[senco-forum] Dyslexia Assessments

Adding to what Martin says, we see a lot of children in our centres. Often
times they have language issues, such as lack of phonemic awareness, poor
phonological fluency, weak vocabulary and incomplete knowledge of language
structure. Equally we see children with reasonable reading skills, (sight
words, even good decoding) but fail to comprehend fully and quickly what
they have just read. 

What we know is there is frequently an overlap between language weaknesses
with cognitive skills deficits. So we have to work on improving their
ability to pay attention, develop their memory, especially working memory,
improve auditory processing (speed and clarity) and work on their sequencing
skills. Sometimes these improvements are the catalyst to reading gains. For
sure all students will benefit from these exercises.

A good dyslexia assessment will take these cognitive skills into account
along with language and other factors.

John 

www.neuron-learning.co.uk.