October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month and what better time to dispel the myths about one of the country’s most common learning disabilities? Test your knowledge on the following misconceptions.

Myth #1: Dyslexia is about reversing letters.
The most basic sign of dyslexia is not “reversed letters” as many people think, but rather weak phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness and auditory processing skills are the underlying cognitive abilities to hear and remember the smallest individual units of sound in a word.

Myth #2: Dyslexia is a lifelong label.
Dyslexia doesn’t need to be a permanent diagnosis or condition. As with almost all learning struggles, the most common root cause is one or more weak cognitive skills ? the fundamental tools of learning.

Myth #3: There’s nothing parents can do to help.
In fact, according to Science Daily, a Carnegie Mellon University brain imaging study found that the brains of dyslexic students and other poor readers were permanently rewired to overcome reading deficits after 100 hours of intensive remedial instruction.

Here is the story of one local student who struggled with reading.

Peter, from Media, was a 12-year old, four-season sports guy with a passion for snowboarding and dirt bike riding when his severe dyslexia was beginning to overwhelm him.
“I couldn’t get things out fast enough. I was struggling,” he said.
According to Lorraine, his mother, “Despite the individual education plan, additional support services and enrollment in private reading programs, Peter’s particular learning difficulties did not respond to these approaches. We contacted LearningRx Main Line at the suggestion of a relative. I could see Peter struggling and did not want this to negatively impact his confidence.”
“LearningRx Main Line put me on the ReadRx program and I really liked working with my trainer,” Peter explains. “My trainer brought baseball, snowboarding, hockey and dirt biking into the exercises and that made it interesting. I was never bored.”
Lorraine, whose last name is withheld for privacy, said that ReadRx program was a great choice for her son because it is a reading enhancement component of the LearningRx program. The focus on auditory processing and work-attacking training were highly effective for her son, she added.
“In less than six months, the improvements were obvious.” said Lorraine. “His progress was amazing and ReadRx was unlike any program we had used.”
Although it has been several months since Peter completed the program, his enthusiasm remains. “I feel like I have the right skills and can continue to improve my reading. Right now I really like to read. I guess you can even call it a hobby,” he said.
To determine if your child struggles with reading, here are some sample questions taken from a free online test created by LearningRx, the national brain training franchise:

• Does your child misread similar words (no, on)?
• Does your child need words repeated when taking spelling tests?
• Is your child’s oral reading slow or choppy?
• Does your child make spelling errors in written assignments?
• Does your child have difficulty sounding out unknown words or do they skip them altogether?
• Weak at letter sound discrimination (pin, pen)

If you answered “yes” to three or more of these questions, visit www.learningrx.com to find a brain training center near you to learn more about initial testing.

Janet Rutzel is the Executive Director of Learning Rx Main Line.
LearningRx specializes in identifying and correcting the underlying cognitive skill deficiencies that keep people from achieving their full potential in school, business, or life. Personal brain trainers use intensive, one-on-one, game-like exercises to quickly enhance weak cognitive skills such as attentions, memory, processing speed, and problem solving. More than 15,000 students have gone through the training and graduates now see average gains of 4.12 years across nine essential cognitive learning areas. To learn more, visit www.learningrx.com.