Young Children :
- Delayed speech and other speech and language difficulties (Rose 2009 p32): This is a strong predictor of risk for subsequent reading problems and should alert all parents, health and education professionals that without careful and appropriate teaching a young child may have difficulty becoming literate. 'In fact, studies show that between 75 and 100 percent of children with pre-school language delays have trouble with reading' (Hall/Moats p140) This disquieting news needs to be tempered by the fact that 'dyslexia' doesn't exist in several European countries and, 'If language development really played a causal role in learning to read one would expect to find the same incidence of reading problems everywhere, because human language is a biological trait'. (D.McGuinness. LDLR p206) 'Overall, a broad range of studies from a variety of disciplines show that no child, short of being deaf, mute, or grossly mentally disabled, is prevented by a language delay or deficit from learning 'reading mechanics' (D.McGuinness. LDLR p12)

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/coping.pdf
Coping with language delay

- 'Glue ear' or intermittent hearing loss: Being unable to hear clearly for long periods of time in early childhood places many children in triple danger (quadruple if they are boys-see below) of failing to learn to read; their classroom being typically noisy and the literacy teaching not optimal. “To understand almost all speech that is intended for us, say the experts, the speech must be at least 15 decibels louder than other interfering sounds. Most classrooms exceed this level by 10 times' (www.cllrnet.ca)

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/listen.pdf
Why Johnny won't pay attention.

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/boys.pdf
Boys can’t hear as well as girls, yet typically sit at the back of the class.

- Has a close relative with dyslexia or reading difficulties (Rose. 2009 p11&36,37): As literacy is not a biological trait it cannot be transmitted genetically, but a familial trait can be transmitted culturally. 'Thus, contrary to what practitioners may sometimes suppose, family relationship (familiarity) alone is not a reliable indicator of genetic heritability' (Rice/Brooks p32)(Muter p3) The main cultural factors related to literacy acquisition are the transparency of the spelling code and the method used to teach reading. In English-speaking countries where, every year, at least 20% of children leave school functionally illiterate, nearly everyone has a relative (or several) who failed to learn to read.

- Poor rhyming skills (Rose 2009 p32): *Soft sign. 'Sensitivity to rhyme has not been shown to be a strong predictor of reading skill' (D.McGuinness. WCCR. p148)

- Poor sense of rhythm: *Soft sign

- Poor short-term (working) memory: *Soft sign. 'In a highly regarded study conducted by Joseph Torgesen, a psychologist at the University of Florida, out of 60 children with severe reading difficulties, only eight had poor short-term memories, while almost as many – seven – had very good short-term memories' (Mills)
Short and long term stress can detrimentally effect learning and memory: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311182434.htm

- Missing out the crawling stage of learning to walk: *Soft sign

- Left-handed and/or inconsistent hand preference: *Soft sign

- Frequent use of letter reversals: *Soft sign

Older Children:
- Usually, very slow and inaccurate reading and poor spelling (Rose. 2009 p32) N.B. inaccurate reading is rarely seen in countries with transparent spelling codes e.g. Spain, Germany and Finland (RRF49 p19) In English-speaking countries, in schools using whole language/mixed methods, children with excellent visual memories and good vocabulary skills may seem to take to reading easily and appear to read competently during their early primary years but, if they are relying on whole-word memorisation and a range of strategies and fail to intuit the English alphabet code, their reading ability is likely to break-down at some point, commonly at the age of 7-8 but sometimes later- see 'Teenagers'.

- Unable to remember common word sequences such as the months of the year and the times tables. *Soft sign

- Problems with 'naming' and word finding/ verbal processing speed (Rose. 2009 p32) *Soft sign. 'The fact that RAN (rapid automatic naming tasks) using digits and letters predict reading so much better than RAN colours and objects do, means that naming speed per se is not a factor in learning to read.' (D.McGuinness LDLR p388) 'Naming objects and colours is a truer reflection of natural or biological based ability' (D. McGuinness. WCCR p131) 'Rapid naming, phonological awareness, and reading. A meta-analysis of the correlational evidence. The results suggested that the importance of RAN and PA measures in accounting for reading performance has been overstated' (Swanson/Trainin/Necoechea/Hammill. Review of Educational Research.73. 2003)

- Organisational difficulties. *Soft sign. Many excellent readers have poor organisational skills.

