The key symptoms that a dyslexic individual will demonstrate are difficulties with decoding or single word reading, reading fluency, and spelling. These are due to phonological weaknesses that are associated with dyslexia. Phonological processing is the ability to analyze spoken language that includes identifying (phonemes or speech sounds) within a word, word parts or syllables, or individual words. Poor word reading can lead to difficulties with reading comprehension. When comprehension is impaired, a dyslexic individual’s writing skills will suffer, especially if spelling is not mastered. Poor readers tend to have a weak vocabulary and background knowledge because they read less than average readers. Language and vocabulary problems can become more severe over time as academic demands increase. The only way to determine if an individual has dyslexia is an assessment completed by a professional clinician.

All learning disabilities can only be diagnosed after having a formal assessment done by a professional clinician who can assess for a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) or dyslexia. Public and private schools have different processes for identifying a student with a learning disability. For students with a learning disability, getting a diagnosis is the first step in making sure they receive the type of instruction they need to be successful. Research has shown that students from kindergarten to third grade who have additional direct instruction helps all except the most severely impaired students catch up to grade-level skills. A formal diagnosis is necessary for a student to be qualified for specifically designed instruction and accommodations in the classroom, which are available throughout their educational career, including college and graduate school.

Public Schools:

For a student to be eligible for SLD or dyslexia, federal law states the school must consider a student’s response to intervention or classroom instruction, Response to Intervention (RTI) or Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) first. This refers to educational research demonstrating that appropriate early intervention in kindergarten through third grade is very effective in closing the gap for struggling readers. Early intervention should begin as early as kindergarten or first grade when the gap is small, and the student benefits the most from brain plasticity advantages for learning language-based information. Student’s progress must be monitored using valid and reliable progress monitoring measures to be sure the gap is closing. The analysis of the data must drive all school team decisions that require a student’s program and learning profile. A clinical evaluation must be completed if the student does not catch up using RTI or MTSS to determine the nature of the learning problem. The school will then use the assessment and case history to determine if the student is eligible for Special Education services under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). A student can be diagnosed with a learning disability and not receive Special Education services if it is determined that the student does not have an educational need for it. If a student is determined to have a learning disability and has an educational need for Special Educational services, the school team will develop an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for the student, which provides both remediation and accommodations the student will receive. Parents are included in this process. Assessment is provided free of charge by the district. It involves individual testing given either by an Educational Diagnostician or License School Psychologist.

Private Schools:

Every private school is different and is not required to follow IDEA. Therefore, the school decides if and how they can remediate and accommodate students with learning disabilities. If a private school does not have its own qualified professional to give the assessment, it is up to the parents to have the evaluation done outside of school. There are two ways to get an assessment. A parent may find a professional clinician and pay to have the assessment done, or they can request the public school system in which they live to conduct the assessment. This is free of cost, but it typically takes several months.

An educational evaluation of dyslexia should assess the following areas:

• Phonological awareness: the sound structure of oral language

• Phonological or Language-Based Memory: ability to recall sounds, syllables, words

• Rapid Automatic Naming: ability to rapidly name objects, colors, digits, or letters

• Receptive vocabulary: the ability to understand words heard

• Phonics skills: ability to recognize letter(s) and sound(s) relationship

• Decoding: ability to use symbol-sound association to read and pronounce words (both real words and nonsense words)

• Oral Reading Fluency- to read accurately and at a pace to facilitate comprehension

• Reading single words, sentences, and paragraphs

• Spelling

• Writing at sentence and paragraph-level

Math can also be assessed as part of the educational evaluation and should include measures of untimed math calculations, math reasoning (word problems to be read aloud), and math fluency. Even though dyslexia is a disability in reading, students with dyslexia often struggle with memorizing math facts and math reasoning skills even when word problems are read aloud due to difficulties with mathematical language.

Dyslexia is not something a person can grow out of and is lifelong. However, with proper instruction, many people with dyslexia learn to read and write well. Early identification and treatment are essential in helping a person with dyslexia close the gap to be successful academically and in life. Individual instruction must be from a specially trained teacher or therapist that uses a multisensory and structured language approach. Most often, individuals with dyslexia need instruction to be one-on-one so that teaching can be adapted to fit their individual needs, be able to practice and have immediate, corrective feedback, and move at their own pace. These are essential to help develop automatic word recognition skills. It is also important to note that to achieve automaticity, instruction must be done 4-5 days a week.

In addition to individual instruction, academic modifications and accommodations that are recommended by the professional clinician in the formal evaluation can be given in the school setting to help students with dyslexia succeed.

Popular reading approaches, such as Guided Reading or Balanced Literacy, is effective in classrooms for most students, but they are not effective for students with dyslexia. These approaches do not work because they do not focus on decoding, which is the core difficulty for a dyslexic student.

A Structured Literacy (SL) or multisensory instruction is the most effective approach for students with dyslexia, and there is evidence that it is more effective for all readers. SL teaches basic language skills in an explicit, systematic manner. It includes the following elements:

Phonology

The awareness of sound structure within a spoken language. It includes the ability to segment words into phonemes (the smallest sound in a language) that are represented by graphemes (letters) in print. For example, the word cat has three phonemes /c/, /a/, /t/) that are each presented by one grapheme for a total of three, whereas the word match has three phonemes /m/, /a/, /tch/ but has five graphemes. It also includes rhyming, counting spoken syllables, spelling, and reading fluency.

Orthography

The knowledge of the written language. Being able to represent the sounds of a spoken language in writing. Taught systematically and includes grapheme (letter(s) that represent a sound) position, the six syllable types, word origin, and rationale of certain spellings.

Morphology

A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language that underlies reading/spelling mastery. This includes the study of base words, roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Syntax

The sequence and functions of words to convey meaning. This includes parts of speech (e.g., nouns, verbs), how words are organized to create sentences (simple, compound, and complex) to create paragraphs, and grammar.

Semantics

The ability to connect words (single, phrases, or sentences) with meaning for comprehension.

SL instruction is systematic (follows the logical order of the language) and cumulative (each new concept is built from the previous concepts taught). SL teaches concepts systematically and explains how each element fits into the whole. Skills progress from easier to more challenging and build on each other. It works to achieve automaticity and fluency.

SL requires explicit instruction where the teacher explains each concept directly and clearly while providing guided practice. Lessons involve instructional routines where new reading and writing concepts are taught under direct supervision to give immediate feedback and guidance. Students are not expected to discover concepts simply from exposure to reading or language.

SL includes hands-on, engaging, and multimodal methods such as hand gestures to support memory or color-coding sentences in grammar. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing is often paired together to foster multimodal language learning.

SL requires diagnostic teaching (individualize instruction) to meet the needs of each student. Instruction is based on informal (e.g., observation or verbal questioning) and formal (standardized measures) assessments to determine mastery and automaticity, which must be met before continuing. The teacher uses student response to adjust pacing, presentation, and amount of practice given within the lesson.