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Difficulty decoding letters
When a child encounter difficulties in elementary school, we worry, and that’s normal. “About 7% of students in an age group are dyslexic,” says Dr. Marie Bru, pediatric neurologist. The child is in good health, physical and psychological, and does not suffer from any mental retardation. However, learn to read and write is much more complicated for him than for his comrades. While a non-dyslexic child only needs a few tenths of a second to decipher a word, he owes him decode each of the letters to associate them. A work of re-education at the speech therapist will allow him to acquire methods and means of compensation to be able to follow a normal schooling. This will be all the more effective when the child is supported early.
“7% of students in an age group are affected by this reading and / or writing disorder. “
Kindergarten: can we already spot the signs of dyslexia?
“Dyslexia results in a delay in eighteen months to two years in learning to read: it is therefore not possible to diagnose it in a 4 or 5 year old ”, recalls speech therapist Alain Devevey. This does not prevent parents from wondering when a 3-year-old child still constructs his sentences very badly, or only his mother understands it. Around 4 years old, the other signs to watch out for are confusion to locate in time and space, and problems of memorizing nursery rhymes. Being lost when the teacher teaches syllables and sounds when he has to clap his hands to cut out words can herald future difficulties with reading and writing.
A medical consultation is required
You should neither worry nor trivialize these alerts, but talk to your doctor. He will decide whether it is necessary to carry out a balance sheet with a speech therapist, to assess the child’s difficulties. He can also prescribe visual or hearing tests. “Parents should not try to make up for their child’s delay on their own,” advises Dr. Bru. This is the role of the speech therapist. On the other hand, it is essential to constantly arouse curiosity and desire to learn little ones. For example, reading stories to them in the evening, even until CE1, helps to enrich their vocabulary. “
“The child confuses letters, replaces one word with another, ignores punctuation …”
In first grade: difficulties in learning to read
The main indicator of dyslexia is a great difficulty to learn to read and write: the child mixes the syllables, confuses the letters, replaces one word by another, does not take punctuation into account… He does not manage to progress despite his efforts. “We must be worried about a child who is particularly tired after school, who suffers from headaches or who shows great demotivation”, adds Alain Devevey. It is generally the teachers who give the alert to the parents.
Screening for dyslexia: a speech-language pathologist’s assessment is essential
In case of doubt, it is preferable to carry out a complete review (see box below). Dyslexia most often requires consult a speech therapist once or twice a week, for two to five years. “It is not a question of tutoring, specifies Alain Devevey. We teach children to decode and sequence language, for example by associating syllables and signs, or by making them spot irregularities in a sequence of letters. These exercises allow him to overcome difficulties and learn to read and write. »The dyslexic child also needs support from his parents to do homework. “At the same time, it is important to offer him other opportunities to valorize, adds the speech therapist, in particular thanks to a extracurricular activity. It is necessary to seek above all the pleasure of the child, and not to choose only games and activities which make him work on his dyslexia. ”
Author: Jasmine Saunier
Dyslexia: a complete diagnosis
The diagnosis of dyslexia involves the doctor, speech therapist, and sometimes a psychologist, neuropsychologist or psychomotor therapist, depending on the child’s symptoms. Everything goes through the general practitioner or the pediatrician, who carries out a medical assessment, prescribes a speech therapy assessment and, if necessary, a psychological assessment. All these consultations can be carried out with independent specialists, or in multidisciplinary centers.
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