The diagnosis is not made by one mistake: speech therapist told about dyslexia and dysgraphia in children

Dyslexia and dysgraphia are persistent difficulties with reading and writing, not just poor grades. When these violations require the intervention of a specialist, said the teacher-defectologist, speech therapist of the highest category Svetlana Fedorova, the correspondent of the agency “Minsk-Novosti”.

The photo is illustrative in nature

What is dyslexia and dysgraphia

- In simple words, dyslexia is a persistent difficulty with reading, when it is difficult for a child to learn to associate letters with sounds, it is quite difficult to read fluently, understand the text, if reading as a whole requires too much effort from him. While dysgraphia - persistent difficulties with writing, - said S. Fedorova.

Among the types of dysgraphia - acoustic, when the child confuses phonemes, lexical-grammatical and visual, in which he can mirror write letters.

When it's time for a specialist

- The diagnosis is not made by one mistake - experts assess the whole picture, taking into account age, training, language, vision, attention and other factors, the expert stressed.

According to her, you should be wary if the difficulties with reading or writing are more pronounced in a child than in peers. In such children, mistakes persist, despite classes, are repeated systematically and interfere with study or self-esteem.

The first prerequisites can be seen in preschool age - for example, when a child can not pick up a rhyme or remember the names of letters.

The expert warned that errors due to inattention are often confused with dysgraphia. In the first case, they are irregular in nature - the child is in a hurry, forgets instructions or performs a task incorrectly. In dysgraphia, errors are repeated systematically and persist even with quality training.

S. Fedorova explained that there may be many reasons for writing and reading disorders, in particular, insufficient attention and poor phonetic hearing.

Can violations be completely corrected

- The realistic goal of the specialist is not a complete correction, but to help the child master reading and writing as much as possible, Fedorova said.

Many children’s skills improve if help comes on time. Some difficulties remain in adulthood, but a person learns to cope with them.

The speech therapist advises parents not to leave the child alone with the problem, but together with the teacher to look for ways of support. You can give more time for written and oral tasks, reduce the mechanical rewriting of texts, allow you to answer orally.

Photo is illustrative, freepik.com

- At home, it is also good to use audio texts for reading to adults - so the child will learn the school curriculum at the level of his understanding. It is necessary to note any effort and progress in learning, not just the number of errors, the expert concluded.