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If you identify learning disabilities, diagnose oral language conditions, or teach children to read, phonological processing and phonemic awareness are important in your work. It’s vital to understand each skillset, how they’re assessed, and their impacts on learning and literacy.  

Here’s what to know about these separate but related capabilities. 

What Is Phonological Processing? 

Phonological processing is a group of thinking skills that includes these abilities:  

• phonological awareness – the ability to notice, recognize, and work with speech sounds 
• phonological memory – the ability to hold speech sounds in mind as you’re completing tasks 
• rapid automatized naming – the ability to quickly, accurately recall information you’ve heard 

These skills work together to make it possible for people to learn language, to decode and spell words, and to tell the difference between speech sounds. People use phonological processing when they rhyme or use alliteration, when they break sentences into words, and when they break words into syllables.

What Is Phonemic Awareness? 

Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological processing skills. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and work with the individual sounds within words (phonemes). In English, there are 44 separate phonemes.  

Phonemic awareness includes these abilities: 

• isolating sounds, or identifying individual sounds within a word 
• blending sounds together to make a word 
• segmenting sounds, or breaking a word into its individual sounds 
• deleting, adding, or substituting sounds, such as replacing the /c/ sound with the /b/ sound to make the word “cat” into “bat.” 

Phonemic awareness is considered the most advanced aspect of phonological processing. 

Common Questions for Reading Professionals 

What’s the role of phonological processing and phonemic awareness in reading? 

Being able to hear and process speech sounds is very important as we learn to read. When we read, we look at letters. We match the letters to a sound we have heard. Then we blend the sounds into whole words.  

In the early stages of learning to read, the process of mapping a letter to a sound is slow. It takes effort. That’s because we’re literally building pathways between the part of our brain that sees and recognizes letters to the part of our brain that hears sounds, and from there to the part of our brain that stores the meanings of words.  

The more we read, the quicker we get at moving from letters to sounds to words. For some people, this process becomes automatic. For others, the brain pathways don’t form as easily. Something disrupts the brain’s ability to connect letters to sounds to words. Often, the difficulty lies with phonological processing or phonemic awareness. 

Learn more about phonics and the Science of Reading: Reading Assessment Resources 

What co-occurring conditions affect phonological processing and phonemic awareness? 

Several neurodevelopmental conditions can affect phonological processing and phonemic awareness, influencing the way students process word sounds, including: 

• attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 
• auditory processing disorder (APD),  
• developmental language disorder (DLD), and 
• dyslexia. 

It’s possible to have more than one of these conditions at a time, making it harder for clinicians to tell where the effects of one condition stop and another starts (Bonti et al., 2024).  

People may also have other health conditions that disrupt phonological processing or phonemic awareness. For example, people who have had strokes or traumatic brain injuries sometimes have trouble with phonological processing afterward (Lice et al., 2024).  

Here’s a brief look at how these conditions may affect someone’s phonological processing and phonemic awareness.  

Interested in learning more? Read "Is It DLD or Dyslexia?".  

What Are the Practice Implications for a Multidisciplinary Team? 

Speech–language pathologists (SLPs) frequently assess phonological processing as part of a comprehensive evaluation when a patient or student has a possible language delay, auditory processing disorder, or phonological disorder. They may also play a role in evaluating students for reading readiness.  Assessing phonological skills can also help an SLP decide whether an augmentative alternative communication (AAC) device could help a student communicate more clearly or build better grammatical skills (Lorang et al, 2022).  

School psychologists and reading specialists may assess phonological processing and phonemic awareness as part of universal screening for dyslexia and reading difficulties in kindergarten. In some cases, school psychologists might need to differentiate between phonological processing issues and speech difficulties. These professionals might also delve more deeply into assessment when a student is at risk for dyslexia or other reading disorders.  

Key Messages

Phonological processing is the ability to perceive, remember, and manipulate speech sounds. Under the broad umbrella of phonological processing is a subset of skills known as phonemic awareness. These skills allow people to detect, recognize, and work with the sounds that make up words.  

Phonological processing and phonemic awareness are necessary for reading. They allow people to match letters to sounds and to blend sounds together to form words. Some neurodevelopmental conditions interfere with these abilities, especially dyslexia, developmental language disorder, auditory processing disorder, and ADHD.  

If a student or client has trouble with phonological processing or phonemic awareness, it’s important to assess comprehensively so you can identify which skills may be impaired and which are intact. When SLPs, school psychologists, OTs, and educators work together using specialized assessments, they can create a holistic understanding of the student’s or patient’s needs—which makes planning effective, evidence-based interventions so much easier.  

Download our most popular infographic of all time: Types of Phonological Processes 

Austin Independent School District (AISD) successfully transformed its dyslexia program through the power of parent advocacy and expert intervention, offering an achievable roadmap to districts looking for dramatically improved reading results. 

Amber Elenz, a parent-advocate, and Rachel Robillard, PhD, a school neuropsychologist, worked together to overhaul their district’s approach to dyslexia. When they began, AISD was identifying dyslexia in roughly 2% of the district’s 85,000 students. Within 5 years, that figure had risen to over 8%.  

This rise in figures doesn't indicate an increase in dyslexia, but rather a more engaged and accessible identification process. How did they inspire and implement such a positive change? Dr. Robillard and Ms. Elenz share what worked for them—the barriers they faced, strategies they developed, and lessons they learned during their highly successful partnership.  

How did this partnership begin? 

Like so many good stories, this one starts with a child who didn’t fit in. In preschool, Amber Elenz’s son experienced many of the classic effects of dyslexia: auditory processing differences, some disruptive behaviors, and most telling, difficulty learning phonemic and phonological skills. “They would learn a new letter a week, basically. And at six weeks, they would review what they had learned. His teacher looked at me and said, ‘Amber, it was like Groundhog Day. It was like this was his first day of school and he didn't know anything.’”

Download our free poster: Dyslexia Symptoms to Look for When Testing at Different Stages 

Her persistence and an insightful school psychologist led eventually to a dyslexia diagnosis—but his school did not have the resources to provide needed interventions. It was a frustrating roadblock for Elenz and her son.  

“It is the job of a school to teach a child to read,” she says. “If you don’t teach a child to read, they can’t do math. They can’t do science. They can’t do social studies. They can’t do any of the other things that compete for our attention in a school setting.” 

Elenz worked with the school principal and PTA to obtain training for a teacher willing to become a Certified Academic Language Therapist (CALT)—a highly trained dyslexia specialist. Within 3 years, 60 children were receiving academic language therapy in that school.  

