Dyslexia in Children

​Childhood dyslexia can affect the development of some children. Greg Snyder, Ph.D. is a licensed ​Psychologist with Boys Town Center for Behavioral Health. Dr. Snyder offers helpful information on childhood dyslexia. Learning that your child has dyslexia can be difficult, but by understanding what he or she is going through, you can help keep your child encouraged and on-track academically.

Dyslexia in Children

The terms dyslexia and developmental reading disorder are synonymous with each other. What these problems relate to is a person's inability to read fluently and comprehend information, written language, at an age appropriate level. There is a strong relationship between the presence of a speech and language disorder and the likelihood of disturbed reading development, but one does not imply the other. We are able to see it, assess it and identify it at kindergarten or first grade. Typically, second, third and fourth grade is when they're identified by the school likely because of chronic failure, chronic struggling in the classroom setting or poor progression. Children with dyslexia will always have a reading disorder. Reading will always be a challenging process. The most dangerous association that kids will ​make is that belief that education isn't fun. That school isn't fun. Once that's made and once that's engrained it's really tough to shake. So, keeping the homework environment light and keeping any remediation program a part of their daily homework but also making it fun is very important.