who can diagnose dyslexia?? many questions ....

debsey

Thu, Feb 16 2017, 7:00 pm

amother wrote:

my child might have dyslexia. we were told to have an educational and psychological evaluation (although we have had that done already at other times and they were non conclusive).

I was also told to go to a neurodevelopmental specialist who will also do an assessment but that it is not the same as the educational and psychological eval.

Do I need to go through all this testing?? Why not one or the other?

You need a school neuropsychologist (school psychology PhD with post-grad training in school neuropsych), a child neuropsychologist, or an educational psychologist.

Sometimes, in a larger hospital system, they'll separate those functions and have a psychologist do part of the testing, and an educational evaluator (or learning disabilities specialist) do the other part. That's just done to streamline the service, so each professional is doing their area of expertise.

you don't need a developmental pediatrician or a psychiatrist or a neurologist. They don't test function, they test neuroanatomy and development. Dyslexia is best assessed by people who assess function - like a school neuropsychologist or team approach.

amother

Forestgreen

Thu, Feb 16 2017, 10:18 pm

I am a school based speech therapist for many years. I often collaborate with reading/kriah teachers and many other related professionals. Here is what I know. Dyslexia is a learning disability that is manifested by a difficulty with reading, writing and spelling. There are 3 possible underlying issues that cause dyslexia. We usually try to pinpoint the issue, treat the cause, and the reading issues generally improve tremendously. Of course some children may have more than 1 of the 3 issues, the key is differential diagnosis.
1) attention issues (add/adhd). Reading and writing skills are complex and rule based. The rules are many, and require a tremendous amount of internal attention.
I have seen bright children with attention issues who spent years with reading tutors. As soon as they were medicated, they were able to focus, practice, and and were able to catch up to their grade levels.
2) Visual-
a) actual vision issues -the child cannot see well and it is hard to diffentiate the letters. This can be diagnosed by a regular opthamologist. Regular glasses may be the answer.
b) visual processing - this has more to do with visual tracking. For example, seeing the letter with the correct nukuda etc. An OT can diagnose and treat VP. There is something called vision therapy that can also be helpful, but controversial. Also, many are trying Prism glasess. There is a well know Dr. in England who does this. There are also some in the Tri State area.
3) Auditory Processing- this is an issue that is formally tested by an Audiologist. A good speech therapist can make an informal diagnosis. They are the ones who do the treatment. APD is not a hearing issue. It is when the brain does not processes the sounds it hears correctly. It often causes word retreival issues as well. It is extremely difficult to learn to read and spell, when you are not hearing the nuances of the sounds and words you hear. There are programs like Fast Forward that also specialize in APD.

I hope this helps you, or someone who is dealing with this. Hatzlacha and hugs!!

seeker

Thu, Feb 16 2017, 11:22 pm

Interesting for a school-based speech therapist to be saying that because in your position you should know that dyslexia is only when ADHD and vision problems have been ruled out (auditory processing sees a lot of overlap, though it is also a separate thing). Dyslexia is its own, separate category of LD. If ADHD treatments or glasses resolve the problem, then it wasn't dyslexia, though may have been misdiagnosed as such.

Dyslexia is a difference in the way the brain processes sounds and symbols for reading and spelling/writing, and often includes language issues as well. If the difficulty reading is from some other cause, that is not dyslexia.