“At that point,” Elenz says, “word got out around the city. Parents or teachers or principals would start calling me to see how I did it. And I would help each school do it. I probably worked on four different school programs before I realized that this is all great, but it needs to happen faster. We had 130 schools in our district at the time and probably 80-83 elementary schools. Everybody deserved that,” she says. 

Elenz ran for office and was elected to the district’s Board of Trustees. She began working with Dr. Robillard, who had already transformed the district’s 504 processes and educated many school psychologists in the neuroscience of identifying and intervening with dyslexia.  

Together, they secured support from superintendents and district officials, arranged training for educators, implemented district-wide dyslexia screening in kindergarten, expanded evidence-based interventions, and provided parents with a wealth of resources.  

Here are 6 strategies they used along the way. 

1. Build awareness of dyslexia and how to address it.  

For many schools, the first barrier to a schoolwide dyslexia program is a lack of understanding about the nature and characteristics of dyslexia. Misconceptions exist everywhere, from administrators to school board officials to classroom teachers.  

“The first thing you need is a common understanding of what dyslexia is and what it is not—it’s not just mixing up your numbers and letters, which is what 90% of people think. Once you have that common understanding, people are willing to work with you,” Elenz says. 

Elenz and Dr. Robillard focused first on the people who could make decisions about programs and funding: school board members. “I did training for the board on what dyslexia is, and what the biological underpinnings are, and what you need to do to identify and treat it,” Dr. Robillard says. “I ended up having to go back several times to field questions from them about where the money was going and why it was going there.”  

It was also important to ensure that superintendents, special education directors, and school administrators understood dyslexia’s impacts, because school officials are sensitive to the ever-increasing demands placed on schools and educators. They may also be reluctant to change established roles, methods, or processes.  

“Schools are, as always, pulled to the four corners,” Dr. Robillard says. “You have to start with getting your administrative team on track to understand what this is because the research tells us that where go-eth your principal, go-eth you. If you have an administrative team that understands this is an issue and correcting it is do-able, you’re going to set the tone for the rest of the school to get on board with it,” she explains. 

Elenz agrees. When board members, district administrators, and educators are aligned, change happens. “People then prioritize teacher time,” she says. “They prioritize hiring. They prioritize resources and budgeting. Everything happens from that level of understanding.” 

2. Train teachers in pre-K through 2nd grade to recognize common signs of dyslexia.  

Classroom teachers—especially those in preschool, first, and second grades—are well positioned to notice the early indications of dyslexia. Training them to recognize its characteristics is vital.

“Can this four-year-old rhyme?” Dr. Robillard asks. “They don’t need to know the letters, but do they hear the sound at the beginning of the word? There are very specific dyslexia symptoms we can teach teachers to cue into, so they’re saying, ‘I’ve got to keep an eye on this one or that one.’”

Beyond the early years, it’s important for all teachers understand dyslexia’s nature and indicators so that if a child slips through the cracks in the early years, they can still be identified later. 

3. Screening and assessment are key. Start early and train your team to administer and interpret effective dyslexia assessments.  

Texas has required dyslexia screening for decades, but it often took place in third grade, after reading instruction had taken place. Dr. Robillard, Elenz, and other educators advocated for earlier screening. 

“When the law changed, the requirement to identify kids moved into a kindergarten or first grade space,” Elenz says. “Every kindergarten teacher had to do some kind of quick assessment with their students by the end of kindergarten or first grade. Then you had a baseline for a group of kids you would take through full testing if they continued to have difficulties.” 

It was necessary to train school psychologists and other professionals to conduct comprehensive evaluations using tools designed to identify dyslexia. “We started putting together a battery of tests that would actually look at all the characteristics of dyslexia and do a pretty quick and dirty diagnosis,” Dr. Robillard says. “Most of my people got the testing battery down to around an hour and fifteen minutes, which was crucial because we were, clearly, way behind on identification.”

4. Invest in evidence-based instruction and intervention.   

One of the challenges Austin ISD faced was that, even when dyslexia was accurately identified, few students received effective interventions.

“We knew that academic language therapy worked,” Dr. Robillard says. But few reading specialists and special educators were trained to provide that therapy. To close the gap, the district entered a partnership with Scottish Rite Hospital in Austin, a leader in creating materials and training aligned with Take Flight, an intense intervention for students with dyslexia.  Dr. Robillard explains, “We reached an agreement that they would come in-house and train the people who wanted to become CALTs. That’s where Amber came in. She convinced the Board to make the first-year commitment.”

The process was slow, since only 10 educators could begin training each semester, and the full CALT training process takes two years to complete. Still, at the peak of their partnership, the number of dyslexia specialists in the Austin ISD grew from 3 to 81.

At the same time, the district collaborated with Rawson Saunders Institute to discount training for teachers in another evidence-based program, Basic Language Skills. And they invested in an early reading intervention program, Really Great Reading, so teachers in pre-K through second grade could receive training and materials that supported early reading instruction grounded in the science of reading.

“Helping individual schools have a very strong phonics and phonemic awareness part of their reading program, starting in pre-K, would be ideal,” Dr. Robillard notes. Such programs help reveal early signs of dyslexia. “It also offers those kids some early intervention so that even if they have dyslexia that’s moderate to severe, it’s going to arborize those neurons and build those neural pathways.” Should children need dyslexia intervention later, the groundwork would already be laid.

5. Recruit your strongest allies: parents and caregivers.   

Transforming systems takes motivated leaders. “Because of the competing agendas, beliefs, and priorities in the school district, you have to have a champion who is going to convince others that this is the number one priority,” Elenz says. She and Dr. Robillard found that parents could be some of their staunchest allies.

Dr. Robillard visited schools, listening to parents’ concerns and bolstering their ability to advocate for their kids. Some parents worried about the stigma of a dyslexia diagnosis. Some worried that if dyslexia became the top priority, other disabilities and needs might be overshadowed. And some stepped into leadership roles.

“Once we got parents connected at a school,” Robillard says, “we got them to lead support groups, and they took it from there…Those parent groups then showed up when things were not going as I would have liked with the Board or with a particular district, and they were very helpful in being persuasive.” 

6. Collect the data and tell your story.   

To make a compelling case for schoolwide dyslexia intervention, you will need reliable data. 

“Data collection is really key to moving the conversation and the work forward,” Elenz says. “Otherwise, it’s all theoretical. We need people to collect the data on how many kids are struggling—we know that around 40% of kids in Texas aren’t reading at grade level—and within that 40%, there could be a lot of different reasons for the difficulties.” 

Once you have the numbers in hand, it’s important to tell the story in simple, straightforward language.  

“I’ve done a lot of work in this space,” Elenz says. “I think I was able to be a little more successful because I talk ‘ParentSpeak.’ Parents, teachers, and even board members may get a little lost in the medical and educational jargon that we tend to use.” 

