Ask Dr. Pierson

My 8-yr-old daughter has ADHD (combined type) and will be entering 3rd grade. She currently has twice weekly private tutoring by an Orton-Gillingham-trained tutor. Her tutor and I suspect dyslexia may be impeding her reading progress as she is very smart and capable in many other areas. She is very positive and joyful overall. She loves school and would be very compliant in a testing situation. I was wondering if she would also be a candidate for diagnostic testing for dyslexia? I myself am an early childhood/elementary school trained teacher, so I know the importance of diagnosis and early intervention. If you could please provide me with any recommendations or information on testing and/or research, I would appreciate it. We understand that private testing is very expensive and insurance does not cover it.

I am considering moving my daughter into a school that has Wilson Reading programs integrated into all parts of a curriculum. I literally live in one of the best school districts in the nation, but I feel like this alternate school may be the answer to close the gap and provide the stronger technical reading base she is currently lacking.

My child was diagnosed with dyslexia in the fall. His phonemic awareness and spelling skills are still at mid-1st grade. Is it important to go back and systematically teach the missed skills, or due to his age, begin work with multisyllabic words and affixes? He has deficits in letter-sound knowledge, suffixes, inflections, and syllable insertion or omission. He also has deficits in segmenting (sound and syllable) and in phoneme isolation.

I’m now 40 and am fairly certain that I have dyslexia. My concern isn’t with me, I have adapted to it after all this time. But my daughter is 8 and is struggling in school and I’m starting to think she may suffer from the same thing I do. I’m wondering how to get it diagnosed correctly?

I have a son that I think may have dyslexia. On your "Clues to Dyslexia" page, there were multiple boxes that I checked as things that my son struggles with. We sent him to a reading tutor when he was younger; but with the 4th-grade work getting harder and more complex, we're noticing him struggling a lot more. He starts next week with an online tutor, but I think he needs an official diagnosis for school.

I am in need of finding a tutor for my 8- year-old son, who is dyslexic. His school has told me that the State does not recognize dyslexia and doesn’t have any tutors they can recommend. I have contacted many places but can’t find any that specialize in the Orton-Gillingham teaching. I would really like to get him help so that he doesn’t fall too much behind in school. Trying to homeschool him is very hard and frustrating for us both.

My daughter can spell but has been assessed as having a reading rate (not comprehension) that is two years behind her age average. Her reading was assessed by a literacy teacher at her secondary school. She was assessed as she is consistently way slower at her work than her peers (despite apparent concentration), though given time she does well. Given that she can spell does this rule out dyslexia? Is there some other learning difficulty that I should have her assessed for?

My son is six years old. He has been working with a speech pathologist since age 2. He was enrolled in the Early On program, as well as a preschool program with the public schools for 3 years. He will be headed to first grade next year and will be working with the literacy specialist at his school. I thought that you may have some suggestions or thoughts on how we should proceed. I’m not sure if it’s too early to have him tested for dyslexia or if there are special tutors/things we should be doing now because he also has a speech delay.

I am a teacher and I had the opportunity to do a presentation for 40 teachers in my district that were interested in learning more about dyslexia. After my presentation, my building principal asked what we can do to help these kids. At the present time, very little is being done. The K-2 building does Wilson reading and Fundations, but that is as far as it goes. Do you have any suggestions that I can give her?

I am looking for answers on what my daughter's teacher and I can do to help her succeed. She is nine years old and still has reversals in her writing mainly with numbers (2,3, and 5's) her teacher suggested getting her an assessment at school which came back with 14th percentile for phonological awareness, 8th percentile phonological memory, and 12th percentile in rapid symbolic naming. I am very confused though because this girl has been reading Harry Potter and LOVES to read.

Our son is struggling mentally and emotionally at school this year. He no longer likes school. Homework is miserable for all of us. We would like to support him as much as we can while awaiting testing, so we are considering starting OG tutoring while we wait. However, after reading another question’s answer in which you state that tutoring can affect a child’s CTOPP score, thus making the diagnosis a bit less clear, I am wondering if we should wait on the tutoring.

