Early Warning Test For Dyslexia

By BBC News Report

The test for dyslexia can be used by children before they can read. A 10-minute screening test to identify pre-school children who might be dyslexic has been developed by language experts at University College London. The test for dyslexia will be used by children from the age of three and a half upwards, says Professor Heather van der Lely.

Early Warning Test For Dyslexia – Beware False Alarms

But Dr John Rack of Dyslexia Action urged caution about the risk of “false alarms” from short screening tests. Dyslexia is a condition that can cause difficulty with reading, writing and spelling. The test has been developed by Professor van der Lely, who is director of the UCL Centre for Developmental Language Disorders and Cognitive Neuroscience.

Early Warning Test For Dyslexia – May Be  Help For Children With Severe Language Problems

What makes this test different is that it can be carried out in only 10 minutes – and that it can be used before children are usually able to read, picking up any potential concerns before children have started full-time education. Professor van der Lely, speaking on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, said that the test, which asks a child to repeat sentences and re-tell a story, can help with early intervention. Many children who have more severe language problems are not spotted until they’re seven, eight or nine years of age, which is a huge cost for everybody,” said Professor van der Lely.

The test examines how children use language – with particular attention to “phonology”, which is how sounds build up into words. “For the dyslexic part we’re trying to look at the phonology, as we know that children who have problems with phonology are at risk for dyslexia. So we’re trying to pick it up before the child even starts to read.” However, head of assessment and research at Dyslexia Action Dr Rack urged caution about such screening tests.

While welcoming any extra help for parents worried about their children, he said “a note of caution is needed”. “A test such as this can only give an indication – it’s a screening test and any test only taking 10 minutes will be subject to all kinds of technical difficulties over interpretation,” said Dr Rack. “We do know from the history of similar screening tests that they can produce a number of false alarms and can miss more subtle difficulties.” Professor van der Lely said the test had been used with 700 pupils and was found to be as reliable as tests which lasted 90 minutes.

Reproduced from a BBC report concerning a 10 minute pre-school dyslexia test developed at University College London

We strive to provide only quality articles, so if there is a specific topic related to dyslexia test that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time.

Britishdyslexia.com Early Warning Test For Dyslexia

Dyslexia Treatment

While there is currently no cure for dyslexia, there are a range of specialist interventions for dyslexia treatment that can help children with dyslexia with their reading and writing abilities. The amount and type of intervention and dyslexia treatment that they will need will depend on the severity of their condition.

Most children with dyslexia will only need to miss a few hours of their regular classes each week in order to receive specialist dyslexia treatment in the form of one-to-one teaching, or teaching in small groups. A minority of children with dyslexia may need to be transferred to a specialist school for their dyslexia treatment. Many specialist schools charge a fee, although financial support may be available from your Local Educational Authority (LEA) (in the UK).

Dyslexia Treatment – Educational Intervention – Early Years

Research has found that early educational interventions (dyslexia treatment) ideally before a child reaches seven or eight years of age, are an effective way of achieving long-term improvements in their reading and writing.

A wide range of educational interventions and programmes are currently available. For example, a recent report looking at effective ways to improve literacy in children with reading and writing difficulties found that there are currently 60 types of interventions and programmes currently being used in England.

With so many different programmes available, it can often be confusing for parents when deciding which ones would be most beneficial for their child.

There is a large body of good quality evidence that interventions that focus on improving phonological skills (the ability to identify and process sounds) are the most effective way of improving reading and writing. These types of educational interventions are often referred to as phonics. Phonics is a system that is widely used to teach all children to read and write, not just those with dyslexia.

Dyslexia Treatment – Phonics – Core Elements

Phonics focuses on six core elements:

• phonemic awareness
• phonics instruction
• spelling and writing instruction
• fluency instruction
• vocabulary instruction
• comprehension instruction

These are explained in more detail below.

Dyslexia Treatment – Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness teaches children how to recognise and identify phonemes (sounds) in spoken words. For example, it helps a child to recognise that even very short words, such as ‘hat’ are actually made up of three phonemes ‘h’, ‘a’, and ‘t’.

Another important part of phonemic awareness involves understanding that you can manipulate phonemes to change words, such as changing the ‘h’ to a ‘c’ to create the word cat.