One other tactic Elenz found effective was showing people pictures of what happens in the brain when someone reads, and what that process looks like when someone is struggling to read. “That was game-changing in our conversations,” she says. “Take those pictures with you everywhere you go when you’re trying to explain this to people.” 

Key Messages  

In every classroom, rural and urban, public and private, there are students struggling to read. For some, like Amber Elenz’s son, dyslexia is the reason. It’s possible to create a schoolwide program that makes a genuine difference for children with dyslexia—but it takes time and a considerable investment in resources.  

“I know from experience that when teachers, schools, and districts properly address dyslexia, student outcomes in reading improve, as do their outcomes in all other subject matters, as well as discipline issues and mental health, just to name a few. Investing in one very specific set of actions, you will see positive returns in a multitude of measurable areas around student, school and district success,” Elenz says. 

It starts with a common understanding of dyslexia, its characteristics and effects. It involves regularly screening every child, starting in kindergarten, and providing all students with evidence-based instruction. Well-trained educators can learn to spot the signs of dyslexia, multidisciplinary teams can use comprehensive dyslexia assessments to identify the condition, and dyslexia specialists can provide therapy.  

Transforming a school’s or a district’s approach to dyslexia is a weighty and worthwhile endeavor.  “We know the kids are struggling to read,” Elenz concludes. “We know what works. Let’s fix it.” 

Related links from WPS:

• Read more about the specialized expertise of CALTs. 
• Dive into our Dyselxia Assessment Resources. 
• Ready to take action? Shop the Tests of Dyslexia (TOD®). 
• Get professional development on Addressing Dyslexia as a Team

Adaptive behavior assessments are often included in evaluations for neurodevelopmental conditions like autism, intellectual disability, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). These assessments yield vital information about how a condition may be affecting someone’s social skills or daily functioning. But adaptive behavior assessments can also be an important tool in neurodiversity affirming practice. That’s because they highlight a person’s strengths, the skills that matter most to them, and the support they need to thrive in different settings. 

Adaptive behavior assessments supply data in areas like these:  

• Interests that spark passion, connection, and curiosity 
• Frustrations and challenges at home, school, or work 
• Coping skills and strategies that help or hinder 
• Communication abilities and patterns 
• Mismatches between people and their surroundings 
• Routines that make it easier to function every day 
• Emotions and skills for managing them 
• Events that cause strong emotional or sensory reactions 
• Relationships and social experiences 

That kind of information is important if your aim is to co-create a support plan based on a neurodiversity affirming evaluation. It’s the kind of data researchers say is vital to capturing “the inner experience of autism” (Ratto et al., 2023).   

What Is Adaptive Behavior? 

Adaptive behaviors are the skills and abilities we need to function fully in each area of our daily lives. Typically, they are grouped into three categories: conceptual, social, and practical.  

The conceptual domain includes communication, early academic skills, self-direction, and basic health and safety knowledge. The social domain encompasses skills that allow us to adapt the way we communicate to different people or settings, and to engage in recreational activities. And the practical domain focuses on the skills we need to take care of ourselves, to work, and to manage our finances and living environments. 

See the domains visualized in our infographic. 

Here are a few examples of adaptive behaviors in each category.  

Context Is Important 

Skills like naming emotions, showing sympathy for and greeting people, and even choosing favorite foods may appear simple. For autistic kids, these skills may not be their target and they may not look like the skills of their peers.  

Some adaptive skills are also dependent on class or culture. Using a washer and dryer, for example, may be hard to impossible in certain living situations. Similarly, the age at which someone might be expected to use public transportation in one community may differ from another (Boluarte Carbajal et al, 2024). The goal is not neurotypicality or uniformity. With adaptive behavior, the goal is independence and interdependence in a person's community. 

Why It Matters in Evaluations  

It’s important to understand someone’s adaptive functioning because our ability to adapt in various environments is the key to our well-being—even more so than whether we are neurodivergent or neurotypical. 

In a neurodiversity affirming evaluation, adaptive behavior assessment is a tool for respectful, active listening. It allows you to hear from neurodivergent individuals, families, teachers, and healthcare providers exactly what practical needs exist—what is going well, and what needs more support—across every area of someone’s life. Listening is at the heart of a neurodiversity affirming model of care (Dwyer, 2022).  

Identifying Strengths 

Diagnostic assessments measure characteristics that are often described as deficits—ways that someone differs from a “norm.”  In a neurodiversity affirming evaluation, the practitioner identifies a person’s strengths as well as areas of their life where more support may be needed.  

An adaptive behavior assessment can help you answer questions like these: 

• What have educators noticed about how someone learns or interacts with other students? 
• What strengths enable someone to cope, learn, and thrive? 
• What activities, topics, and environments bring a sense of achievement, independence, or joy? 
• What adaptations might build on someone’s communication abilities? 
• What strengths in the family, culture, and community can support and empower the individual? 

Identifying and supporting strengths is a key element of neurodiversity affirming care. 

Identifying Environmental Support Needs 

In a conventional medical model, the focus of assessment and intervention is often on encouraging the individual to adapt to neurotypical environments—to learn neurotypical ways of behaving and communicating. For some professionals, this seems like a practical, problem-solving approach. For others, this approach may feel as though you’re asking neurodivergent people to be less authentic (Dwyer et al., 2025).  

Increasingly, practitioners are considering a social model of disability, because it may align more closely with neurodiversity affirming practice. In a social model, practitioners look for ways that environments can be changed to better meet the needs of a neurodivergent person, instead of placing the onus for change solely on the individual.  

Practitioners might use adaptive behavior measures and other methods to ask questions like these: 

• Could the sensory characteristics of a classroom, home, or work environment be modified so the neurodivergent person can work and learn comfortably?
• Can education or work processes be modified so they don’t conflict with neurodivergent needs?
• Can educators, peers, and families be educated so they understand and accept neurodivergent needs and ways of being?
• Can communication devices make it easier for neurodivergent people to communicate their needs and wishes? 

Identifying Priorities

One of the key principles of neurodiversity affirming care is that goals and interventions should be developed with input from the neurodivergent individual. Researchers in one autism study explained it this way: “Autistic people should be given the opportunity to make informed choices about what their interventions are, what they do, and what they target” (Lerner et al., 2023).  

Adaptive behavior assessments can be the starting point of a conversation about which skills will be most meaningful to the individual. Often, the important skills are those that allow a person to participate in the activities and occupations that bring them the most satisfaction (Morrison et al., 2025).  

