My daughter has struggled for years with reading and spelling. She is now 17 yrs old and will be going into the 11th grade this year as well as attending some classes at a local university. I want her to be as successful as she can be not only in school but in life. My hopes are that if she does have dyslexia and we can get an official diagnosis of such and that we will be able to get help and cooperation from the school. I’m not sure where to begin. Any information that you can give me as to where to start would be appreciated.

I am looking for a list of psychologists that know how to evaluate for dyslexia. Can you please sent me any information?

I have a 16-year-old son who is really struggling in school. He has severe dysgraphia and is doing little to no writing in school. He has an IEP for SLD in writing but he keeps falling through the cracks because the teacher doesn't realize his needs until after things fall apart. He has classic signs of dyslexia but always read with average ability so there has never been acknowledgement of dyslexia from the school. How do I prove this to them?

I have a teen in 11th grade with an IEP whose school states that her "written expression disorder does not impact her access to the curriculum." They agree that she struggles with organizing her ideas and getting her ideas down on paper so she can't complete homework or in-class essays. I am a professional in the field and I have hired experts, but we can't seem to get them to understand she has a writing disorder—they think she is at fault and even told her so. I have tried everything and need help.

I am a school psychologist. I was recently asked to assess a child for dyslexia to help assist with developing reading interventions. Legally, are school psychologists able to give a formal dyslexia diagnosis? On your website it says we can, but the National Association of School Psychologists says we cannot. Parents are confused and so are school psychologists.

I am a mother of an 11 year old daughter who is currently in 6th grade and has an IEP. I wonder if traditional public schooling is the best and/or only option I have for her? The IEP team is urging that my daughter be placed into Special Education class for Math and English in junior high for next year. I can not believe that this would be the best option for her. She has no behavioral problems. Thus far, with the small group intervention and workload modification her IEP has provided, she still can not complete academic tasks successfully on her own.

I am currently writing what I hope will be a "parent friendly" article on tests of Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN), why we look at this when evaluating for reading disorders, and current theories on the underlying cognitive processes it actually measures. There are many conflicting theories (as you know). I am particularly unclear as to whether this is always measured as a component of dyslexia testing, and whether people with dyslexia sometimes perform well on measures of phonological processing, but poorly on RAN tasks?

I have a 13 year old son in 8th grade. He has struggled through school most of his life. He had an IEP (Individualized Education Program) and was diagnosed with dyslexia and an informal diagnosis of dysgraphia. Last year, just about this time, he was struggling at school and they did not want to implement his IEP, so we left. He was tested as he entered the new school and they said he tested so well that they dropped the IEP. He did very well until the end of the year. This year has been awful. He has struggled with bad grades and is getting into trouble constantly. Is there any information you can suggest for us?

I am somewhat shocked at how little information is available for researching dyslexia for schools in the United States. My biggest problem is trying to find those schools that might have some kind of access to financial aid programs. If you know of a site that might have some kind of "outline" that broaches this subject and might help me bring my search closer together, I would be extremely grateful.

I have a 17 year old student presenting with no phonological awareness limitations or phonological memory difficulties (standard scores ranging between CTOPP composites 103-112). Verbal and Visual IQ’s indicate a strength for visual abilities, but within normal ranges. The student wants a diagnosis of dyslexia! However, this is clearly a deficit in phonological processing speed ability, not phonological awareness or memory. Not a double deficit, but a single deficit in processing speed. Does this warrant a dyslexia diagnosis?