What if I Suspect a Reading Disorder?

When parents and teachers have a concern about a student’s progress in acquiring reading skills, the student's data can be brought to a committee of school personnel who will recommend next steps for the student. This can include specific interventions, trial classroom accommodations such as extended time or oral questions and answers, or a referral for additional testing through special education.

First, talk with your child's teacher. Document what you've seen both at home and with schoolwork. Ask if the teacher has any concerns about your child's academic progress. It is important to note that interventions do not need to be attempted before testing for a learning disability, but often, student response to these types of interventions is critical data for stakeholders to consider.  

Based on the results of these interventions, your child may then be referred for testing, called a Full and Individual Initial Evaluation (FIIE) for a specific learning disability. There are a number of different SLDs, and dyslexia falls under one of those categories now, under new state and federal guidelines. 

The following steps are taken, in the order listed, when referring students for evaluation and placement in the Pearland ISD Dyslexia program:

1. Preventive programs: Strong classroom instruction in phonics, writing, spelling, language arts, and a literature-based, science of reading based literacy program. 
2. Multi-Tiered Student Support Committee: Parents, teachers, counselors, and administrators may refer students to a campus committee who may recommend appropriate intervention strategies.
3. Intervention: Appropriate interventions are tailored to the student's particular weakness and can include intensive small group sessions, tutoring, additional instruction by the teacher, pullout reading programs, summer school and bilingual programs. These interventions are monitored to collect data on student progress.
4. Evaluation: Testing can take up to 45 school days and includes a battery of tests that assess phonological awareness, reading fluency (speed and accuracy), rapid naming, reading and listening comprehension, ability to decode both real and nonsense words, spelling, math calculation and reasoning skills, visual processing, and overall cognitive ability.  The committee will then recommend placement, no placement, accommodations with monitoring only, or other recommendations suitable for the student. Written parental permission is required for this step and will be obtained prior to any final decision.