In a neurodiversity affirming evaluation, goals and interventions focus on empowerment and authenticity, rather than on compliance with neurotypical standards. Goals and interventions should aim to promote greater autonomy, self-advocacy, and interdependence. One group of autism researchers said, “Most individuals aim to live fulfilling lives enmeshed in a supportive environment with others on whom they can rely for support and vice versa; autistic individuals are no different. Indeed, what is social success, if not the ability to offer reciprocal benefit and support to one’s family and community? Interdependence exemplifies such success” (Lerner et al., 2023). 

Adaptive behavior assessments may spark questions like these:  

• What occupations or activities could promote greater well-being? 
• What barriers are preventing someone from participating in preferred activities and occupations? 
• What adaptive skills are top priorities for the individual and the family? 
• What supports and accommodations could improve someone’s ability to connect with others in the community?
• What skills and adaptations could reduce the need for masking and lower the chances of burnout? 

Key Messages 

Adaptive behavior assessments can be a useful component in a neurodiversity affirming evaluation. They can help you identify strengths, set meaningful goals and priorities, remove barriers, and provide support that enables neurodivergent people to pursue more of the occupations and skills that bring them joy and interdependence. If you’re including an adaptive behavior measure in a comprehensive evaluation, it’s a good idea to focus on listening, and to choose assessments that suit the goals and traits of those in your care.  

Learn more about adaptive behavior assessment. 

Some years ago, school psychologist Breea Rosas, EdS, NCSP, LEP asked a parent if she had reviewed the report describing her child. With a note of resignation in her voice, the parent replied, “I looked over it and saw that he was low across the board. But don’t worry, I stopped crying about these reports a long time ago.”   

Rosas recalls feeling “broken” by the parent’s response to the report. She saw the child, who had Down syndrome, as “an awesome kid with so many skills”—yet the report focused chiefly on his assessment performance, comparing his scores to those of other children his age. “There’s a better way,” she remembers thinking.  

Moments like that one led her to pursue a different kind of practice—one that focused more on strengths, affirming the broad range of characteristics and capabilities within each of her students. Rosas is not alone. More and more clinicians and educators are moving toward a more neurodiversity affirming approach to care.  

What Is a Neurodiversity Affirming Approach?  

A neurodiversity affirming approach is one that recognizes neurodivergence as a natural variation in brain function and human experience. From a neurodiversity affirming perspective, autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and other types of neurodivergence are not seen as disorders to be cured or erased, but as unique brain styles to be appreciated and supported. Neurodiversity affirming practices are increasingly common among clinicians and educators.  

“The very core of it is honoring lived experiences and acknowledging that neurodiversity is part of life,” Rosas says. “Instead of making people feel bad about their disabilities and differences, we should be embracing, empowering, and supporting people who have brains and behaviors that are different than ours.”  

How Can We Become More Neurodiversity Affirming? 

Here are three strategies Rosas recommends for creating a more neurodiversity affirming experience. 

Listen to neurodivergent perspectives.  

A key component of neurodiversity affirming care is valuing the viewpoint and priorities of the individual at the center of the evaluation. In practice, that involves conducting lots of observations and interviews. If it’s developmentally appropriate, practitioners can talk to students about their needs, interests, and priorities.  

“Sometimes you get input from what you observe in a setting,” Rosas says. “What kinds of things are they gravitating towards? If you’re working with a fifth grader, you’re asking, ‘What do you think about these goals for your IEP?’ It’s asking parents what their priorities are for their kids.” 

At times, practitioners must balance a child’s desires with the caregiver’s. “If a parent says, ‘I want my kid to play with the other kids at recess,’ and the kid doesn’t want to do that, you have to find the middle ground there,” Rosas says. 

Carefully consider which assessments are right for the situation. 

Rosas prefers to conduct comprehensive evaluations rather than testing for an isolated condition or academic skill set.  

“Doing comprehensive evaluations is always better, because we get the whole picture of what is going on with the kid,” she explains. “If you’re only looking at dyslexia, then you’re looking at deficits in reading, in phonological processing, in orthographic processing, in rapid automatic naming. If we’re just looking at dyslexia, we ignore the other academic strengths, cognitive strengths, social strengths, grit, determination, motivation, and those character strengths.” 

Rosas often collaborates with other educators to select assessments with the student’s characteristics in mind. “As a school psychologist, you’ll have special ed teachers come to you and ask what tests they should give, so it’s important to have a good understanding of academic tests, even if you don’t give them,” she says.  

It’s also important to have a sense of a student’s attention span and language needs so you can select assessments that not only measure skills related to referral concerns, but that are a good fit for the student. “A lot of times people get stuck giving the exact same battery every time because it’s easy to do the ‘plug & play,’” she notes.  

In a neurodiversity affirming evaluation, practitioners consider the time it takes to complete an assessment, the language load of the assessment, and whether the tasks involved are appropriate for the individual. In a study published in 2025, researchers interviewed autistic adults about the diagnostic process they had experienced. They emphasized “the importance of adopting a personalized approach to diagnostic assessments,” especially when the tasks involve play (Pritchard-Rowe, et al., 2024).

Focus equally on strengths, differences, and needs.  

Criteria in diagnostic manuals such as the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11) and The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) are often framed as deficits or as behaviors that diverge from a neurotypical norm. Neurodiversity affirming practitioners widen the lens so there’s room to see an individual’s strengths. A shift toward strengths-based evaluations is taking place among researchers and practitioners across the globe. Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden are partnering with U.K.-based Autistica to create the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), a toolkit for use in schools, workplaces, and healthcare settings. The ICF emphasizes the need to identify strengths as well as needs (Ferreira, 2025). 

Additionally, neurodiversity affirming practitioners may reframe “deficits” as areas where an individual needs support.  

“It’s okay to say to say that someone has significant support needs—that someone’s needs are significant compared to same-age peers,” Rosas points out. “Disability isn’t a bad word. Support needs are not wrong. A lot of people think those things are opposing views, but they go hand in hand. As neurodiversity affirming providers, we don't want to ignore support needs; that’s the opposite of what we want. We want to identify significant support needs. We are going to support them.” 

Once support needs have been identified, Rosas considers the individual’s environment. Addressing any mismatch between a person’s environment and their support needs is an important element of neurodiversity affirming practice (Dwyer, 2022).  

“I just started in a new position in a new district, and I’m working with students who have extensive support needs,” she says. “I’m going into classrooms without any context outside of their IEPs. Kids are having behaviors. And I’m saying, what can we change in the environment? Where’s the weighted blanket? Where are the communication devices? We need to pull these things in. That’s my first thought: What in the environment can be changed? Then we look at real, meaningful skills we want to build.” 

