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The Four Ds of Dyslexia
Defining, Deciphering, Diagnosis and Dealing
By Ruth Brister
The foundation makes a distinction between a "learning disability" and "dyslexia" by labeling it not as a disability but a "difference." "Many children struggle to learn – one in five, according to the National Institutes of Health," Jess says. "Not every child struggling to learn, however, receives a 'learning disability' diagnosis. A 'learning disability' is a term referring to a set of specific, definable and diagnosed problems. By using the term 'learning differences' we are broadly including the many children who struggle in school."
It can be difficult to diagnose dyslexia at a young age. In the early childhood phases of learning to recognize words and letters, all experience a trial-and-error period. James P. Carter, speech and language pathologist at Texas Children's Hospital, says, "The diagnosis of dyslexia may be delayed for several reasons. First there is normal variation in young children's readiness for reading. Therefore, early warning signs of possible difficulty may simply be attributed to a slower rate of development. For example, confusion between letters that look similar by a 5-year-old does not necessarily indicate that reading will be difficult at age 7."
It is even harder to discover in children, such as Steven, who are bright in other subjects. They develop coping and masking skills that can leave their differences hidden until as late as the fourth grade. The most common signs include being slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds, confusing basic sight-reading words such as "run," "eat" and "want," and making consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (between "b" and "d"), inversions (between "m" and "w"), transpositions (between "left" and "felt") and substitutions (between "house" and "home").
