It’s Dyslexia Awareness Month, and this year I want to go back to the basics.
We have made tremendous progress in our understanding of dyslexia. More states have dyslexia legislation. More schools are screening students. More educators are learning about the science of reading. Parents have more information at their fingertips than ever before.
And yet, I still sit across from parents whose children have struggled to read for years without anyone identifying why.
And I still hear many of the same things.
“They’ll catch up. Let’s just wait and see.”
Wait for what?
When a child shows persistent red flags for a reading disability, waiting doesn't tell us why the child is struggling. We can provide intervention and investigate the cause of the difficulty. Those things are not mutually exclusive.
“They’re just not reading enough.”
More reading is wonderful, but simply giving a struggling reader more opportunities to read does not remediate the underlying skills that may be causing the difficulty. A child who struggles to decode words needs explicit instruction in the skills necessary to decode words, not simply more time practicing something they cannot yet do efficiently.
“They just need to try harder.”
This one hurts.
Many children with dyslexia are trying extraordinarily hard. In fact, what looks effortless for another student may require tremendous cognitive effort for them. Difficulty learning to read is not evidence of a lack of effort.
“They’ll outgrow it.”
Dyslexia is not something a child simply outgrows. With appropriate, explicit instruction, students with dyslexia can become skilled readers. That is exactly why early identification and high-quality intervention matter so much. But improvement doesn't mean the underlying learning difference never existed.
“They’re just behind. They’ll catch up.”
Being behind tells us where a child is performing. It doesn't tell us why.
When a child continues to struggle despite appropriate instruction, we should ask questions, look at the data, and determine what is contributing to that difficulty. “Behind” should be the beginning of the conversation, not the end of it.
“It’s a behavior issue, not a learning issue.”
Sometimes the behavior we're seeing is communication.
Avoiding reading. Refusing to participate. Acting silly when asked to read aloud. Putting their head down. Saying they hate school. Rushing through an assignment. Refusing to work on an assignment.
Before assuming a child won't do something, we should always consider whether the child can't yet do it successfully.
“It’s a vision issue.”
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. It is not caused by poor eyesight or by words and letters moving around on the page. Of course, children can have vision problems that need to be addressed, and a child can have both a vision problem and dyslexia. But treating a vision problem does not replace evidence-based reading instruction for dyslexia.
Maybe awareness needs to look different.
Perhaps Dyslexia Awareness Month isn't just about making more people familiar with the word dyslexia.
Maybe it's about recognizing the things we still get wrong.
Because every time we explain away a red flag, we risk losing something children cannot get back: time.
So when a child is struggling, let's stop asking:
“Should we wait?”
And start asking:
“What is the data telling us, why is this child struggling, and what are we going to do about it?”
That's the kind of dyslexia awareness our kids need.