As a continuation of the last blog post, this week we are discussing kids that fall in testing “limbo.” They are usually in kindergarten and 1st grade, struggling to read, but the school district has deemed them too young to test. Although this is annoying (and very common), there are some viable reasons why this happens. First, it truly is harder to definitively diagnose a specific learning difference in reading in this age range. Especially in readers who are behind, it is really difficult at times to observe the types of errors in reading that help assessment professionals tell the difference between emergent (slow to grow) struggles and those that are truly indicative of a neurological set of weaknesses that result in dyslexia or other specific reading disorder. Even in a clinical/private testing setting, we may be able to isolate some of the foundational deficits making reading hard but not be able to fully confirm that it is in fact dyslexia or other reading disability. Second, most school districts will want some time to try support options (like small group reading interventions) to see if they are sufficient to “boost” reading growth and move them into territory more consistent with their peers. This is called the response to intervention model. However, some districts will leave kids at this stage for far too long and not move on to testing when it is clear that the child is continuing to have reading difficulty despite a little extra TLC. Finally, waiting a little longer allows kids to get to the point that reading struggles should have naturally made a leap on their own. Some kids need a little more time for early reading instruction to stick but they are not actually learning disabled. However, that doesn’t mean that testing at this junction doesn’t make sense (it often does!).
Let’s take a look at some kindergarten and 1st grade red flags that a child’s reading struggles may be something more:
*difficulty breaking words into parts (cupcake is cup+cake, flame is fl+ame, etc.)
*difficulty identifying and working with sound parts in words (being able to tell you that the c sound is at the beginning of cat and the d sound is at the end of mad, etc.)
*still not having all the letters and their sounds mastered
*difficulty breaking words down when they are alone and not a part of a sentence (which adds meaning and makes it easier to guess the word)
*poor spelling skills including difficulty spelling incorrectly, but how the word sounds (wuz instead of was is the same set of sounds, wos is not, etc.)
*difficulty remembering the letter sequences in very common words (not being able to spell sight words without trying to sound it out)
If your child has difficulty with any or all of these and is in the 1st grade, it is time to do something. This may mean reaching out to your child’s school district and asking for an assessment. They may agree and get started. They may tell you that they don’t want to do the assessment just yet. If so, you can press a little harder, bring in someone from administration (principal), or seek a private evaluation through a psychologist like the providers at Kids BRAIN. Although an assessment can be helpful, it is not always a required step to get help. There are early support curricula, like the Pre-Flight Program, which is a precursor to the Take Flight Program for children with dyslexia. This is only one example. Pairing up with a private dyslexia specialist or working with the reading specialist at your child’s school would be an excellent first step, even if the assessment may not happen right away. Whether you start with an assessment or jump right into reading supports, catching these reading struggles early and being proactive can make all the difference for a child’s future as a student and a successful human. The next blog post will be about the kids that maybe haven’t gotten early support. We will be talking about later elementary school reading struggles and what to look for, as well as the formal process of requesting a school district evaluation.