Learn more: Creating Autism Friendly Spaces 

Writing reports is another opportunity to focus on strengths, differences, and needs. In her reports, Rosas aims to share a holistic view of the student. She says, “I hope that the parents read it and smile, and say, ‘That’s my kid.’ I hope they see their kid in the report and feel good about it.”  

Often, she pens a letter to the student directly, explaining, “This is what’s going on in your brain. This is what we found out in assessment. Here are some things you’re good at. Here are some things to help you in school and in life.” 

Key Messages 

Neurodiversity affirming practices are becoming more common—and shifting to this paradigm takes time and dedication. A few simple steps can make a big difference: listening to neurodivergent perspectives, choosing assessments that align with the individual, and using language that focuses on strengths, differences, and needs. 

These steps may be challenging, but there’s growing evidence that they lead to greater satisfaction, not only for students and families, but for the clinical and educational professionals involved.  

“Before I started diving into neurodiversity affirming practices, I don’t think I was as passionate,” Rosas says. “It feels really cool to see a kid through this lens—to have parents see that you get their kid. There is nothing more rewarding.” 

Learn more: How to Create a More Neurodivergent Affirming Evaluation 

The original posting date was on 1/07/25 with an update on 7/07/25.

Talking with families about a child's disability can be deeply rewarding—and a real challenge. Clinical, educational, and legal jargon can clutter the conversation. Processes and timelines can be confusing. Cultural and language differences add barriers. And then there's the emotional content, which can color the whole experience for participants for years to come. Yet despite the challenges, family conversations can be rich, fun, and productive for everyone. 

How can we communicate with parents so that the conversations feel less oppressive and more supportive?

Parent-Practitioners Share Their Unique Perspectives

Kristi Godfrey-Hurrell, PhD, adopted a child who’d been born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. An assistant clinical professor of Special Education & Child Development at the University of North Carolina, Dr. Godfrey-Hurrell knew she needed educator input for an upcoming evaluation. She asked a teacher to document her son’s activities throughout the school day. The two-page list she received first shocked, then saddened, then angered her—because it did not contain a single positive statement about her child.

The Problem With the Medical Model of Disability 

The medical model of disability may be one of the reasons we express sympathy and pity when we encounter disability. Practitioners are trained to identify diagnostic criteria using manuals such as the DSM-5-TR and ICD-11. Diagnostic criteria are generally deficit-based, highlighting delays and differences in abilities or behavior.

How Can We Move from Pity to Joy? 

Like many other growth experiences, moving from pity to joy may involve letting go of stereotypes, beliefs, and assumptions about disability to make space for a genuine understanding of each child.  Here are a few strategies that may help you make that shift.  

Key Message 

Developmental language disorder (DLD) or language disorder, is a neurodevelopmental condition that makes it harder for people to understand and use language. It first appears in early childhood and lasts into the adult years—and it affects nearly every area of a person’s life, from education to employment to relationships to mental health.  

If we want to minimize the impacts of DLD, it’s important to learn more about what it can look like day-to-day in different people. We can listen to those who live with DLD and who’ve spoken candidly to researchers in the field.  

What Does DLD Feel Like? 

Though it can be a real challenge to put their feelings into words, people with DLD can and do describe their experiences in powerful, moving terms. Here’s what a few children and teens had to say about what it feels like to have DLD.

Speaking to Swedish researchers, a group of 23 teens talked about how hard it is not to be able to “find the right words,” tell one word from another, or “put the words in the right order.”  One 16-year-old girl said she had trouble expressing herself because “the words get wrong in my mouth, sort of…the word order gets sort of wrong” (Ekström et al., 2023).  

In the same Swedish study, a 13-year-old boy discussed the mismatch between what he meant to say and what he actually says. “I speak pretty chaotically,” he told researchers. “I talk about something, and then I jump to something else, then something else. Sometimes I go back to the first, in some strange way, and then back to something else” (Ekström et al., 2023).  

Studies show that when people with DLD share information in a narrative form, their storytelling may: 

• be shorter and simpler; 
• have less fluency or cohesion; and 
• contain more grammar errors (Janssen et al., 2024). 

What Are the Mental Health Effects of DLD? 

The relationship between mental health and DLD is a complex one. Having a language disorder can cause stress, anxiety, loss of self-esteem, a sense of isolation, and depression symptoms. In some cases, language disorder occurs alongside anxiety disorder or major depressive disorder. And in yet another twist, anxiety and depression can alter the way people communicate.  

Children, teens, and adults have explained their feelings to researchers in several recent qualitative studies.  

Anxiety is a constant for many people with DLD—and stress can make it even harder to communicate. What anxiety looks like can vary depending on the individual.  

Thumb-sucking is a comfort mechanism for some younger children. Clinging to the safe predictability of routines is another common coping strategy. Other children may act silly or grumpy to avoid having to engage in conversation. One mother observed, “I think it’s a sort of protection thing so he’s not expected to respond or participate…He tries to come across as really unapproachable so people will leave him alone” (Burnley et al., 2024). 

Some students with DLD worry about having to speak up in class or in group social situations. Often, the stress is enough to keep them silent. “I don’t know, but I’m also really scared that I will say the wrong words,” 15-year-old Yvonne acknowledged. “I get so nervous.” 

One student said anxiety kept her from being able to “get hold of” the words, while another said when she felt nervous “the words come really weirdly” (Ekström et al., 2023).  

Alleviating anxiety and providing adequate classroom communication support is vital because anxiety and depression are part of the DLD experience for many people. A comprehensive study that included over 46,000 Scandinavians found that adults with DLD scored lower on measures of mental health than those without the condition (Nudel et al., 2023).  

Low self-esteem is a frequent consequence of language difficulties, and it tends to persist into the adult years. When Meghan, a study participant, looked back at her school years, she remembered feeling different from other students. “Seeing people getting the praise for doing like exams and things, wishing you could be like that…It really pulled me down, like I’m not good enough…It knocked my confidence a lot” (Burnley et al., 2023). 

Another adult recalled, “I recognized I wasn't doing as well as my peers and took on teacher’s perception that I was lazy, (all reports said I must 'try harder') until I saw a psychologist during my Yr. 11 who helped my MH [mental health]/self-esteem” (Wilmot et al., 2024). 

For some, the period before they received a DLD diagnosis was especially hard. One adult observed:

I think it is so much worse when your needs are not identified—feeling like your misunderstood, no one understands you, you don’t understand yourself, there is something wrong with you, self-hatred, negative thoughts, self-criticize, self-conscious, believing all the unkind comments and judgement from others, feeling confused / lost / helpless, angry, mixed emotions (Wilmot et al., 2024).

