I’m often asked, “What is the difference between the learning difficulties experienced by a child with an attention disorder and those seen in a child with a specific learning disorder like dyslexia?”
This is a tough question because children with attention disorders and children with dyslexia receive low scores on standardized achievement tests. In order to make a distinction between dyslexia and ADHD, one must look beyond the test scores and consider the types of learning difficulties the child makes.
Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that is diagnosed based on a specific set of developmental and skill deficits including problems sounding out words, difficulty reading accurately, and trouble spelling.
The child with an attention disorder may struggle with reading too, but her errors typically include inconsistent reading fluency and variable reading comprehension.
Although dyslexia is limited primarily to reading and spelling, research shows that the child with an attention disorder can struggle with pragmatic (social) language, higher order language, and multiple step and multi-faceted tasks such as written expression and math problem solving.
Because of the clear-cut differences in their struggles, children with dyslexia and children with attention disorders require very different educational plans. Research shows that the child with dyslexia benefits from explicit and systematic teaching aimed at improving phonological awareness, phonics skills, and reading accuracy. In contrast, the child with attention difficulties benefits most from an education plan that addresses two specific needs:
(1) Structuring aimed at helping her build her own internal structured approach to problem solving.
(2) Flexibility of accommodations for the specific weaknesses associated with the individual child’s attention difficulties.
(c) October 2009, monte w.davenport, ph.d.
