Frequently Asked Questions
There is no cure for dyslexia, but with appropriate support and intervention, the difficulties that come with dyslexia can be managed or overcome. Dyslexia is part of the makeup of a person. Nobody is good at everything. Having dyslexia means having to work so much harder (or it being almost impossible) to do things which comes easy to others. Correspondingly, what comes easy to someone with dyslexia may be close to impossible to someone else. Every individual is unique.
Depending on the severity of the dyslexia, the type or amount of compensating factors, and amount of effort invested, most individuals with dyslexia can learn to read to differing degrees of accuracy and fluency. Sometimes spelling accuracy may be more resistant to intervention and therefore technological resources may be recommended.
There are many alternative therapies available, such as, brain gym, sound therapy, and vision therapy, which claim to treat dyslexia. There is little scientific backing to the effectiveness of these therapies to treat dyslexia difficulties, and is therefore not the conventional treatment method. However, I acknowledge that perhaps people report success with alternative therapies, and therefore I prefer to consider them as a useful possible support, alongside quality intervention/remediation.
No. Although it may be tempting, because an individual may appear so typically dyslexic, one cannot refer to someone as 'having dyslexia' or 'being dyslexic' without a formal diagnosis. One can say someone seems typically dyslexic, or appears to present with dyslexia tendencies, or dyslexia type of difficulties.
A formal assessment may often be useful, but not always necessary. The purpose and usefulness for each case should be considered. An assessment which builds the cognitive profile of an individual may be useful for clarity, informing intervention, and for possibly referring on to other professionals.
Dyslexia can sometimes just be a reading problem, but it can also affect other areas of literacy and learning. The underlying processing deficits associated with dyslexia can cause difficulties with reading, spelling and writing. These processing difficulties can also affect other areas of learning and acquisition of skills.
To a certain extent it is possible. It depends on the individuals' specific areas of strengths and weaknesses together with the specific processing demands of the language's orthography. Sometimes interest and familiarity also plays a role. Nevertheless, an individual with significant dyslexia would show signs of difficulties in all orthographies.
Research suggests, and it is widely accepted, that the most effective reading intervention for individuals with dyslexia/struggling readers is synthetic phonics instruction. Synthetic phonics instruction should include multi-sensory methods, which is cumulative/step by step, and provides many opportunities for over-learning. However, reading involves far more than decoding words, such as, the individuals' expectations of their enjoyment and competence, and their understanding of spoken/written language etc. Thus, I pair individuals with the best combination of programs, resources, and individualized aims, considering their age, severity of difficulties, type of difficulties, skills/abilities, literacy/learning aims, personality, past experiences, and school curriculum. Adjustment to the individualized intervention is used based on ongoing collaborated reflections.
Currently my intervention focuses on English literacy. However, during a comprehensive assessment, an individuals attainments/abilities in other languages (including Yiddish and Hebrew) are also explored. When I familiarize myself with an individual, either through assessment or through one-to-one intervention, I may suggest recommendations to support them for Hebrew literacy.