Over time, such thoughts and feelings can lead to symptoms of depression. In fact, some studies indicate depression symptoms may start as early as preschool (Koyuncu et al., 2024). 

A typical school day or workday presents so many challenges for a person with DLD. In addition to facing language tasks related to academic learning, a student might face situations like these: 

• having trouble interpreting the other people’s intentions 
• feeling unable to express thoughts and emotions 
• being left out of social interactions or actively bullied by peers 
• needing to focus intently on non-verbal cues and visual information to function 

Sometimes, people create their own strategies for coping with ongoing stress. Luisa, 37, said art was her go-to response. “I was not able to express myself really…I might have done it through drawing…I think [that] was a way to, you know, filter the emotions and help me to calm down.” Other people cope with daily stress by choosing solitude. Farah, 40, explained, “When I was alone, I was super happy.”  Farah called this intentional solitude-seeking the ability to “bubble up” (Burnley et al., 2024).  

When these coping mechanisms don’t adequately dissipate anxiety, stress piles up. The result can be a meltdown, an anxiety or panic attack, or a sense of utter depletion. One parent described it this way:  

(A panic attack) might have been triggered by sheer exhaustion because…it takes so much more of his energy to get through a day at school than other typical chil[dren]…I think that was a major thing during the past six months that led to this huge panic attack.

–Sanne, speaking of 9-year-old Elias (Burnley et al., 2024)

Students with DLD sometimes lash out at others when they cannot express anxiety, upset, or the frustration of being misunderstood. One speech–language pathologist told researchers, “We tend to get a lot of young people who are presenting at school, with quite significant behavioural difficulties and we tend to find that being viewed as a behavioural child, rather than a child that’s got underlying language needs that have been un-diagnosed” (Hancock et al., 2023).  

What Can We Do to Support Mental Health for People With DLD? 

DLD is a lifelong condition, and language differences are likely to persist throughout secondary and higher education into adulthood. The most important step we can take is to conduct a thorough language evaluation to understand the specific strengths and needs of an individual, and then provide the language supports and training for each person.  

Here are a few other suggestions for creating supportive classrooms and workspaces, gleaned from qualitative studies that explored DLD’s practical effects. 

Give people more time to concentrate, answer, or respond.  

For people with DLD, finding the right words, whether in speech or in writing, generally takes more time and effort than it does for neurotypical individuals. Some students worry that their teachers won’t trust them enough to provide that extra time. 

Elsa explained, “[I]t takes more time for me sometimes to reply and think and such, and study. It takes more time for me.”  Fourteen-year-old Harry said his teacher questioned him about the last two tasks in an assignment Henry had not completed. “I just didn’t get that far, I just said. And it was like, ‘Well, what were you doing then?...What did you do in class then?’”  

Sometimes, what looks like a challenging behavior is actually a student expressing a language need. For example, 18-year-old Rory habitually closed his textbook so he could devote his full attention to listening as his teacher read a passage aloud.  

"I close the book; I listen much better," he explained. But Rory's teacher objected. She felt his behavior disturbed other students who were able to follow along in the text as she read. What looked like a student refusing to read was in reality a student doing his utmost to compensate for DLD (Ekström et al., 2023).  

Think about safety when putting people in groups.

For some students, speaking in a whole class situation is intimidating, but a small group is less trying. This is especially true if the members of the small group feel safe and are accepting of the person with DLD. 

“It depends who I’m with,” one student said, “if I’m comfortable with the persons or not, if I, like, know them” (Ekström et al., 2023). 

For some students, the group that feels safest is one where younger children are present. One parent noticed, “When [Abigail] was at preschool she always used to play with like the babies and the younger ones…I think because they were sort of at a language similar to her. She felt safe.” 

Looking back on her childhood, Sammy told researchers, “My last year, I did form friendships with slightly younger children…being like a buddy for like a younger child…I could form so much better friendships with them...because I felt like I wasn’t going to be condescended to” (Burnley et al., 2024). 

Notice and support areas of strength. 

Everyone has areas of personal strength and talent. Because DLD affects self-concept, it’s important to notice and talk about what a person can do, rather than focusing exclusively on challenges. As you plan instruction, interventions, and accommodations, it’s a good idea to build on existing strengths and to incorporate interests.  

Parents of children with DLD said their children had developed areas of strength because of their language difficulties. These included: 

• heightened visual skills 
• keen perception of the body language and mental states of others 
• empathy for the feelings of others 
• artistic or creative expression 
• willingness to bounce back and keep trying (Burnley et al., 2023) 

One adult with DLD said it this way:

If I could tell the middle and high school teachers, the peers from those seven years, the family member who refused to accept my diagnosis, and my younger self anything, I would tell them that intelligence and DLD are not mutually exclusive. In fact, many of these children grow in their intelligence because of DLD and the need to find ways around their language difficulties (Orrego et al., 2023).

Foster choice when it comes to language-intense experiences. 

Long lectures, reading assignments, and writing projects are disproportionately difficult for those with DLD.  When possible, allow people to break such tasks into smaller segments or choose alternate ways to express their knowledge and opinions.  

A group of 293 parents, teachers, and allied health professionals rated literacy and language tasks the most challenging school tasks for children with DLD (Ziegenfusz et al., 2025). The group also said additional time and visual supports were the most helpful accommodations.  

Olga, 17, told researchers, “It’s fine…when I can decide on my own how much time I have to read…If a teacher tells me, ‘Read from page 50 to 60,’ then I can’t read that much, so I have to like split it up, and then process it afterwards, and then read the next” (Ekstrom et al., 2023). 

Adapt the workplace to support those with DLD.  

DLD does not disappear in adulthood. Awareness and support are as important at work as they are at school. One adult with DLD shared the need for ongoing acceptance and inclusion in the workplace: 

Those of us with DLD might ask you to repeat something that we didn’t catch the first time. Or we might need a little extra time to formulate and articulate an idea in one-on-one conversations or in group meetings. We might ask you to present information in a format suited to our learning preferences (for instance, I am a hands-on, visual learner, and I do better with written communication). We don’t want you to interrupt or finish our sentences for us. And if we struggle to get the information out or aren’t meeting an unknown deadline that wasn’t explicitly stated, please don’t say “try harder”—you have no idea how hard we are already trying (Hirn, 2023).

Know that you’re making a big difference.  

For many people with DLD, receiving a clear diagnosis is a turning point. Participating in therapy can also be transformative.  

One adult with DLD spoke of her speech–language pathologist, Stella, this way:

Stella was a crucial player in my story. Although I was, according to her, one of her most severe cases, she never lost her enthusiasm or patience with me. She got to know me—a studious young girl who loved to read and tell stories—and tailored our sessions to my style of work and play…Stella provided a fun, safe, unconditionally accepting environment for me to try new tactics, make mistakes, and learn.

