Do I wait to intervene? This is a question that a lot of parents ask. Your precious child is in Kindergarten or first grade and just not picking up the reading and Language skills as quickly as you thought they would. What do you do? They are young, and it’s early, your friend Jane says her kids did the same thing and then it just clicked one day. Do you worry? Do you look for a tutor or Evaluations?
Research on Dyslexia has come a long way since the 80s and even further in the last 20 years. Research shows that Dyslexia can be can be fairly accurately diagnosed as early as the end of kindergarten and by the end of first grade, it is almost imperative to identify students with a reading problem. A child is learning how to decode language and phonetic code in these early years and we know now that a dyslexic brain struggles to do this without explicit instruction. The brain pathways are developed in this time and if we take a “wait and see” approach then we could be robbing a student of precious time when the brain is more moldable or plastic. A child who receives remediation at the end of Kindergarten or the beginning of first grade generally sees faster progress. However, studies show that students who do not receive help until 3rd grade take four times as long to remediate and have already started to see negative self-image impacts from their struggles as well.
Evaluations can take time and can be expensive but remediation with a tutor familiar with dyslexia doesn’t have to have a diagnosis to begin. Most intervention plans include suggestions of private tutoring using Barton or Wilson anyway since these programs have been in use long enough to have the data that backs their effectiveness. Evaluations can be done in first or second grade still even if remediation has begun before formal diagnosis.
So to answer the question at hand, I believe that once you notice your child is starting to struggle it is a much more effective approach to intervene early and give the support they need with proven programs designed for remediation. This prevents a student from falling further behind as you wait it out, this can prevent self-esteem issues that come from reading problems. This approach can also give you time to see if there is some developmental delay that will just click before seeking out a long and expensive formal diagnosis. I also know that for some families there is power in knowing so there is also power in early diagnosis and evaluations.
If you want to read more on the research that has been conducted I highly suggest looking at Dr. Sally Shaywitz research with the Yale Center for Dyslexia.
Dyslexia Symptoms Yale University
