Reading Difficulties in Children
The path to reading for some children is not often an easy one. It is assumed that children will begin to read and spell naturally, though some children may persistently struggle with learning the process of how to read fluently. If intervention is not received, the child may continue to present with deficits within the areas of listening, reading, writing and speaking.
Teachers and parents will often recognize challenges with pre-reading skills in kindergarten, though some children may not demonstrate weaknesses with reading until after the second grade.
early indicators of reading difficulties:
- Family history of dyslexia or reading difficulty
- Weakened phonemic awareness skills
- Decreased skill blending sounds and reduced comprehension of rhymes
- Difficulty with letter and sound recognition
- Letter reversals (b-d) and inversions (w-m)
- Lack of interest or avoidance of reading
- Dysfluent speech
- Articulation errors: substitutions, omissions, cluster reduction
- Word retrieval difficulties
- Frequent spelling errors
- Omitting words when reading
- Decreased processing speed when verbally responding
- Inconsistent memory and recall
- Poor executive functioning skills
- Weak handwriting skills
- Reduced auditory and/or reading comprehension
later indicators of reading difficulties:
- language processing difficulties
- reading fluency
- comprehension difficulties
- handwriting
- grammar
- spelling
Additionally, older children may have progressed with reading but continue to demonstrate deficits with clearly expressing their thoughts and ideas, therefore writing, vocabulary, and conversational skills may continue to be weak even years after they have acquired adequate reading skills.
