dyslexia before a child starts learning to read? What features in his behavior will help alert? nine0006
– In order to understand whether a child will have problems with reading, it is necessary to assess the child's health in general: his physical and psycho-speech development, the ability to use different types of memory - all this is easily checked before school.
Every problem has roots. Let's consider various ways of diagnosing problems that can later lead to the development of dyslexia:
- If a child has speech disorders, he goes to a speech therapist. The speech therapist also looks at whether the child has impairments in phonemic hearing, analysis and synthesis, understanding, whether the dictionary is broken and whether there are agrammatisms (incorrect formation of words and their forms), how well coherent speech is developed. It is in the classes that develop speech that the speech therapist also conducts the prevention of reading disorders, especially those types that are associated specifically with speech. nine0068
- In the art classes and when using any kind of manual labor, a good teacher will notice that the child has poorly developed fine motor skills (cannot cut, sculpt, glue, lace, fasten buttons). For writing, calligraphy, it is very important to be able to perform small precise actions. They are specially trained.
I recommend these exercises every day. - If a child goes to school, he must be able to ride a two-wheeled bicycle - the functions of writing and reading require coordination and coherence. nine0068
- Poor mastery of rhythm can complicate the assimilation of words with a complex syllabic structure, which means that it needs to be developed - dancing, music or more specialized procedures, such as an interactive metronome, will help.
- Reading requires well-formed visual-motor and auditory-motor coordinations in order to be able to see, hear, speak at the same time - this is what is important when reading.
- The child should be able to remember and, if necessary, retell what he has read. nine0068
- It is necessary to understand which hand the child has - leading, with which hand he will write.
– Is left-handedness in itself a reason to check a child with a speech therapist?
- Yes. Speech therapists, psychologists, neurophysiologists and neuropsychologists often pay attention not only to the dominant hand, but also to the leg and eye.
Lateralization is important because there are letters in Russian that face right or left, are symmetrical vertically and horizontally, or not at all symmetrical, and a left-handed child may not learn directions well. nine0003 In fact, the vast majority of left-handers and ambidexters (people who equally use both hands) have no special features other than the dominant hand. The left hemispheric location of the center of speech is observed in 95% of right-handed people and in 70% of left-handed people. And only 15% of left-handers have the speech center in the right hemisphere. Such children have features of thinking - they think in images. They may have the ability to draw, music, or, on the contrary, may have a number of neurological problems.
An individual lateral profile helps to determine the type of training program (depending on the combinations of the dominant hand, eye, etc., a school of a certain profile can be recommended to the child. For example, the leading left eye, hand and shoulder are a reason to send children to mathematics.
It makes sense to send children with different lateralization to a school where more attention is paid to reading and the humanities. But the approach of most gymnasiums, where they take a complex program in all subjects at once, is wrong. Such study is very difficult even for ordinary children and extremely difficult for right-brained, left-handed children).
How to determine the leading hand, ear, eye
For example: try to leave a small ball for the child, which he must catch with any hand, but only with one. The dominant hand is determined by which hand most often catches the ball. You can ask the child to “stir” sugar in a glass with a spoon, “thread an imaginary thread into a needle: a left-handed child will have a thread in his left hand. nine0480 You can check your dominant ear by asking if the clock is ticking. The child will turn with the leading ear to the source of the sound.
Check the dominant eye - by asking "look down the hole, squinting one eye.
The eye with which the child will look into the well is a working one.
All these tests are rather conditional. The main criterion is which hand the child prefers to act in everyday life: hold a pen, pencil, spoon in order to write, draw and eat.
At school: problems or just not trying? nine0006– How can you distinguish dyslexia from not trying at school?
- In fact, "not trying" and "not paying attention" - this is also what you need to pay attention to and look for the reason why the child quickly gets tired.
A parent can turn to a speech therapist with the fact that the child does not remember, for example, letters. But an experienced specialist is obliged to ask: “What else is worrying, what is still wrong?”
If a parent lists: fatigue, inability to switch, headaches, vomiting, inability to concentrate - these are all symptoms and reasons for contacting a neurologist. nine0003
Returning to the question of whether it is difficult for an ordinary child to learn letters, the answer is quite simple.
The ability to memorize the image of a letter is a pre-prepared function. Almost from birth, children see letters everywhere - on billboards, in newspapers, in a book that dad reads. And one fine day the child will ask himself: “What is this letter?”, because he knows the word “letter”. That is, the child himself, through practical experience, will come to the point that a letter is a sign that means sound. So, in general, an ordinary child should not have problems with memorizing and recognizing letters. If they occur, you need to seek the help of specialists. nine0003 Why do some children not remember, do not recognize letters?
There are several reasons:
- literal agnosia or gross violation of visual memory (inability to remember the image of a letter),
- verbal agnosia - recognizes a specific letter, and when writing words, phrases, sentences, distortions of letters similar in spelling are noted,
- a variant of the problem - "mirror" spelling of letters .