I am a special education teacher. I wanted to ask which assessment(s) you would recommend to diagnose dyslexia if I were to purchase just one or two assessments. Let's say that I already know that the student has an average IQ, so I don't need an aptitude test.

I've just changed jobs from classroom teacher to assistant principal. Part of my responsibilities is with our child study team. We have a young man whose parents believe that he is dyslexic and when his mom talked to the pediatrician was told that testing can be done at school. When I checked in with my special education experts, they said that we do not do dyslexia testing. They can check for a learning disability, but apparently, they don't definitively say dyslexia. I am at a loss for how to direct this parent.

I am the mother of a first-grade child who recently was diagnosed with dyslexia. What are the best options/tools/technology/advice to help him? I would be grateful for any help.

My 8-year-old daughter is dyslexic as well as inattentive ADHD. She attends a private school and is on an ISP. After reviewing her recent report card, she broke out into tears at the low marks she received. She was especially heartbroken over getting the lowest possible marks in two categories: “listens/follows directions” and “shows effort.” Do you have any recommendations on how to address this with the teacher?

Our son is in 3rd grade and on an IEP. He has been working with an Orton-Gillingham (OG) specialist for 6 months now. My hope was that the frustration level at home would subside, but it has gotten worse and it is exhausting and impacting our family. What should our expectations be as far as seeing results from OG?

I am writing to see if you can give me an opinion regarding my son. He is 10 years old and is going to a school with a very good program for dyslexic kids. He has his struggles with dyslexia, which is understandable. But he has a glass-half-empty personality; or in other words, he projects failure on himself. Do you have any suggestions as to what my wife and I could do to change his attitude and general demeanor at completing tasks that cause him "work"?

My son is a 9-year-old 4th grader. He was diagnosed in first grade with dyslexia. He has since been in a dyslexic program where he received services five days a week for 45-minutes a day. I was approached this year by our new first-year dyslexia teacher and asked if I would be okay with him only getting 30-minutes, four days a week during his classroom reading time. I was also told he was almost done with the program, so that was her reasoning as to why she wanted to shorten his time. My question is legally how long should he receive services?

My 8-year-old was just diagnosed with dyslexia. We are looking at moving her to a new school district to get reading intervention through Project Read. Do you have experience with how Project Read, and how successful it is for helping close the achievement gap for dyslexic students? Specifically, we're wondering if Project Read at school would be able to replace outside tutoring, or if she would still need Orton-Gillingham-based tutoring outside of school?

I have reasons to believe my daughter may be dyslexic, and I don't know where to start. She goes to a very good school system, but they are known for not helping people with special learning needs. I am trying to know my rights and what exactly I can fight for. Do you have any suggestions for me? Is the school responsible for testing if I express concern? Is a language-based learning disability recognized by public schools? I will do whatever it takes to get her help.

I am a reading specialist at a K-4 building. I work with students who are considered to be "at risk" in reading. I have a second grade girl about whom I have a question. She is an average student in math and in reading with average comprehension and silent reading fluency. However, her oral reading fluency is very low. She reads with her parents at home every night and had a tutor over the summer. Although she is showing slight improvements, the improvements are not what one would expect with these interventions. Do you think dyslexia is a possibility?

We recently found out that my 2nd grade son has dyslexia. We are currently trying to figure out the right next steps for him and his education. He is a very determined kid and does like playing learning games on the IPad. I was wondering which of the blended learning programs (e.g. Lexia, Barton, etc.) might be good for him to use or if there was another set of apps that would be helpful for him to spend time on in the evening?

I am a certified LBS and have been working with dyslexic students for 25 years. This summer, I began working with a student who is entering second grade, and I am stumped. Although she is a bright girl with no developmental delays, she must decode every word sound by sound. She has no recall of sight words. She has made gains and retained all short vowels, 5 vowel blends and all digraphs, and can decode phonetically correct words in a list. It has been 2.5 months and she has made no gains in her ability to read words in context.

I am an elementary special education resource teacher for 3rd-5th grades, and I estimate at least 80% of the students on my caseload are dyslexic. I did not attend University of Michigan, so I'm not sure if this resource is available to me or not. I am simply seeking guidance from those in the field.

