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Especially after the last few years, kids’ academic skill levels are all over the place. Depending on how well your child did with online learning (or whatever else was going on in their lives), your child’s reading level may not be at grade level. You may be wondering if this is “normal” or if something else is going on. When someone has trouble reading that cannot be attributed to a lack of skills or time spent practicing, they may have a reading processing disorder. Here are the signs and types of reading disorders and how you can help your child if they do have one.

What are reading disorders?

Dyslexia is the reading disorder we hear about most often and is most often diagnosed in children who are struggling with reading. It is characterized by poor spelling and inaccurate reading fluency. However, there are other learning disorders associated with reading that are being researched and diagnosed more often. These include:

Hyperlexia, a reading comprehension disorder. People with this disorder have trouble understanding what they read even though they can decode the letters and sounds. Dysgraphia, which relates to writing. People with dysgraphia may have trouble writing, spelling, or organizing their writing. Dysorthography, a spelling disorder in which someone cannot put together sounds and their corresponding patterns despite instruction.Oral language disability, where someone has trouble pronouncing words or reading out loud despite being able to read when not speaking.

Sometimes a child will have more than one disorder or have a reading disorder as well as ADHD or another diagnosis.

Signs of a reading processing disorder

It’s important to note that kids don’t all learn the same way at the same time. If your child is struggling to read, don’t immediately assume they have a disorder. They may need a different approach or more time. However, some signs that your child has a reading processing disorder include:

Messy handwritingPoor spellingReversing lettersDifficulty learning to read or comprehend language in comparison to same age and ability peers Difficulty organizing or coming up with something to writeFalling behind peers from one year to the next in reading or writingBeing able to read the words but not understand or explain their meaning Trouble sounding out words

While reversing letters is a normal developmental step in learning to write and messy handwriting can often be trained out of a child, if you notice these types of signs not getting better with time and help from teachers, it might be time to ask for help in assessing if this is a processing disorder.

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How do you find out if your child has a reading processing disorder?

Your child’s teacher may be the one to bring up a concern, or you might bring up your concerns to them. Either way, it’s best to compare notes with your school. Paulette Selman, a school psychologist who frequently tests students for processing disorders and who also works as a special education advocate in Oregon and Washington, says the data you want to compare includes teacher feedback, grades, test scores, and how homework goes, as well as if your teacher notices any downward trends in your child’s skill levels. “If they are falling in the bottom 20% or so of the grade level, you can start to raise a red flag,” she says. You don’t need to panic, though; instead, “make sure and follow up with the teacher in a few months to see if your child has made progress compared to the rest of the kids, or if they are continuing to hang below the average range.”

If they are still struggling, the next step would be an assessment from the school, which will look for reading processing disorders, but will also rule out working memory issues, a language comprehension issue, or other causes for trouble with language.

If you notice issues and the school does not agree there’s a problem or if you decide to get tested on your own, you can have your child tested by a psychologist privately. If they diagnose something, you can bring that information to the school and form a plan from there.

What will the school do to help your child?

“These days, schools have reading interventions available to general education kids (no IEP needed) who fall at the bottom of the class,” Selman says. But “you’ll want to be proactive in monitoring their progress, so you know whether additional services or tutoring is needed to help them catch up.”

Your child may also qualify for special education services. “It used to be that a processing disorder of some kind was required in order to qualify for special education with a specific learning disability. That’s no longer the case in most states,” says Selman.

How else can you support your child?

If you are able to, hiring a private tutor who has experience and training in working with your child’s disorder and age is a great idea. They can form a one-on-one relationship with your child to help meet their individual needs.

“For language-based processing disorders, seeing a speech-language pathologist outside of school may be appropriate. Some SLPs have extra training or experience assessing and treating reading problems—ask around in your community,” says Selman.

For dysgraphia, the writing-based disorder, an occupational therapist may be able to help. “For visual memory or spelling, occupational therapists can teach students how to mentally connect gross motor movements to letters,” says Caitlin Sanschagrin, an occupational therapist and owner of Bright SpOT Pediatric Therapy. She says an OT can also help you work out which accommodations would be best for your child because “writing takes immensely more effort for these individuals as their focus and attention is placed more on the writing rather than the other learning tasks.” Since “dysgraphia also presents differently from person to person,” and “treatments are as variable as individuals and their ages,” they will need learning accommodations.

A warning from Selman as you seek out help outside of the public school system: “Beware of quackery.There are a number of companies and clinics out there that peddle treatments and cures for different processing disorders.” She suggests parents “be sure to look for independent research that verifies the claims the company is making. If it’s hard to tease out (and company websites sure can make their programs sound earth-shattering), ask your local school psychologist or special education teacher for their opinion, and factor that in before you make a large monetary investment.”

Helping identify and treat your child’s processing disorder now will alleviate stress and self-esteem issues as they navigate their years in school. Many students with reading processing disorder get support and learn how to accommodate their disability in order to become excellent readers and learners as they grow up.

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