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What are the treatment options for dyslexia?
My 4 year old daughter has dyslexia and I know it is treatable. What specialist do I bring her to?
7 Answers
Dyslexia is trouble understanding the orthographic patterns of a language in order to read and spell. Four-year-olds aren't expected to be able to read and spell yet and should not be diagnosed with dyslexia or any reading or spelling disorder yet. That's very premature.
Dyslexia typically isn't diagnosed until 8 or 9 years of age. Prior to that it's still considered within normal limits for a child not to read. What your child could have is problems with phonological processes with speech and language development which can be separate from dyslexia. I would recommend having your daughter evaluated to see if she has a speech and language delay/disorder. For dyslexia most dyslexia specialist will not even address it at age 4.
A pediatric speech pathologist and when she starts school there should be literacy/reading intervention programs at the school
You can request your pediatrician for a speech and language evaluation and bring her for a comprehensive assessment with a speech language Pathologist.
A person with dyslexia is best served by an interdisciplinary team. She is appropriate to be referred to both a speech language pathologist in an educational setting or private practice who has experience with dyslexia AND a reading specialist who specializes in dyslexia.
Many time speech therapists refer to a reading specialist for support with this; especially in the schools.
Hi,
Is your 4-year-old daughter reading already? Dyslexia involves difficulty reading, identifying speech sounds and how they relate to letters/words. I would seek out a speech language pathologist evaluation.
Ali Matisse, MS CCC-SLP