I am very confused by my daughter’s test scores. She has had the Differential Ability Scales and the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test done at school and yesterday she had the CTOPP and the GORT done by a reading specialist. I am not sure if she has dyslexia or not, but something is going on. The school testing showed average intelligence, high oral language and comprehension, average decoding and low reading comprehension, visual processing and rapid naming scores. I am thinking of doing one-on-one tutoring with a Barton tutor for her. Do you think this sort of program would benefit my daughter with these scores?

I have a 3rd grader with suspected dyslexia, and I'm curious about an evaluation. Can I please get information on how this works, cost, whether or not I need a doctor’s referral, does insurance cover this, etc?

My son is 9 years old and in the 3rd grade. His teacher and principal have suggested that we have a "comprehensive child study" done to evaluate, understand, and help with his issues. I am having trouble finding resources where this evaluation and diagnosis could be performed. Can you provide a contact or point me in the right direction for an evaluation and diagnostic testing?

My daughter is eight years old and is in third grade. She is a very bright girl. In school, she is very enthusiastic about things like science and math, but has consistently been behind at reading. At present, she is reading about a grade level behind. She spells phonetically. She is able to express herself verbally, but has trouble with writing. When reading out loud, she seems to be trying so hard, but the words just don't seem to flow naturally for her. Based on this, and various other reasons, I suspect my daughter may be dyslexic.

My husband and I are looking for someone to evaluate our daughter for dyslexia in Michigan. But we are having trouble getting professionals to listen and understand our concerns. Do you have any doctors or resource centers you recommend?

I have an eight year old daughter with dyslexia. I am trying to get some advice on software or books and teaching materials to help her at home. I found the Nessy software and the reviews seem to be good. I would like to get the absolute best program even if it a professional version. Is there any advice you can give me...or point me towards someone who could help me set up a home program for her?

My homeschooled grandson is eight years old and is in the 3rd grade. He also has ADHD. My daughter suspected he may have dyslexia at the end of 2nd grade, and had him tested by a Susan Barton tutor, who confirmed her concerns. That testing doesn't qualify as a clinical evaluation though. Where do we go to have a clinical evaluation like your website describes?

I have a nine year old son that we believe may have a learning disability. We believe it is possibly dyslexia or dyscalculia. We are unable to have an evaluation at this time due to the cost. How can we help him and support him until we can get the diagnosis? I believe once we get an official diagnosis with the areas he is struggling in, we can request accommodations. But until then, I feel clueless about how to help him.

My daughter is nine years old and is in 4th grade. She has always had difficulty reading, spelling, and with memory in general. She took a common dyslexia test as part of the assessment called the Jordan test that she scored very poorly on that warrants us to want to investigate dyslexia as a possible disability. I assume that our next step is to seek a professional evaluation for dyslexia. I’ve looked at the IDA provider directory. There appears to be several providers in our state, but none closer to our home. Are there any reputable providers closer to our area that are not listed on eida.org? If not, is there another area provider that you would recommend for our situation?

I am interested in finding out about testing to determine if a child might be dyslexic. My grandson is seven years old and has been receiving speech services for five years for apraxia and dysarthria. He has slower process speed due to a congenital brain malformation. He is in second grade and seems to be lagging on reading skills in spite of Title 1 reading support. Can you please provide me specific recommendations about how to have him tested?

My son is six years old and has been having reading difficulties and is starting to reverse his letters and numbers. Dyslexia is a concern of mine and the elementary school in which he attends does not seem to want to help me with testing. Is this something that you do at your facility?

My daughter has dyslexia and struggles with reading. I try to help her at home, but it’s a daily battle with her getting frustrated and upset and crying. I don't know what else to do. The school did the CTOPP test and she did very poorly on all sections and they said she was dyslexic. Is there an kind of tutoring or help that you can recommend? Or do you know of any organizational supplies or other resources to help?

My son, age 11, was just diagnosed with severe dyslexia a few months ago after years of struggling in school. He is currently getting ready to enter middle school and I am trying to figure out how to develop good study habits and even how to tackle organizing and setting up a good homework routine for him. Is there information available to show me specifically how to organize and use tools that will help him learn to self advocate for his age group? I am in overwhelmed.

