When reading isn't fun - dyslexia major problem NOT properly diagnosed at the right time

Author's Note: The following column appears in today's edition (Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008) of the Collin County Opinion Pages of the Dallas Morning News.

My daughter, Lisa, is a terrible speller. She admits to it and, as a professional editor, I know it as well. And, yes, it drives me up a wall akin to the child of an Olympic swimmer being afraid of water. You would hope one's natural talent would be something of a family inheritance.
Having disclosed that, I must say that it is not her fault. She suffers from dyslexia, a learning disability that makes it very difficult to properly learn to read and spell.
It doesn't mean the student lacks intelligence; in fact, far from it. Many dyslexics are highly intelligent and highly gifted. It means a person's brain merely processes written and/or verbal language differently than the normal individual. It is a neurological problem. The brain simply cannot correctly digest some letters as seen through the eye.
All too often this goes undetected in the place where it matters most – the classroom. A simple eye test administered in most elementary schools won't send up the needed red flag to either teachers or parents. As a result, affected students fail to acquire the help needed to combat the problem and overcome the difficulty. "Just try harder" is not the proper answer.
Dyslexia affects anywhere from 5 to 9 percent of all school children, but some studies increase the numbers to as much as 17 percent. Even more astonishing is that only 20 percent of adults who suffer from early childhood reading problems learn fluent reading skills; that's 1 in 5, folks.
Since it involves words, it requires more time and practice for those with dyslexia to master the skill of reading. For example, if a child needs 30 to 60 hours to learn to read, a dyslexic child needs 80 to 100 hours. It is even more important because of the inability to correctly associate what he or she sees with what is heard, a process which is called "phonics." Phonics is a common method to teach children to read.
Dyslexics can compensate for their disability with the proper therapy, training and technological help. Dyslexic students are legally entitled to extra time during tests (which also applies to such tests as the SAT and ACT college boards). However, it doesn't always happen that way.
Lisa had a high school AP English teacher who refused to cooperate; but my daughter, not wanting to seem "privileged," did not fight hard enough for her rights because no one within the school administration informed her of all those rights.
There are some charitable organizations, such as the Scottish Rite Foundation locally, which test for dyslexia and make training classes and materials available, often at no cost, for teachers and students. But the problem must be diagnosed at the starting point – our elementary schools.
It isn't too much of a stretch to state that dyslexia receives inadequate support in American public schools. There have been several legal cases in this nation, plus Canada, England and New Zealand, brought by parents against public education, for failing to provide enough support for children with learning disabilities. I, for one, don't want this played out in the court, but solved in the classroom.
In order for a student to be properly treated and assisted for dyslexia, it must be diagnosed at an early age. While young American schoolchildren are given eye examinations to detect vision too poor to read blackboards or even books, nothing is done to see if they are neurologically impaired in that process – if what they see is correct.
The "full monty" of tests to fully reveal dyslexia in a child is not possible for each and every U.S. student. But some sort of early detection exam can (and should, by law) be administered. Once they are warned of a possible problem, the responsibility will then rest with parents and teachers.
Dyslexia crosses all racial, ethnic and social lines and, without proper help and detection, it places our children at risk and harm that is preventable.
It's probably too late to really help Lisa. But it isn't too late to help many others.