Dyslexia Treatment – Phonics Instruction

Phonics instruction teaches children how to sound out printed words by recognising the written letters that correspond to spoken phonemes. Letters that correspond to phonemes are known as graphemes.

Phonics also teaches children how to decode multisyllabic words, such as ‘crocodile’ and apply previous learned rules so that they have a better understanding of new words.

Dyslexia Treatment – Spelling and Writing Instruction

Spelling and writing instruction encourages children to combine letters and graphemes in order to create words and then, over time, to use the words to create more complex sentences.

Fluency instruction

Fluency instruction provides children with practice in reading words accurately. The goal is for a  child to be able to read with a good level of accuracy and speed.

This is important because if a child spends a lot of time trying to focus on reading individual words, it is easy to lose track of the text as a whole, and they may not properly understand what they are reading.

Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary instruction teaches children to recognise the words they are reading while building and understanding new words.

Comprehension Instruction

Comprehension instruction teaches children to monitor their own understanding while they read. They are encouraged to ask questions if they notice gaps in their understanding, while also linking what they are reading to information they have previously learned.

Phonics – Important Features

There is also a large body of good quality evidence to indicate that the most effective methods of teaching phonics to children with dyslexia contain a number of important features. These are explained below.

Dyslexia Treatment – Structure

Teaching needs to be highly structured, with development made in small steps, building logically on what has been learnt before.

Multi-sensory

Children with dyslexia learn better when they can use as many different senses as possible. An example of multi-sensory teaching is where a child is taught to see the letter ‘a’, say its name and sound, and write it in the air (all at the same time).

Reinforcement

Skills should be reinforced through regular practice because children with dyslexia often have to ‘overlearn’ skills that they have already mastered. This helps to improve their automatic recognition of the correct phonemes, letters, and rules in reading and writing.

Skill teaching

Early interventions in children with dyslexia should focus on the development of useful skills that can be transferred to other areas. Trying to teach children to learn and retain big chunks of information instead could place, arguably unnecessary, pressure on their memory.

Metacognition

Metacognition is a word that essentially means ‘thinking about the way you think’. In practice, metacognition involves encouraging children to recognise that there are several different learning methods and approaches available to them, and then thinking about which ones would be best for them to use in different circumstances.

Dyslexia Treatment – Breaking down emotional barriers

Another important feature of any educational intervention is to recognise that many children with dyslexia can develop emotional barriers that can make learning more difficult such as:

• anxiety
• frustration
• low confidence

Therefore, it is important to break down these barriers through encouragement, empathy, and fostering the child’s self-esteem.

Dyslexia Treatment – Older Children

Many older children with dyslexia feel much more comfortable working with a computer than with an exercise book. This may be because a computer uses a visual environment which corresponds more closely to their method of thinking.

Word processing programmes can also be very useful because they have a spellchecker, and an auto-correct facility that can help to highlight any mistakes in your child’s writing.

Most web browsers, and word processing software also have ‘text-to-speech’ functions, or available ‘plug-ins’, where the computer reads the text as it appears on the screen.

Speech recognition software can also be used to translate what a person is saying into written text. This type of software can be a useful aid in dyslexia treatment for children with dyslexia because their language abilities are often much better than their writing skills. The software can take a considerable amount of time and effort to use before it can be used with speed, but some children may find that the effort is eventually worthwhile.

There are also many educational interactive software applications which may provide your child with a more engaging way of learning a subject, rather than simply reading from a textbook.

Dyslexia Treatment – Adults

Much of the advice and techniques that are used to help children with dyslexia are also relevant for adults. Making use of technology, such as word processors and electronic organisers, can help you with your writing and to organise your daily activities.

The best way to learn something is to use a multi-sensory approach. For example, you could use a digital recorder to record a lecture, and then listen to it as you read your notes. It is also recommended that you break large tasks and activities down into smaller steps.

If you need to draw up a plan, or make notes about a certain topic, you may find it useful to create a ‘mind map’, rather than writing a list. Mind maps are diagrams that use images and keywords to create a visual representation of a subject or plan.

You should let your employer know that you have dyslexia because they are required by law to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace in order to assist you.

