October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month and a local dyslexia tutoring center in Mission Viejo is offering free assessments, resources and special events throughout the month of October.
Owner of PRIDE Learning Center in Mission Viejo, Karina Richland, reports, “Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects about 20% of the nation. That means that one out of every five children in the Mission Viejo classroom struggles with dyslexia.” Richland, a dyslexia specialist and owner of a program that provides dyslexia tutoring in Mission Viejo says “most children with dyslexia go undiagnosed for years. With early detection, proper intervention, and certain accommodations in school, dyslexics can actually improve their reading skills dramatically.”
Warning Signs in School-Age Children
• Child uses memory skills in reading not decoding strategies
• Reads a word on one page but doesn’t recognize it on the next page
• Confuses look alike letters like b and d, b and p, n and u, or m and w
• Makes many reversals
• Substitutes a word while reading that means the same thing
• When reading leaves out or adds small words like “a, the, to, are, of”
• Reading fluency is poor
• Avoids reading as much as possible
• Misspells many words
• Writes illegibly
• Appears lazy, unmotivated, or frustrated
“The sooner a child with dyslexia is given proper instruction, particularly in the very early grades, the more likely it is that they will have fewer or milder difficulties later in life” states Richland.
The dyslexia tutoring program in Mission Viejo provides one-on-one reading help for students with learning differences, including dyslexia, auditory and or visual processing disorder and ADHD. PRIDE specializes in an Orton-Gillingham reading approach for students struggling with dyslexia.
Throughout the month of October, parents or grandparents can bring their child into the Mission Viejo Dyslexia Center for a free assessment that will measure their reading abilities. To schedule an appointment contact the Mission Viejo PRIDE Learning Center at 949-484-0230 or visit the website at www.pridelearningcenter.com