Monday, February 12, 2024

Double Deficit Dyslexia - A new challenge

                                                          


On 9.2.24 a mother who read my message on a Dyslexia Support group messaged me and asked if I could help her son who has been diagnosed with double deficit dyslexia.

This is the first time I am hearing this term 'Double Deficit Dyslexia'. But, I don't believe in all these labels. 

The mother confirmed that her son, let’s call him David, has no acuity problems i.e. he has no hearing, sight or thinking problems.

I asked her for a voice recording of David reading out the sounds of the letters C, F, L, M, N, R, and S. She obliged. David pronounced the letter sounds perfectly. There were no extraneous sounds.

All my more than 80 students I have taught since 2004 had a problem with sounding out the sounds represented by consonants.They sounded them out with extraneous sounds.

She said that they (not sure who) said David has memory problems.

She confirmed that he can converse like other kids.

I asked her what David's problem was. If he can pronounce the sounds represented by consonants the way he did, he should be able to read.

She replied that David is in grade 3 and is 2-3 years behind and that he is reading at an upper kindergarten/early grade 1 level.

I told her that he could be confused with the different sounds represented by the letters.

She replied that David has a blending problem and confuses sounds like b/d; e/i.

David having a blending problem when he can pronounce the consonants without extraneous sounds is disturbing.

So, my thoughts are that his blending problems could be his confusion over the different sounds of the vowels.

The mother has ordered a copy of Teach Your Child to Read. I stressed that she should make sure he rote memorises the Dolch words before moving on to the next lesson.

David is different from all my previous students but with the help of Mother Nature and the guidance from David’s mother I hope to get David to read at grade level in a few months.

I hope to report on his progress.

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