I am inquiring as to when and how to schedule an evaluation for my daughter. Her teacher said the public schools would not evaluate her because she is passing (she is at a private school). She is in 1st grade (going into 2nd) and has been receiving extra tutoring for reading this year along with us working with her. At what point (age or specific criteria) do you schedule evaluations? It was recommended that I wait until later by her doctor. They thought children should be older.

I am trying to assist a family by compiling a list of reading apps for their third grade child with a Specific Learning Disability. The parents have looked at a few apps, but are struggling to find any that are both skill and age appropriate. The child views the apps at her skill level as “babyish” and struggles to engage in them.

My son is 6 years old (in first grade). We noticed a problem with his learning and behavior last year, but it took us a while to realize it went beyond "boys will be boys" and "boys learn slower" etc. I took him to a neurologist because of his inability to focus on anything and he was diagnosed with ADHD. They also wanted to run a series of cognitive tests which I turned down, because we have had enough testing for awhile. He was simultaneously being tested in school for various things. Should I go through with the testing from the neurologist? Is there any additional benefits to have him officially labeled with dyslexia from a doctor as opposed to having him labeled with a disability from the DOE?

I have a 10 year old son who I believe needs evaluation. He is a hard working student, and has struggled with first speech and then reading. He has always been at the low end of the spectrum for reading. He has had reading intervention and tutoring. He is currently being evaluated in school for auditory processing, but I think and I think he needs evaluation for dyslexia as well. Any suggestions for me as to how to expedite this and where I could go?

I am a pediatric PA. I have a 7 year old patient who was diagnosed with a visual perception disorder by the OT at school. Neuropsychological testing resulted in a diagnosis of learning disorder NOS with a high risk for development of dyslexia. At a recent visit with me, she wrote out the numbers from 1 to 20 and she consistently wrote the numbers 7 and 9 backwards. Her parents would like to know just how dyslexic she is. Is there a test to quantify the severity? They are in the process of setting up an IEP for her. Is there anything else that be helpful? As with most things, cost is an issue.

My daughter is in 1st grade and is dyslexic. She cannot read very many words at all. We are getting her an IEP and her teacher is excellent. Her teacher is having a hard time getting her to read sentences so she can test for reading comprehension. Do you have any advice on testing for Dyslexia?

I want to get my daughter tested for dyslexia. I just need names and numbers of who to go to! Her school has not been able to help. She is now in 3rd grade and I have been asking for help since she was in kindergarten. Her pediatrician says to ask the school and the school says to ask her pediatrician. Thank you for your time and help.

My 4th grader has a number of mild but significant challenges: dyslexia, ADHD, auditory processing disorder, poor coordination, and maybe a couple of other things. I have done a lot of work getting her help, and right now she is in a good spot. My daughter likes school a lot. She has 40 minutes 4x per week of one-on-one special education for reading in her public school. My question is about spelling tests in the mainstream classroom. She has struggled through several years of spelling tests, and it’s been OK to do, it hasn’t caused damage, let’s say. This year the words are much harder, she only has to study the first 15 (out of maybe 25), but it has become very hard for her.

I have a child in the 4th grade who struggles significantly with reading and this year we are seeing a big struggle with understanding math word problems. He has had an IEP in place since second grade and classified as Specific Learning Disability. He has been in the Wilson Program and this year he is now in the Wilson's Just Words. Even with this instruction he seems to be just reading words from memory. Do you know of any testing centers in Florida for dyslexia? Are there tests? The school states it is an outdated term etc....

My question is, even though my son seems to be getting all the interventions he needs, should we have him officially tested for Dyslexia? My gut says ‘yes’, the more information we have about his struggling areas and the cause, the better off we will be helping him. But many people at the school and other parents have said, no, it’s not worth the money or stress since he’s getting what he needs.

I saw your list of Tests for Dyslexia and Learning Disabilities. Are those permitted to be used by teachers or are they for psychologists or psychiatrists?