Screening, Assessment and Identification Tools for Dyslexia

*Vinutha U. Muktamath, Priya R. Hegde, Ramya Koneru and Rekha Lakashetti*

#### **Abstract**

The special education process relies heavily on assessment to ascertain a student's disability. In order to target the areas of need that call for differentiated or specialized education, teachers can target students' strengths through an ongoing process of data collection and analysis. In order to properly diagnose Specific Learning Disability (SLD) or Dyslexia, the student's planning and placement team (PPT), consisting of the parents of the child and trained professionals, must conduct a thorough evaluation process. People who have dyslexia are frequently misdiagnosed or completely overlooked. The assessment of dyslexia presents with difficulties, such as the use of a variety of terms, the inadequacy of current assessment models, and the dependence on phonological awareness as the only linguistic risk factor. This chapter's goal is to address the difficulties associated with diagnosing and screening for dyslexia in children, including the use of a variety of terms, the use of phonological awareness as the single linguistic risk factor for dyslexia. In an effort to give parents, educators, and researchers a consolidated and comprehensive source of information, the chapter examines the accessibility and usefulness of screening and assessment instruments for the diagnosis and identification of dyslexia in children of various age groups.

**Keywords:** dyslexia, screening, assessment, definitions, linguistic risk

#### **1. Introduction**

Reading and other language-based processing difficulties are referred to as dyslexia, a specific learning disability. It is also known as a reading handicap and is the most prevalent reading disorder, accounting for about 80% of all learning disabilities. Reading difficulties start even before learning to read. Children in kindergarten may not be as proficient in letter recognition and letter writing as their peers. Children with dyslexia have trouble relating the sounds of letters to the letters they see on a page. Reading for them thus becomes a lengthy, laborious, and non-fluent process, which can co-exist with other linked problems and affect reading fluency, decoding, reading comprehension, recall, writing, spelling, and occasionally speech. When possible, people with dyslexia may want to avoid tasks that involve reading (e.g., reading for pleasure, reading instructions). They might frequently favor other forms of expression like images, audio, or video.

The neuro-diversity of dyslexia is widespread and prevalent in all societies, ages, and cultures. According to studies, one in ten persons worldwide has dyslexia and it affects between 5 and 17% of school-age children in India, up to 10% of the population in the United States [1, 2], 7% of the population in the United Kingdom [3], and up to 10% of the population in the United States [4]. Reading development for kids happens at their own speed, just like other skill development. It is typical for school pupils to occasionally find reading difficult; however, it is possible that a youngster has dyslexia if learning to read becomes a constant problem that causes them to lag behind their peers [5]. The current research clearly provides evidence for dyslexia as the most widespread type of learning difficulty among people with a learning disability and is two to three times more common in men than in women [6, 7]. Research indicates that reading disability (RD) is strongly familial and heritable. The disorder affects up to 50% of children with RD, and 50% of a child with RD's siblings also have it. Strong concordance rates for RD have been found in twin studies, showing that genetic factors account for 69–87% of the prevalence and environmental factors for 13–30% Reading disability (RD) is substantially familial and heritable as per the research and about 50% of children with RD are affected by the disorder, and also the chances of a child having siblings with RD is also 50%. Twin studies have demonstrated strong concordance rates for RD, with genetic variables accounting for 69–87% of the prevalence and environmental factors accounting for 13–30% [8].

#### **2. Dyslexia: Definition, causes and types**

The most researched and highly reckoned learning disability globally is dyslexia. Although more than 120 years after Pringle Morgan's initial description, there is still only partial agreement on its definition and the diagnostic standards applied in the clinical and scientific domains [9, 10]. As a type of learning disability, dyslexia was described by Kirk in 1963 as "an unexpected difficulty in mastering one or more of one instrumental school talents." Since Kirk's early work, the concept of "an unexpected difficulty" which has two different interpretations—has affected research and clinical practice [11]. The International Dyslexia Association states that dyslexia are distinguished by problems with accurate and/or fluent word recognition as well as by subpar spelling and decoding skills. This is sometimes caused by a phonological deficiency in language, which is often unexpected considering other cognitive abilities and the efficacy of instruction in a school. Issues with reading comprehension and a diminished reading experience may have downstream effects that hinder the development of background knowledge and vocabulary [12].