–Paula (Orrego et al., 2023)

Key Message  

Studies that allow us to share the perspectives of people with DLD are valuable because the condition so often goes unrecognized in schools and workplaces. Learning about the lived experience of people with DLD may help educators and clinicians identify the condition, plan appropriate interventions, and adapt the environment to better meet each person’s language needs. 

Developmental language disorder (DLD) and dyslexia are both lifelong conditions that affect academic performance—and virtually every other area of a person’s life. Learning to distinguish between the similar-looking effects of these two conditions can help you anticipate potential difficulties, individualize interventions, and identify which supports and accommodations will be most meaningful. 

Even among school-based practitioners who regularly work with students who have one or both conditions, considerable confusion exists when it comes to defining the terms (DeLuca et al., 2025). 

An important note: In a 2023 letter addressed to the president of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Office of Special Education programs noted that language impairments such as DLD can be addressed under the existing disability categories defined within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (Hogan et al., 2023). 

Can You Have Dyslexia and DLD at the Same Time?

Yes. Researchers say it’s not uncommon for people with DLD to have learning disorders such as dyslexia and dyscalculia (Nitin et al, 2022).  In fact, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) considers DLD to be a risk factor for learning disabilities, making it around six times more likely that someone with DLD will be diagnosed with a reading or spelling disability by the time they reach their adult years (NIDCD, 2023). In one long-term study, male children who had been diagnosed with DLD and had a family member with a specific learning disorder had a 54% chance of having a specific learning disorder themselves (Rinaldi et al., 2023).  

What Are the Similarities and Differences Between DLD and Dyslexia? 

Dyslexia and DLD are both neurodevelopmental conditions, and they have some similarities. Both emerge in early childhood and continue as a person grows. Both conditions are linked to differences in brain structure and nerve networks—but different areas of the brain are involved in each condition. Similarly, while the two conditions have effects that can look alike, those effects may have different origins.

Here’s a brief look at skills that may be affected by these neurodevelopmental conditions, along with tips for telling them apart

Phonology

Phonological awareness is the ability to identify and work with phonemes (the individual sounds that make up words). Skills such as rhyming, sound matching, and sound/symbol connection are typically included under the umbrella of phonological awareness.  

Dyslexia and DLD can affect people’s phonological awareness, making it harder to break words into syllables, to blend letter sounds, and to distinguish letter sounds from each other. When people have both dyslexia and DLD, phonological awareness tasks may be even harder for them than they are for people with just one of the conditions (Snowling et al., 2019).  

In one study, preschool children with DLD had particular difficulty adding syllables and identifying and adding phonemes (Moraleda-Sepúlveda & López-Resa, 2022). In another study, children with DLD had trouble with phoneme deletion tasks (Oliviera et al., 2020). 

Word Reading and RAN

Word reading difficulties are a key feature of dyslexia, and they’re not uncommon in students with DLD. Rapid automatized naming (RAN), which is the ability to quickly recall and name colors, letters, numbers, and other symbols, is considered by some experts to be the basis of word reading skills (de Bree et al., 2022).  

RAN is an area of difficulty for students with dyslexia. In fact, RAN is considered a “universal marker” for dyslexia (Carioti et al., 2022). Some students with DLD also have difficulties with RAN, but a 2020 study found that they had fewer errors in RAN tasks than study participants who had dyslexia. Instead, children with DLD made more errors in nonword repetition tasks (Oliviera et al., 2020).  

Morphology  

Morphology is word-building: putting words together from smaller units of meaning. Children as young as 18 months can play with word forms to make new words, often starting with word features that indicate singular or plural numbers. From there, they might go on to learn word endings that change the meaning of a word, such as adding -er to indicate someone who does an action. Drive becomes driver, for example.  

Morphology is important in the development of oral language, reading, and spelling. It’s a skillset that may be impaired in some people with dyslexia (Melloni & Vender, 2022).  It may be even more common in people with DLD. In fact, some experts consider morphological difficulties to be “clinical marker” of DLD.  

In studies, verb tense, pronouns, and formation of the plural are often areas of concern in people with DLD. These error patterns may vary slightly from one language to another (Moraleda-Sepúlveda & López-Resa, 2022). In students with dyslexia, decoding complex words and “function” words may be a challenge. Researchers recommend assessing children’s “linguistic profile” in a dyslexia evaluation to find out whether an error pattern is related to morphology or phonology (Casani et al., 2022).  

Researcher Evelyn Fisher and her team summarized the differences like this:

Children with language impairment have difficulty in primarily nonphonological language skills of syntax and morphology, while children with dyslexia have impairments primarily in phonological processing. (Fisher et al., 2019)

What Are Best Practices for Assessing DLD and Dyslexia? 

1. Assess broadly. Evaluating early literacy skills, reading skills, and language skills can help you create a detailed language profile for the person involved. Comprehensive assessment can help you determine whether needs are related to reading and literacy or whether they extend to other expressive or receptive language skills.
2. Assess early. Because DLD and dyslexia are both neurodevelopmental conditions, indicators may be present long before a child enters school. Earlier identification and intervention may prevent some educational, social, and mental health effects.
3. Gather data from multiple sources. Include detailed family and developmental histories when possible. If a student is learning multiple languages, take special care to explore that child’s language history, so you can determine whether any difference is related to language learning. Other risk factors for DLD include delayed gesture production, limited receptive and/or expressive vocabulary size, and a lack of two-word combinations at 30 months (Sansavini et al., 2021). 

Key Message

DLD and dyslexia share many characteristics, and some children experience both conditions at the same time. Careful, comprehensive evaluation can make diagnostic decisions clearer and can lead to more effective instruction and intervention.  

*Originally posted on 4/7/23 and updated on 5/16/25

An autism evaluation is a rich and fluid interaction, shaped by so much more than test scores. Even within a formal autism assessment, there are many opportunities to share authentic connection. One of the most valuable is the chance to listen to the lived experiences of autistic girls and women.

Key Messages   

Listening to the lived experiences of autistic girls and women can lead to a fuller, more nuanced understanding of autism. It can help to dismantle stereotypes and facilitate more accurate, timely diagnoses. And valuing the voices of autistic girls and women can foster a sense of belonging and acceptance that is vital to good mental health and supportive relationships. 

WPS Assessment Consultants are available to help you plan comprehensive autism evaluations that include trusted assessments and intervention resources. 

