In episode 63 of “Are they 18 yet?”®, I share a Q & A from the Language Therapy Advance Foundations members’ group about dyslexia diagnosis and treatment, as well as working memory goals.
I get a lot of questions about who is qualified to diagnose and treat dyslexia; especially when it comes to the SLP’s role in the process. Understanding the process of dyslexia diagnosis in the schools vs. medical settings can be especially confusing.
That’s why I wanted to share this Q & A session with my LTA members where I talked about the SLP’s role in the process; including the differences between school vs. medical settings.
Another topic that comes up with diagnoses like dyslexia is working memory; and I get asked all the time if addressing “working memory goals” in therapy is a good use of time (this is also relevant when considering things like ADHD or auditory processing disorder).
In the second part of this Q & A, I share how to make the best use of therapy time considering the available research; including how to keep therapy functional and focused on tasks that are likely to improve “real-world” skills (as opposed to rote drill exercises with weak carryover).
Some of the questions I address in this Q & A include:
✅Where can you go to get an “official” dyslexia diagnosis?
✅Are school therapists “qualified” to treat dyslexia, even though they might not be able to officially diagnose it?
✅Is it a good use of therapy time to focus on auditory memory and working memory exercises?
✅If you suspect that a child has language processing issues AND weak working memory, what should we be working on with them?
You can listen to the entire episode here.
In this episode, I mention this position statement from the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association about the speech-language pathologist’s role in reading and writing.
This episode was taken from a Q & A session with Language Therapy Advance Foundations members. Language Therapy Advance Foundations is my course that teaches pediatric SLPs a framework for language therapy designed to give them the vocabulary and language processing skills needed to thrive in school and life.
If you’re an SLP, and you want a better system for language therapy so you can show up to sessions confident you’re setting your students up for success, check out the Language Therapy Advance Foundations enrollment page here.