Examples of reasonable adjustments include:

• providing you with assistance technology, such as voice-recognition software
• allowing you extra time for tasks that you find particularly difficult
• providing you with information in formats that you find accessible

Copyright © britishdyslexia.com 2011 Dyslexia Treatment

If you’ve struggled at school, if you always used to get those reports that said you could or should have done better, but you’ve tried your hardest, if you sometimes struggle with your left and right, if you feel you’re disorganised, if you sometimes write letters or numbers backwards, or have difficulty with spelling or maths, then I’m so glad you’ve found my blog, because not only will my story shock you, but it could save you from a lifetime of frustration and underachievement. It will certainly help your overall health and wellbeing and could even save you hundreds of $$ or ££ which you might otherwise spend on more expensive tests.

I’ll tell you my story and how I came to discover an almost instant explanation for years of misery and a wasted school life. I will even tell you how you can in just 30 minutes, discover whether you are like me and needlessly wasting your education or throwing away the chance of a decent career…. and how that simple online dyslexia test could prevent all this misery and stress.

Click Here to See the Online Dyslexia Test

My Name is Rachel Davies and like many, many other people, I struggled at school. I was always getting reports that said “could do better”. The teachers always seemed puzzled why I hadn’t done better in the tests. Maybe because of that I was also one of those kids that always seemed to be in trouble at school, from as far back as I can remember. Looking back now, I can see that I was taking out my anger and frustration on the teachers and my classmates. Why couldn’t the teachers make it easy for me to read, why couldn’t they make me see the words hidden on the pages just like everyone else? Why were they always cross with me? Or more to the point, why was I always cross with them and acting the fool?

In senior school there were kids who took a dislike to me because I never seemed to be able to keep up with anything and when they started making fun of me, I developed a kind of system to get through the days. I would make a joke of my “dumbness”, I would fool around and make like I didn’t care that I couldn’t do the work. It seemed to work and I was left alone by them and by the teachers too. I guess they decided if I didn’t care about it, why should they?

And The Less I Worked The Harder Everything Got…..

And the harder it got, the more I fooled around…. My two elder brothers had both enjoyed school and seemed to sail through and on to college. My parents both expected me to do the same, but oh no, I had to be different. They thought I was “rebelling” and being a “typical teenager” and because I didn’t pick things up straight away, they eventually thought I was doing that because I just plain wasn’t as bright as my brothers. My dad’s expectations of me dropped and when I got to be about 15, I will always remember overhearing him say to my mum, ” We’d better hope she finds a good man to look after her because she sure as hell isn’t going to be able to look after herself”

My mum would just shrug her shoulders and suggest I had my dad’s brains! She didn’t give up on me though and even paid for a tutor in the evenings out of her part time wages at the local supermarket. I knew my folks couldn’t really afford for me to have a private tutor and my brothers both pulled a face when they heard about it. “A waste of time and money” was all they could say. “She just doesn’t want to learn”.

Click Here to Learn More About the Online Dyslexia Test

I knew they were wrong about me and that I wasn’t dumb and despite the “attitude” which I showed to the world, I did want to learn. I just couldn’t seem to prove it. I really enjoyed art classes and would often get my work on the school gallery board outside the art room. But in all the other subjects I was in such trouble my parents stayed well away from the school and parent evenings because they always had to face bewildered teachers who just couldn’t understand why I wasn’t as bright as my brothers. It was just the stuff with words I found BORING. In fact from the age of about 13, I think that was the word that summed up my education – BORING!

I began to skip school, (actually I had been missing a lot of school up until I was 14 anyway) and I think most of my teachers really gave up on me and concentrated on the less unpleasant “easier” kids in the class who acted like they wanted to learn. Rachel – oh just let her get on with whatever she wants to do, so long as she doesn’t disrupt the class.

I managed to pass just one exam when I was 15 – you’ve guessed it – ART and then when my 16th. birthday came around I was free to leave school and GET ON WITH MY LIFE – or at least that was how it felt to me.

It wasn’t until I began surfing the net trying to find myself a job, that I came across an article – and actually it was a news story about a girl who was working as an interior designer with a large firm and making A FORTUNE! That was a lucky day for me because that news article is changing my life…….

