Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
My guest again today is HSLDA Special Needs Coordinator Dianne Craft. Dianne, with your 25 years of experience teaching children with learning struggles, can you explain further how to find out if your child has dyslexia?

Dianne Craft:
Well Mike, reading problems fall on a continuum. If a child is struggling with reading, but is not measurably behind, we call that a “reading glitch.” If the child is struggling, and is about a year behind, we call that a “reading dysfunction.” But if a child is struggling and is about two years behind in reading, we call that a “dyslexia.” On the website: www.hslda.org, in the Struggling Learner section, there are checklists that parents can use to determine the level of difficulty their child is experiencing, and more importantly, which of the “four learning gates” are blocked for their child. Most of the time these struggling readers have all four learning gates blocked to some degree. The learning gates are: visual processing; auditory processing; writing; and then focus/attention. Parents can do the informal evaluations explained on the website, and see where and why their child is struggling. They will also find many suggestions and resources for teaching their struggling reader differently. HSLDA cares about struggling learners. We have learning specialists on staff who can help parents teach their struggling learner successfully at home. HSLDA parents are not alone.

Mike Smith:
Thanks, Dianne, I look forward to talking with you more about dyslexia. And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.