Q. Does my son need to be tested for dyslexia? He is a native Spanish speaker and he is already receiving support.
Formal testing for dyslexia can be difficult for bilingual students in the public school system because a student’s proficiency in English language reading can depend on a variety of issues, including, but not limited to: the number of words mastered in English; years of exposure to English in the home; working memory; and issues such as Spanish-English interference.
This issue, where one language may have different rules and practices from another, leads to potential confusion and extra work in decoding.
It is true that schools can assist with reading whether a student has a formal diagnosis of dyslexia or not, but if dyslexic students who aren’t formally identified are more likely to be overlooked for various interventions and accommodations that could otherwise follow them throughout their educational years.
When bilingual students who are also dyslexic don’t get formally identified, their intelligence may be overlooked in the classroom, and they may not have appropriate supports – like text-to-speech, options for translations or dictionaries, extra time, or options to keyboard with spellcheck – which could put them at risk for academic achievement or even school failure in the future.
Bilingual students may also vary a great deal in terms of how strong their skills with their respective languages -so understand their contexts (how strong are the student’s reading skills in their native language) may also help prioritize what foundational work needs to be undertaken first.
From our standpoint, we always recommend being fully assessed if possible.
Ideally, bilingual students should be tested in both languages – but that may not be practical for many students.
The issue is, that it can be all too common that a bilingual student’s intelligence is underestimated and that appropriate supports and education are overlooked outside of reading. It’s still common, for instance, for students to fail to receive appropriate accommodations for reading outside of language arts classes. So a student may struggle in science and social studies classes because appropriate audio and translation supports haven’t been provided.
If a student is dyslexic – there are many resources available to guide educators for reading, writing, math, and any other subject at school.
One resource for testing dyslexia in Spanish and English speakers is the Woodcock-Munoz Survey.
Click on the picture below to get more information about the test from Riverside Insights.
