Working with your child as he or she learns to read can be frustrating enough. Learning that your child has dyslexia can be devastating.

But experts say it needn’t be. While it can make reading more difficult, with the right instruction, almost all individuals with dyslexia can learn to read.

October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month, and organizers seek to raise awareness of the condition.

According to the International Dyslexia Association, dyslexia is a neurological condition caused by a different wiring of the brain. There is no cure for dyslexia, and individuals with this condition must learn coping strategies. Research indicates that dyslexia has no relationship to intelligence.

In fact, the IDA reminds us that many people with dyslexia have gone on to accomplish great things. Among the many dyslexia success stories are Thomas Edison, Stephen Spielberg, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Charles Schwab.

The University of Central Arkansas is one of nine universities in the country to have received accreditation in 2016 from the IDA and its affiliate, the Center for Effective Reading Instruction. Dr. Shoudong Feng, associate professor and coordinator of the Graduate Reading Program, which oversees the dyslexia therapist endorsement, offers the following tips for parents with dyslexic children.

1. Have your child diagnosed as early as possible.

“Early identification and intervention is the key,” says Feng. “It’s never too late to learn to read, but it takes four times longer after the 4th grade. Dyslexia can be diagnosed by someone who has training in dyslexia with 92 percent accuracy at age 5 ½.”

2. Read! 

“Read to your child at home regularly. Google ‘phonemic awareness activities’ and practice those with your child,” says Feng. “Later, use words in books to practice segmenting and blending. Practice fingerspelling and arm-spelling at home. Let your child read books at their independent reading level – books they can read fluently – to build their background knowledge and increase their confidence. Use audiobooks to increase vocabulary and comprehension. Have the child follow along in the actual book, as he listens to it being read.”

Become a member of Bookshare or Learning Ally, two websites that are geared toward individuals with learning or reading disabilities.

3. Seek support – for your child and yourself.

“The child may need private tutoring from someone trained in a multisensory structured language/Orton-Gillingham based program,” says Feng.

Orton-Gillingham is a tutoring approach geared toward kids with difficulties reading and spelling. The Dyslexia Project lists available tutors.

In addition, he recommends finding other parents that understand what you are going through: “Surround yourself with support. You need it as much as your child.” Join the Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group here.

4. Find balance for your child.

“Balance the child’s homework with other activities. Realize that the child may be spending much longer than other children on homework, possibly hours longer,” says Feng. “This overloading of work must be balanced with other hobbies and activities the child enjoys; otherwise, they will feel a strong resentment towards their schooling.”

5. Be sensitive to your child.

“Be careful not to blame the child for not trying hard enough or being lazy,” he says. “Their brains are actually working 4.6 times harder to read. When they say they have a headache, they mean it.”

If you think your child might have dyslexia, Feng recommends these websites: BrightSolutions.com, Dyslexiaida.org, Dyslexia.Yale.edu, TheDyslexiaProject.com.