Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. Individuals with dyslexia may also experience challenges with reading comprehension.
A Speech Therapist supports an individual with dyslexia by addressing specific language based challenges, language processing, phonological awareness, written comprehension, expressive language, decoding of words and reading fluency.
Difficulty reading may lead to slow, laborious reading with little comprehension of text. Difficulty decoding affects sounding out of words, causes letter and word confusion and spelling problems. Difficulty manipulating sounds of language affects for example rhyming and blending of sounds to form words. Written language may be slow with lots of drafts, or very fast before ideas are forgotten, as ideas are difficult to organize. Often the child is unable to understand what they have written.
Multisensory approaches are used incorporating visual, auditory, kinesthetic modalities and assistive technology- text to text speech software or specialized reading programs to support reading and writing tasks.
Dyslexia is typically diagnosed by an Educational Psychologist using a combination of assessments, interviews and observations, as it is a complex condition with many varying facets.