Usually small children “mirror” when the process of memorizing letters is at the stage of mastering the skill. Once this process is complete (usually all children have memorized all letter patterns by the end of second grade), children stop making these kinds of mistakes. nine0480 At the same time, until the end of the second grade, the child has the right to ask: “How do you spell “e” or “f”?” These are not such frequently used letters of the Russian alphabet. But if a child continues, for example, in the fifth grade, continues to write “s” in the other direction - “ɔ”, then this is no longer a variant of optical dysgraphia, but a mirror optical dysgraphia.
If a child learns and cannot remember letters, forgets those letters that are often used in the Russian alphabet (“a”, “m” or “v”), we should already talk not about dyslexia, but about alexia. Such children, in addition to a speech therapist, should definitely work with a neuropsychologist, a clinical psychologist, and get a consultation from a neurologist.
nine0002 – What if the child reads poorly and slowly? The speed of reading also depends on the way of reading, deviations in which are now also considered a dyslexic error.
Here, perhaps, we need to talk about the age of the children.
There are three ways of reading: syllable-by-syllable, "syllable+word", and "fluent reading". There is also “stacking” - the sequential naming of letters in a word (B, A, B, A) - this process cannot be called reading, this is the wrong type of learning to read.
I think it's perfectly normal for first-graders to read by syllables. This is how the first stage of the reading skill is worked out and it cannot be accelerated somehow from the outside - everything has its time. The child "read the syllables" and from this method goes to another - "syllable + word". Later, the child learns and begins to read whole words, moving on to fluent reading.
The child must not be rushed to master this skill. And the requests of parents and teachers to “read faster” are meaningless.
It is just as unreasonable to ask "faster knitting" or "faster gearshift in the car" of a person who is just learning the skill of knitting and driving a car. nine0003
Here we will not speed up anything, but we can do harm: the child will start to rush and try to “guess” the endings of words.
Parents who try to teach their child to read fluently too early achieve only one thing - “guessing reading”, when the child tries to guess the word from the first syllable that he managed to read.
As a result, the child makes mistakes, gets confused, cannot understand the text, and generally abandons reading.
At the initial stage of the formation of the reading skill, one must show patience - allow the child to read at the pace that he can keep for the time being, not to adjust or correct. nine0003
Allow you to move your finger under the line until this need itself disappears. A finger is such a “backbone”, a “magic wand”. It is already very difficult for a child to cope with independent reading, without which he did well at preschool age, when adults read to him.
The most important thing is to create an intrigue around reading, so that this activity, boring at first, can be brought to a habit and instilled in love for it. And one of the important conditions here is to read to adults themselves, to set an example. The child must see that parents, brothers and sisters read that this is something necessary and as important as eating and sleeping, so that it enters into his personal life. nine0003
Too many children don't progress in speed simply because they don't read. And when a child reads every day, the pace will definitely increase.
– Is the teacher able to recognize dyslexic from “not trying”?
- I'm not completely sure about this. I don't think he has time for this.
The teacher, most likely, sees the problem - there is no time to deal with it.
Although it cannot be ruled out that somewhere in the district school there is a wonderful Marivanna, who has enough mental strength to convey to her mother what problems the child has or, if not to solve them herself, then suggest going to a speech therapist.
nine0003 I am not inclined to blame the teacher for not being able to solve a correctional problem. Even a teacher cannot sometimes send a child to a speech therapist, because such a staff unit is now not provided for at school.
Why is forced early reading dangerous?– It is really not necessary to teach a child to read before school.
One can not interfere only with what the child does himself - at least at the age of two. nine0003
There is a large population study that is being conducted at the Institute of Developmental Physiology of the Russian Academy of Education: memory problems are the result of very early learning, because a system of inadequate requirements is created, including very early learning to read.
Until six or eight years old, the child is not ready to read “physiologically”: supporting functions are not formed:
selective attention is not developed, without which reading and writing are impossible, memory and speech are not sufficiently formed.
Only by the age of six or eight, when the frontal lobes of the brain mature, do effective visual differentiations begin to form in the child. At this age, it makes physiological sense to start teaching reading. nine0003 If a three or four year old child begins to read, this can lead to the appearance of an inadequate reading mechanism, which is also called “guessing”: the child will glance unevenly along the line, having time to read the first few letters in the word and trying to guess the ending from them. Yes, this can lead to dyslexia.
– Does it make sense to send a child with neurological problems or a physiologically immature child to school later?
- I don't really like it when sensitive (most favorable) periods are missed. The most optimal age for going to school is seven to seven and a half years. A physiologically immature child will still continue to "mature" until puberty, so you should not overexpose him at home. Sometimes they say that you need to extend childhood to eight years.
I wonder: why not until nine or ten, or even until adolescence? No, I am against. nine0003 It is psychologically easier for the whole family if the child goes to school at the same time as his peers and continues to solve already known and identified problems while studying. At the same time, you should not ignore classes with a speech therapist, a psychologist, and if necessary, continue to visit a neurologist.