Lyon et al., [7], defined the condition in the following manner that is concurred by both practitioners and experts.

After years of discussion, the American Psychiatric Association amended the worldwide diagnostic criteria for learning disabilities in DSM-5 in 2013, which marks a new stage in the study of this condition [13–15]. The newly proposed diagnostic criteria have undergone several significant changes, including the removal of the "Discrepancy Criterion," a mention of the "Response to Intervention Approach," and a new perspective that views learning disorders as a subset of the neuro developmental disorders group [13]. The term "dyslexia" is no longer used outside of the clinical setting; instead, the phrase "Specific learning condition with impairment in […a specific academic ability]" has been used. The umbrella term "specific learning condition" encompasses a variety of learning problems. For reading disorders, it is

*Screening, Assessment and Identification Tools for Dyslexia DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113899*

specified which reading-related skills (word reading accuracy, reading rate or accuracy, and/or reading comprehension) are wholly or partially disturbed. As a subset of the more comprehensive category of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, dyslexia is classified as a reading disorder (dyslexia) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Mathematical and written expression impairments are also included in the category of dyslexia [9, 12, 16–18].

For a specific set of learning problems, the following characteristics are the criteria for diagnosis;


Last but not least, there are several exclusion standards. Absence of an intellectual handicap is the first exclusion condition. The second concerns the omission of a haphazard and subpar instruction. The third speaks to a student's ability to communicate in the language of academic teaching. The fourth pertains to the absence of sensory issues (visual and auditory sensory issues that are severe enough to account for the learning difficulties [8, 16, 17].

#### **3. Causes**

Dyslexia appears to be a very intriguing and contentious phenomenon that has been extensively examined from different points of view. It includes an interdisciplinary study and consensus of neuroscience, cognitive science, and learning theory. Although the precise causes of dyslexia are still unknown, morphological and brain imaging investigations have revealed abnormalities in how the brains of those who have the condition develop and work. Additionally, it has been discovered that the majority of dyslexics struggle to recognize the many speech sounds that make up a word and/or learn how those sounds are represented by letters, which is a major contributor to their reading difficulties. Dyslexia is not a result of a lack of intelligence or disinterest to study; with the right teaching strategies, dyslexic students may learn well. People of all ages and intellectual abilities can develop dyslexia. Dyslexics can be incredibly intelligent people. In subjects like art, computer science, design, theater, electronics, math, mechanics, music, physics, sales, and sports, they frequently excel or are even found to be naturally talented. Additionally, because dyslexia runs in families, the chance of developing it also rises if one has a parent or sibling who is dyslexic. While some people have dyslexia identified from an early age, others do not find out until they are much older. The past few decades have seen a significant amount of research committed to determining its likely causes; yielding some significant findings from scientific frameworks that were not previously extensively employed to support the nature of dyslexia. Undoubtedly, the remarkable advancements in the disciplines of neuroscience, brain imaging, and genetics have supported a number of intuitively tenable hypotheses that lacked prior empirical validation and have uncovered a number of previously

un-recognized facts highlighting the complexity of dyslexia. In addition, different causes may apply to different children, and last but not least, there may be several causes of dyslexic issues with respect to a certain child. It may be produced by a number of factors functioning independently or interacting with one another to produce the outcome. A distinct brain activity profile shown with magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) supports the neurological and genetic reasons of dyslexia as the condition's etiology. Three systems are active on the left side of the brain: a left parietotemporal system that analyses written language, a left occipitotemporal system that performs automatic word recognition, and an anterior system in the left inferior frontal region that influences phoneme production (articulating words aloud or silently). Conversely, dyslexic children exhibit higher activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus, right temporal, and tempoparietal regions, as well as decreased activity in both posterior systems (left temporoparietal, left occipitotemporal). People still have trouble reading unexpected words because they rely more on their right-sided posterior brain regions for memorization when they read than on sound-symbol linkages [8, 14, 15].