- ''Visual stress'' (Rose 2009. p115) *Soft sign. ''There are a lot of abnormalities of the eyes that normal readers have as well, so tinted lenses and overlays have no foundation as a bona fide treatment for reading problems in any research that I'm aware of'' (Vellutino quote in Mills. The Dyslexia Myth)

- Immature social skills. *Soft sign

- Difficulties with mental calculations -see 'Mathematics'.

- Lack of concentration / disruptive behaviour / Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), BUT frustration, stress and boredom can also cause or increase an inability to attend. 'When children are highly distractible, overly disruptive and unable to stay 'on task', this usually means they can't do the task' (D. McGuinness. WCCR. p188) "Hospitals are complaining that their clinics are being filled with kids who are being referred for things like Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder," said Dr Rowe, who was last week appointed by the federal Education Minister to run the inquiry. "But once the pediatricians sort out the children's literacy problems, the behaviour problems disappear. What is essentially an education issue has become a health issue.” (Milburn.Children in crisis:The real diagnosis)

In her chapter in Fisher and Greenberg's The Limits of Biological Treatments for Psychological Distress, Prof. Diane McGuinness refers to ADHD as "the emperor's new clothes." She observes, "It is currently fashionable to treat approximately one third of all elementary school boys as an abnormal population because they are fidgety, inattentive, and unamenable to adult control." She concludes that, "(T)wo decades of research have not provided any support for the validity of ADD" or hyperactivity. Neither clinical studies nor psychological testing has been able to identify such a group''. The problem, according to McGuinness, is how to get professionals to give up such a vested interest in the use of this powerful label''.

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/prescription.pdf
ADD or can't read?

Psychiatric fads, overdiagnosis, and 'epidemics'

- Auditory Processing Disorder (APD): Where commercial and clinical interests collide: ''Given the lack of agreement on diagnostic criteria and lack of recognition in formal guidelines, it’s impossible to find sensible epidemiological data on APD''
http://deevybee.blogspot.com/2011/03/where-commercial-and-clinical-interests.html#comments

- May have Developmental Coordination Disorder (dyspraxia or clumsy-child syndrome): severe difficulties with gross and/or fine motor skills such as handwriting or learning to ride a bicycle (see 'Exercises for Dyspraxics' page) but, ''There's really no evidence that improving co-ordination is going to make it easier for you to learn to read. (Prof. Bishop quote in Mills. The Dyslexia Myth)

- Reluctance to attend school; 'disaffection and disengagement from education' (Rose 2009 p38)

- Low self-image

- Anxiety when asked to read aloud

* All descriptions of dyslexia include many 'soft' signs i.e. they are not based on data that is readily quantifiable or amenable to experimental verification. Some of the commonest ones are included in the descriptions above. Soft signs 'are found in some people without learning problems and absent in others who experience learning difficulties (Rice/Brooks p22)

Dr. Galen Alessi is Professor of Psychology at Western Michigan University. 'Diagnosis Diagnosed: A Systemic Reaction', is his article about a fascinating study he conducted on school psychologists. He asked 50 school psychologists to list the causes of the learning difficulties of about 5,000 students. According to the psychologists, zero percent of the 5,000 students’ problems were the result of bad teaching, while 100% were the fault of the students: www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/blame.pdf ''After examining several "mainstream" school psychology texts, Alessi found that when assessing children’s reading problems, school factors were mentioned as a factor between 7% and 0% (zero) of the time. "Child factors" were held responsible for reading problems between 90% to 100% of the time'' http://www.wrightslaw.com/advoc/articles/ALESSI1.html

www.talkingpoint.org.uk/
Speech, language and communication difficulties in children.

www.cuedspeech.co.uk/
Literacy is possible for even the profoundly deaf by making the sounds of speech visible
Caution: the THRASS programme mentioned on this website does not follow synthetic phonics principles -see Room 101

Important: In all cases of literacy difficulty, vision and hearing must be thoroughly checked. It is possible that an auditory or visual weakness may be causing the problems or be adding to them. Many children have mild visual impairments or unstable eye control.

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