Looking back I suppose it’s obvious that I am not the only person to have gone through school the way I did really without learning a thing, although at the time I felt like I was. You see, I always knew I was not as dumb as the teachers and my parents – yes and my brothers – thought I was. The girl in the news article had mentioned a learning disability called dyslexia. Seems she had the condition but it went undiagnosed right through her school days, but she was a brilliant artist and managed to get herself into art college.

It was there that she came into contact with other dyslexics and she wondered whether that might be her problem. She took an online test and that suggested to her that she was atually dyslexic…..

Well what do you know?

I Might Not Be That Dumb After All

Now I had a plan. I needed to get me that test and see if I was like the brilliant girl in the article. I’d become a bit of an internet geek, although I have to say I liked the video and karaoke sites better than the chat sites. I couldn’t tap away as fast as my friends and was always getting the words wrong, when they weren’t dancing around the screen. But Youtube and singsnap, they were my favourites. I would listen for hours to those wannabe singers on singsnap, giving their all. I don’t sing, and the one time I tried I couldn’t read the words fast enough to make any kind of job of it. I realised then that I couldn’t even enjoy stuff I really wanted to do because I couldn’t read fast enough. I knew I was going to have to do something.

School hadn’t worked and my Private Teacher had made little difference too.. Anyway, I googled dyslexia test and sure enough found the online test (for adults of 16 and over) that had been mentioned in the article. An online test that you could complete in under thrity minutes. It had to be worth a try.   By the way – there are dyslexia tests out there that cost hundreds, be very careful, I don’t think you need to spend anything like that! I had a little attack of nerves as I struggled with the sign up, but as these people were used to helping people who struggle with words, it was easier than I had expected. In fact I surprised myself how easily I signed in. I have to say that although they say on the Intro page that it’s a thirty minute test, I got a little uncomfortable when I’d been at it for forty minutes, but I managed to finish it not too much after that. And guess what?

Things are looking up for me now I know what the “problem” is!

I felt Like I’d Won The Lottery. It turns out I am dyslexic! At last, thanks to the online dyslexia test I had taken, I could show my family and my few loyal friends that I wasn’t so dumb as they all had me down for. I had a real “condition”. But better than that, my condition was treatable. With the right help, I would be able to attempt all those things I’d been pretending I wasn’t interested in. And I’d been pretending I wasn’t interested for so long, I had everyone believing I just wasn’t interested. I even believed I wasn’t interested myself.   But now, I had some proof, I had what was better to me than those diplomas I’d missed out on. I had the piece of paper saying I was dyslexic. But better than that I could get on the road to putting my life straight. I could get me some proper advice and help. Some guidance aas to how to tackle the problem and how to get on with a more “normal” life.

So where am I going from here?

Well I took the online dyslexia test nine months ago now. My parents were a little unbelieving at first, thinking I was maybe making this new thing up as another excuse to avoid going out to work. But they wre supportive (finally) they agreed to let me see if I could get special help in the local area and as it happens our local technical college has a special needs section with a dyslexia specialist who I see once a week alongside design studies. I still haven’t decided whether I want to branch out into web design or whether interior design will be my thing. I know I never felt as at home at school as I do now at the college, and I feel like I’m finally going somewhere.

I can’t help but think, what if I had never read that article? What if I had never taken that test? I shudder when I think about it and look forward to my next day in college

Click Here Now to See the Online Dyslexia Test

Here’s why I recommend the online dyslexia test.

There’s a couple of reasons why I recommend this particular online dyslexia test. The first reason is the price. You could spend hundreds to find out whether you are dyslexic or not. This one is a fraction of that! But the other reason is because it’s an online test, you can have the answer you are looking for in minutes. No queueing, no doctor’s appointment or referral. (Obviously if the test suggests you are dyslexic, you should get all the regular medical and educational help you can!)

In my opinion, this is a unique product, produced by professional people wha are experts in their field. Taking the test has enabled me to get on with my life, at least knowing what I am dealing with. It hasn’t given me all the answers I need, but at least now I can make a start towards finding out.

Sincerely,

Rachel Davies

Click Here to Try the Dyslexia Test

Dyslexia Symptoms