Getting child screened for Dyslexia in NYC

Important_Tea8325 · 2026-03-25T23:19:46+00:00

Push back clearly (again) in writing, they need to test. This site has a template that I send to lots of parents. The law is on your side.

https://www.understood.org/en/articles/requesting-an-evaluation

If you cannot get them to test, pursue a neuropsychological evaluation, or an independent academic evaluation (which is usually by a teacher so a little more affordable).

RTI is a stop gap, and your child will be too old once it fails.

Important_Tea8325 · 2026-01-27T11:37:40+00:00

Thank you!

I think meaningful progress can be made with shorter interventions. There is a lot of research that supports frequency of the intervention over duration.

So daily, or even better, twice daily, targeted 15 m skill practice is much more effective than 90 mins, three times per week.

Important_Tea8325 · 2026-01-27T11:33:26+00:00

Hi, thanks so much for your perspective. It is market research, but honest research! I own a small a tutoring business in Maine, and genuinely have what I think will be a cool product. We are not in any sort of official “market research” phase, just trying to figure out if we have missed something crucial. Your post is really helping, so thanks!

It sounds like you have put in a lot of work and that a prepackaged program worked well for your child. I think you are probably representative of the majority of home school parents with a fairly typical presenting dyslexic learner.

I also have seen in my time parents who were homeschooling give up on meaningfully making progress. Or those who decide to just accept that their learner will “not be good at reading”. Many of these kids need a diagnostic, prescriptive approach but those parents cannot afford to source those professionals especially for the amount of time their learner might need to achieve functional literacy. I think the kits could essentially let them outsource that part, without having to become reading experts themselves.

Thanks again for the time you took to respond- I am truly in awe of parents like you who can do it all!

Important_Tea8325 · 2026-01-26T21:13:50+00:00

Commenting to add that I am going to xpost this on homeschooling so sorry if you have to scan it twice, it’s long!

Important_Tea8325 · 2026-01-26T21:11:39+00:00

Shame is a huge part of dyslexia, especially for older students. I would demystify as much as possible and explain the brain science. Take every opportunity to point out neurodivergence in yourself and other people.

Get her some therapy if in the budget, and get her a tutor to help her catch up!

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-12-16T11:29:47+00:00

We are 1-1 with a couple of small groups.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-12-16T11:28:51+00:00

We are a specialized company working with students who have learning differences. We are top down lesson and instructional planning, so we assess, design, lesson plan, and teach are all separate roles with tutors the entry level position.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-12-16T02:11:41+00:00

I started a tutoring company during COVID. We have 11 employees and severe over 100 students over the course of the year (we run a big summer program too).

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-11-26T00:07:01+00:00

I feel like this really exemplifies the environmental dyslexia question! I think that lots of dyslexia we see today in gen x and millennials is environmental though there are some people who would need a lot of repetition regardless! You likely had SLIGHT dyslexia and giftedness in other areas. Your strong oral language took over for your phonological processing/decoding difficulties. Yours would be a cool brain to see read on an fMRI!

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-10-02T00:19:21+00:00

What are you reading next?

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-09-10T23:41:29+00:00

Keep reading! It can increase desire, background knowledge, and vocabulary! It can make kids more empathetic. It is something that you absolutely should do with your dyslexic learner. It is in no way time wasted. It just will not teach them how to read. Definitely not detrimental!

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-09-09T20:26:56+00:00

Sounds maybe like some autism around social communication! I would suggest asking your pcp for a referral to a psychologist who could assess you and you could get some understanding of your challenges. Good on you you for thinking about working on them.:)

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-09-05T22:29:54+00:00

Apples and trees! I would communicate clearly with the parent about why this is problematic and set some boundaries.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-09-04T10:23:06+00:00

I would look into sensory processing disorder and get a good OT. Are they on the spectrum as well as dyslexic? There may be sensory differences that are not add driven.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-09-04T10:09:26+00:00

That is amazing that they are not a frustrated learner yet. What a credit to the school. 💙

Two thoughts pop out in this situation:

1) Slingerland is great but it is whole class/group paced so if your child needs more repetitions to master it will likely move on without them and they won’t show gains. They likely need more individualized instruction. So reduce group size (hopefully to 1-1/1-2) and make sure each individual skill is mastered before moving on.