I very rarely agree to wait until eight years. This is justified if the psychologist strongly insists - if the child does not have motivation to learn, he has just begun to really play, or I myself see that it is necessary to allow speech to stabilize, which was only recently “summoned”. But I don’t want to see six-year-olds at school either. nine0003
For example, I went to school at the age of seven and a half - and I never missed anything in my life. And so I still think that everything has its time: we will read at school, before school - walk and play - learn to interact.
- Are there any other mistakes in the preparation of school programs that can provoke errors in reading?
- This is possible when corrective techniques are included in the regular training program. For example, if a teacher in a regular lesson says: “Look, children: the letter “E” looks one way, and the letter “Z” looks the other way,” - tomorrow half of the children will confuse these letters. If a child taught in the usual way does not have problems in distinguishing letters, then there is no need to explain the difference. nine0003
Instilling a love for reading– Is it necessary to leave only books for the period of learning to read and dose visual sources of information – gadgets, TV?
- I think that the book at the initial stages of learning will not withstand competition with any visual series anyway. A lot of learning processes are tied to visualization - it is no coincidence that we add up with the child not “2 + 2”, but “two and two apples”.
Therefore, in the fight against gadgets and computers, there will be only two effective means - a personal example of parents and the right steps. nine0003
For example, you can arrange reading together or reading by roles, but you need to find a book that would be interesting for the whole family. Maybe it will be possible to establish a tradition of family reading.
You can use your favorite gadget to help, offer a filmstrip - put a picture on the projector - and the child reads. That is, the main thing is to offer, show, stimulate interest in reading. It is clear that “mom washed the frame” is very boring. But even without a “frame” we can’t do it - there is a specially simple structure of the word. nine0003
Don't impose your taste on a child, don't offer him the wonderful Nosov and Dragunsky, let the child read what he likes - about princesses, hairstyles and manicures, or science fiction, about animals and cars.
The main thing is that the child pays attention to the book as a source of information.
You can work with incentives. Think about how you can encourage the child, the main thing is that the encouragement is here and now.
It could be candy, although dentists won't understand us. nine0003
You need to know your child well. I remember that a boy from a very wealthy family studied with me, it was difficult to surprise him with something, his parents could buy everything. And I came up with the idea of buying him small chewing gums, and for each success I gave several at once. He didn’t chew them at all, he just liked that by the end of the lesson he had a whole hill of prizes. Someone will try - for a smiley, for a funny picture. And the child will start collecting such pictures simply because it is his encouragement.
Dyslexia is treated by a specialist– Can parents take care of their child in case of diagnosed dyslexia?
- They can, but under the guidance of a specialist. In addition to mandatory diagnostics and visits to a speech therapist, extended consultations can be organized, where a rehabilitation and educational route is drawn up, what exactly to do with the child.
With the consent of the teacher, emerging questions can be quickly asked to him in social networks. Sometimes it is advisable to offer a “big” task for independent work, with which the parent goes home, and then shows the child in dynamics, after some time. nine0003 And this can be a task not only for reading, but also specific advice: to involve other specialists in work with the child - a neuropsychologist, a neurologist, a massage therapist.
Sometimes it happens that a neurologist looks at a child and says: “Let's first solve the problem with enuresis and digestion, because the child has constipation for the third day, he can hardly sit with you, what kind of reading is there?”
You will still be reading with your child at home, another thing is that a specialist has life hacks - interesting texts, encouragement, all sorts of finds. He makes learning faster and more fun. nine0003
– How long will it take to visit a speech therapist?
- Depends on the condition of the child.
If we quickly find the “cog” that holds the problems and deal with it, we will move quickly enough. If the child's condition is complicated by other diagnoses, such as mental retardation, more time will be required. Of course, he will not read complex texts with a lot of special terminology, but it is quite possible to bring the skill to such a state that the child can use it freely. nine0003
But I definitely do not believe in the story “now we read for three days and everything will pass”.
"Simply explaining" the skill of reading is impossible - it needs to be developed and improved.
For example, if the first grade program had a writing lesson once a week, we would learn to write before the eleventh.
– How realistic is it to get to all the specialists necessary for the correction of a child with dyslexia free of charge through compulsory medical insurance?
– You know, I am for private clinics. I understand that few people will like this answer, but it's all about the current admission standards.
A specialist cannot look at a child in three minutes, write down everything you need, write out a ticket, and so on. Neurological problems need to be able to interpret, and this takes time. nine0003 For example, as a speech therapist, for me, the initial diagnosis of a child and a consultation takes from an hour to an hour and a half, but in other respects I do not limit time: the parent must receive answers to the questions that he came with, I allow, if you forgot to ask something, write to me in social networks. All over the world, high-quality consultations are also most often not government programs, alas.
– Should dyslexics be homeschooled?
- I am against any separation, because the child will need communication skills everywhere. nine0003
At the same time, it is clear that I cannot improve our society. So, look for a teacher who would be ready not to scold such a child, but to encourage his every success. If we encourage the personal success and personal growth of the child, there is no problem that he learns among everyone.
