Specific Learning Disabilities in Childhood: When Do Parents Worry, When Do Pediatricians Refer?
Specific learning disabilities are difficulties that can occur in reading, writing, spelling and mathematical skills.
Children who are more prone to these difficulties are:
- Children with a relevant hereditary history
- Children with a history of prematurity, hospitalization in a neonatal unit, twin pregnancy
- Children who in preschool age had difficulties in organization, attention, hyperactivity and slow speech development
Parents should seek help from preschool age if their children show any of the above difficulties. They should also have an annual follow-up if their child was premature or had been hospitalized in a unit. Finally, they should have an increased degree of suspicion in case of a family history.
The pediatrician should recommend a developmental assessment in all of the above cases, but also in cases where parents report the following:
- Slow reading pace
- Wrong start, loss of position, repetition of word reading. Inaccurate sentence segmentation.
- Difficulty understanding and memorizing text
- Omissions, substitutions, distortions, or additions of words or syllables to words.
- Reversals of words within sentences or letters within words
- Difficulty completing schoolwork in the allotted time in class.
- Difficulty maintaining attention
- Difficulty organizing study space and time
The pediatrician could also request a sample of a child’s writing with difficulties.
Within the framework of the developmental examination carried out at the Developmental Clinic of the Children’s Medical Center and depending on the child’s age, the following tools can be used:
- Texts adapted to the child’s age for reading and writing
- Phonological awareness test (METAFON – short administration)
- ATHENA test scales
- Developmental tool scales e.g. Griffiths
The specific learning disabilities mentioned above may be contributed to by difficulties such as:
- Difficulty in letter/letter symbol recognition
- Difficulties in short-term auditory and visual memory
- Inadequate Phonological Awareness
- Difficulties in Rapid Automated Naming (RAN)
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