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Reading Difficulty & Dyslexia
Reading or learning how to read involves a combination of several skills. While some students may struggle with reading difficulties, they do not necessarily have a diagnosed disability. These students may just lag behind their peers, requiring more time to learn certain things and more specialized reading instruction.
Some students on the other hand are formally diagnosed with a specific learning disability. A large percent of learning disabilities (up to 80 percent) involve problems in learning to read. Reading disabilities can be associated with the term dyslexia.
When reading difficulties exist, it is usually related to a difficulty in one or more of the five skills that are needed to be a competent reader. The five component skills of reading include:
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| 1. Phonemic awareness
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. The English language consists of about 41 phonemes. These phonemes combine to form syllables and words. For example, the word cat is made up of three phonemes (or three sounds): /c/ /a/ and /t/. The word cash is also made up of three phonemes (or three sounds) even though cash has four letters: /c/ /a/ /sh/.
Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that words are made up of a combination of individual sounds. For example, if a student knows that cat, car, and cab all have the same sound at the beginning of the word, they have phonemic awareness. In addition to knowing that the word, for example cat, has three separate sounds, phonemic awareness is also the ability to blend these three sounds together to form the word cat, and separate and manipulate the sounds within the word. For example, if I replace the /c/ in cat with the sound /b/ I get bat.
Phonological awareness is the knowledge that there are patterns within words that can aid in both reading and writing. For example, those who have good phonological awareness can use rhyme, beginning and ending sounds, specific phonemes, etc. to read and write words.
See approximate ages and stages of phonological awareness.
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| 2. Phonics
Phonics is the understanding that there is a systematic and predictable relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters that represent those sounds). Students use these relationships to recognize familiar words and to decode unfamiliar ones. A knowledge of phonics allows the reader to focus on the specific sound of each letter or combination of letters. For example, if a student does not recognize the word shop, they might break the word apart, such as /sh/ /o/ /p/, assigning an appropriate sound to each separate letter or combination of letters. Then the student combines those sounds to create the word shop.
To benefit from phonics instruction, children need phonemic awareness. This is because children who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will have a difficult time learning how to relate these phonemes to letters when they see them in written words. However, even with good phonemic awareness phonics instruction does have limitations, especially since English does not have a pure phonetic base. The most obvious example of this is sounding out the words cough, though, tough, and through. A successful reading program needs to include both phonics and sight word instruction. One without the other can delay or impede success in learning how to read. |
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3. Vocabulary
When children learn to read, they begin to understand that the words on the page correspond to the words they come across every day. That’s why it’s much easier for children to make sense of written words that are already part of their oral language. As a student’s reading level improves, so does the number of words they need to know. Vocabulary development is therefore very important for beginning reading. When a student comes to a word and sounds it out, they are also determining if the word makes sense based on their understanding of the word. If a student does not know the meaning of the word, there is no way to check if the word fits, or to make meaning from the sentence. Vocabulary development is also a primary determinant of reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand the content of what they are reading unless they understand the meaning of the majority of words in the text.
Children increase their vocabulary through both direct and indirect instruction. Children continually learn new words indirectly through listening and speaking to the people around them, being read to by others, and reading on their own. Sometimes children need to be taught new words explicitly, especially when they are crucial to their understanding of a story or concept.
| 4. Reading fluency
Fluency is the ability to read words and text accurately and quickly. Since fluency depends on higher word recognition skills, it helps students move from decoding words to sight word reading. This means that less energy is spent on deciphering each word and more is spent on comprehending what is read. If children read out loud with speed, accuracy, and proper expression, they are more likely to comprehend and remember the material than if they read with difficulty and in an inefficient way.
Repeated oral reading is the best way for students to improve their fluency. This can include re-reading a familiar text several times, listening to models of fluent reading and choosing books that they can read with a high degree of success.
5. Reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is the culmination of all of the reading skills and the ultimate goal of learning to read. The purpose of mastery of each of the four previous skills is to enable comprehension. Likewise, reading comprehension facilitates mastery of the other four skills. |  | Good readers use a wide variety of strategies, often simultaneously, to create meaning from text. Some of the most important are:
• Monitoring comprehension: Successful readers know when they understand a passage and when they don’t. When they don’t understand, they know to pause and utilize strategies to improve their understanding.
• Using prior knowledge: Thinking about what is already known about the subject helps readers make connections between the story and their knowledge.
• Making predictions: Good readers often make predictions as they read through a story, using both the knowledge they bring to a text as well as what they can derive from the text.
• Questioning: When readers ask questions about what they read and subsequently search for answers, they are interacting with the text to construct meaning.
• Recognizing story structure: A student will understand a story better if they understand how it is organized (i.e., recognising the setting, plot, characters, and themes).
• Summarizing: When they summarize a story, readers determine the main idea and important information and use their own words to demonstrate a real understanding of the text.
Children need to learn from an early point that comprehension is the point of reading. It should therefore be emphasized from the very beginning. For example, reading aloud provides an opportunity for children to hear a story and respond to the content — the characters, their feelings and motivations, and the setting, and then to relate it to their own experiences. |
How to Get Started
A comprehensive assessment of your child’s phonemic/phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge and reading skills will determine which program option is best suited for your child. In addition to more traditional Speech Pathology treatment programs, at Brain & Language Connections we offer the Lindamood Bell® programs at our Hawthorn East clinic. They are intended to be completed as intensive programs whereby students attend at least twice weekly. The Fast ForWord® program is also offered as an in-clinic or home program. |
| Call now on 0409 850082 for more information or to make a booking for a comprehensive reading assessment for your child. |
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