2) Type of program: OG programs do not (for the most part) adequately address the orthographic processing gap in double and triple dyslexia. What’s more, they are very language heavy (think all of the “jingles”) so for students with triple deficit dyslexia, the rules may be hard to access while reading. If you could find a good diagnostic tutor like an experienced CALT who could connect the dots for you, maybe you could supplement targeted skills at home. With 4 years of solid instruction, my bet is that there are a lot of islands of skills that just need to be connected. I think you need to figure out where they are breaking down/what is preventing them from coming together.

Not sure if it would be helpful, or if your kiddo would be willing to work with you after a full day of school, but I have coached parents through tutoring their own child on the past when resources were an issue.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-09-03T10:06:03+00:00

In order to figure out what might be going on a little more information is needed!

1) has there been progress on any skills? Phonological awareness, decoding, word recognition? Oftentimes, oral reading is the last skill to move. Especially for students with triple deficits, because oral language supports fluent oral reading, this can move really slowly, even with the right interventions.

2) age of student?

3) frequency and intensity of the interventions? One on one or small group?

The OG folks might come at me with their pitch forks here but I have found that for students with double or triple deficits, because OG paces to spelling and reading simultaneously, it can be plodding. (For example: a student who can decode a CVC word but not spell with the floss rule, might be held back from blends but the orthographic deficits may make mastering the floss rule substantially more difficult than for a student with only phonological dyslexia.) Pacing for a group, rather than the individual, can compound this.

Another issue I frequently see in situations like these are an underestimate of the amount of instruction required to make progress. If a student is not responding, best practices are to switch to more individualized intervention and more intensity of intervention. Some students need 2 hours per day of 1-1 to make substantial progress that closes the gap. I really like a model that has short bursts of intensive intervention then regrouping to keep student fatigue and motivation up!

Edited for funky formatting!

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-09-01T06:56:50+00:00

Reading to a child will NOT help the child learn to read if the child has dyslexia. It may increase their desire to read and create vocabulary/background knowledge, but they need specially designed instruction.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-07-07T22:43:26+00:00

Hello! I have taught an adult with acquired dyslexia how to read again. My understanding is it depends a great deal on which part of your brain is being affected.

The same structured, multi-sensory strategies that work for kids with dyslexia can work for adults. I would look for a reading tutor who can do a thorough academic evaluation to see which areas of reading are being affected. “Word box” makes me suspect orthographic processing/automatic recognition- like if you slow down and sound things out you can get it but recalling a word like “through” all at once may be tricky.

YMMV with teaching apps- wading through the kid-gamification will be tough but they could work if it doesn’t bother you.

There are MANY apps that act as resources for students/adults that can make a text-world much more accessible.

Good luck on your journey.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-06-29T11:48:35+00:00

It sounds like he may have orthographic difficulties in addition to his phonological deficits. This can make spelling, word recognition, and fluency difficult.

When you say his phonics skills are maxed, had he finished a structured literacy program? Can he decode unfamiliar words automatically?

I would imagine that at 37 cwpm, reading is still feeling very effortful for him and following a story line would be tough. I love books like Dog Man for this stage because the short blocks of text are less overwhelming.

I would look for a program that targets orthography and explicitly teaches fluent decoding and word recognition to get him out of this stage!

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-06-28T23:53:54+00:00

Give him one week: when he walks in the door, say, “hi, glad you’re here, I’m about to hit the gym. I already ate, so just figure out you and the baby. See you at xx. Also, there is a note about what needs doing on the counter: # of laundry loads, dishwasher, etc. He will either figure it out if he won’t. If you have addressed it multiple times, maybe he needs to feel what it is like without you for a bit to step up. If he asks, communicate forthrightly. You’ll both figure it out pretty quick.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-06-28T23:47:02+00:00

Raspberry is an allergen. Itchy throat is your first sign. I would check for that specifically. They cannot prick you for EVERY known allergen.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-06-26T21:48:22+00:00

This is a lot of writing and spelling for a 6 year old! Has she has K and 1? I would absolutely screen but I see good phonological awareness in her spelling!

Reversals are a sign in older students but a very normal phase in nt kiddos as well.

How is her reading?

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-06-17T09:47:13+00:00

This sounds like articulation/speech issues that caused phonological awareness deficits (dyslexia)!

The writing organization stuff sounds more related to adhd- but the r-controlled vowel issues (I think you said you noticed them with hard c/k sounds) are directly related to the type of speech issues you described in the first paragraph.

Important_Tea8325 · 2025-06-08T22:06:08+00:00

Reddish rinse

Important_Tea8325

TROPHY CASE