Home - Sound Check – Summer 2010 Two indicators of reading
disabilities are children who have a positive family history and
are late to talk. If one or both parents have a reading
disability, children are nearly 50 percent more likely to also
have a reading disability. “But many children don’t have these
signs, so it is vitally important to have early assessment as a
part of preschool and kindergarten screenings,” she says. “We
need to use a combination of tests to find children at the
preschool and kindergarten levels,” including tests of
phonological awareness such as sound deletion, and later reading
tasks that will capture children’s ability to read words
accurately and quickly. If one can identify these children in
preschool or kindergarten, then it is possible to teach some of
these phonological skills that are so important for early
reading. And even if children don’t have an identified reading
disability, some will need extra training to help develop their
language skills, precluding their ability to