AUTISM RESOURCES  

Further Reading on Autism 

• The WPS In-Depth Guide to Autism and ADHD  
• How Autism Can Look and Feel Across the Lifespan 
• Why So Many Autistic Girls & Women Are Still Missing Out on Early Identification 
• Understanding the Complicated Interplay of Autism and ADHD 
• How Autism and ADHD Can Disrupt Interoception 
• How to Choose the Best Autism Assessment for Your Client 
• Best Practices in Autism Assessment 
• Autism Conversations: Individualizing Educational Interventions with the MIGDAS-2 Evaluation Process 

Videos and Webinars on Autism 

• How Cyberbullying Impacts Students On and Off the Autism Spectrum 
• Conversation Over Labels: A Better Way to Understand Autism 
• Autism Spectrum Brains 'Get Energy' from These Things 

Autism involves many potential differences in speech and language. For example, social communication differences are a core autism characteristic. Another core trait—repetitive behaviors—can include repetitive speech patterns such as echolalia. In some instances, autism affects another speech characteristic called prosody—the small ways we vary our tone, rhythm, and emphasis to add meaning to our speech. And of course, some autistic individuals use very few or no spoken words to communicate. For these reasons, most validated autism assessments contain measures of speech and language that enable practitioners to find out how autism is shaping the way a person communicates and interacts.  

What Is Alexithymia? 

Alexithymia is a difficulty in recognizing and describing emotional states. It’s more common among autistic individuals than it is in the general population. Research suggests that between 45% and 60% of autistic individuals experience alexithymia, compared to roughly 10% in the general population (Oakely et al., 2022). Alexithymia has also been linked to sensory sensitivities, which often occur alongside autism (Yorke et al., 2025).  

What Is Echolalia?

Echolalia is repeated or imitated speech. Someone may repeat words or phrases they’ve just heard in conversation or heard at an earlier time from some other source, possibly in media. Sometimes echolalia contains gestalts, or groups of words that stand in for a single concept. A child might call a jacket a “coat on nice and warm,” for example. Once, echolalia was a verbal behavior practitioners and families sought to change or erase. Increasingly, echolalia is seen as “a bridge to meaningful, self-generated speech with communicative intent” (Davis, 2017).

What Is Hyperlexia? 

For many autistic individuals, written language is an area of strength or focused interest. For example, hyperlexia—the ability to read at levels well beyond what is typical for one’s age—is more common among autistic individuals than in the general population. Researchers think between 6% and 20% of autistic individuals have advanced reading skills. One important note: hyperlexia doesn’t necessarily lead to a larger vocabulary or better reading comprehension (Ostrolenk et al., 2024).   

What Is Inferencing?  

Inferencing is reaching a reasoned conclusion or opinion using information that isn’t explicitly stated. It’s sometimes described as reading between the lines. When people infer, they rely on nonverbal cues, figurative language, social norms, background knowledge, and other contextual information to grasp what people intend but may not be saying out loud. 

How Do Non-Speaking Individuals Communicate?  

Language assessment sheds light on specific support needs. Roughly 30% of autistic individuals use very few or no spoken words—yet they may be able to communicate using gestures, sign language, visual aids, or assistive and augmentative communication (AAC) devices (Schaeffer et al., 2023).   

What Other Speech Differences Might Occur With Autism? 

Autism can co-occur with other conditions that affect speech and language. It may overlap with or occur alongside these conditions: 

Key Messages   

All people, including autistic people, communicate in highly individual ways. While autism assessments are designed to identify speech and language patterns that are characteristic of autism, other speech and language differences might need more specialized assessments.  

Auditory processing disorder (APD), also known as central auditory processing disorder (CAPD), is a disruption in the processing of sound signals in the brain. Some experts have described auditory processing as “what we do with what we hear” (Alanzi, 2023). People with auditory processing difficulties have trouble detecting, focusing on, interpreting, or remembering sound information (Aristidou & Hohman, 2023). Around 70% of students with dyslexia have auditory processing deficits.

If you work with students or clients who have dyslexia, understanding auditory processing disorder may help you understand and address some of the specific abilities and challenges they face. It may also help you determine whether the behaviors and abilities you’re observing arise from auditory processing disorder, dyslexia, or another neurodevelopmental condition. 

Some experts recommend screening for auditory processing disorders whenever you’re evaluating a child for a neurodevelopmental condition such as dyslexia (Aristidou & Hohman, 2023).  Identifying these difficulties early in the evaluation process can help you tailor instruction and interventions to address all the underlying factors affecting a student’s ability to read. 

Effects of Auditory Processing Disorder 

Key Message  

Auditory processing deficits can make it harder for people to learn spoken language. They can keep people from being able to detect breaks and subtle changes in sound, including variations in tone. They can also impact the ability to learn to read, since reading depends in part on speech and language skills.

Having one or more focused, intensive interests is considered a core characteristic of autism. But for many years, experts seemed to know less about the special interests of autistic girls than they did about the stereotypical interests of boys. Researchers hope that the growing body of knowledge about autism in women and girls will improve our ability to identify autism and better support people in finding success and satisfaction in their lives.  

Why “Restrictive” May Not Be the Best Descriptor 

What Does Research Say About Special Interests of Autistic Women and Girls? 

Studies show that the ways autistic individuals engage with their special interests are mostly the same, regardless of sex and gender. Eight main “modalities” have been identified: 

Why Should We Keep Studying the Special Interests of Autistic Girls and Women?  

Understanding the nature of special interests is important for several reasons.  

Key Message  

Special interests are topics autistic girls and women study and explore with great passion. While having one or more intense special interest is included in the diagnostic criteria for autism, special interests may be seen as positive rather than negative from the perspective of an autistic individual.  

Dyslexia doesn’t arise from a single clear cause. Researchers can’t trace it back to a single gene, brain structure, or nerve network. Similarly, dyslexia doesn’t have the same effects and expressions in everyone with the condition. That’s because each person has a unique combination of genetic and environmental risk and protective factors.

One environmental factor drawing increased attention from dyslexia researchers is chronic early life stress. This type of ongoing stress, often related to childhood trauma or adverse childhood events, can affect a growing brain in ways that make dyslexia and reading difficulties more likely.

Here’s an overview of the connection between early life stress and a higher dyslexia risk.  

Trauma, Adverse Events, and Stress

Two Reactions to Chronic Stress 

Stress is a normal part of life, and stress responses can be an effective way to maintain balance between a person and the world around them.

Stress, Reading Difficulties, and Dyslexia 

Here’s a brief overview of the effects of chronic stress on parts of the brain involved in learning to read:  

What Practitioners Can Do 

For the most part, educators and clinicians cannot control chronic stress in the life of a child. But there are steps we can take to identify dyslexia early and modify learning environments to strengthen protective factors for dyslexia and early life stress.