Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Preparing for your appointment
By Mayo Clinic staffYou'll probably first bring up your concerns with your child's pediatrician or family doctor. You may then be referred to specialists, such as an eye doctor (ophthalmologist) or a doctor who specializes in brain and nervous system disorders (neurologist) to ensure that another problem isn't at the root of your child's reading difficulty. Additionally, you'll likely be referred to a reading specialist who can help identify and treat dyslexia.
Because appointments can be brief, and there's often a lot of ground to cover, it's a good idea to be well prepared. Here's some information to help you get ready for your appointment, and what to expect from your doctor.
What you can do
- Write down any symptoms that your child is experiencing, including any that may seem unrelated to the reason for which you scheduled the appointment.
- Write down key personal information, including any major stresses or recent life changes.
- Make a list of any medications, as well as any vitamins or supplements, that your child is taking.
- Ask a family member or friend along, if possible. Sometimes it can be difficult to soak up all the information provided to you during an appointment. Someone who accompanies you may remember something that you missed or forgot.
- Write down questions to ask your doctor.
Preparing a list of questions ahead of time can help you make the most of your appointment. For dyslexia, some basic questions to ask your doctor include:
- Why is my child having difficulty reading and understanding?
- What kinds of tests does he or she need?
- Can dyslexia be treated?
- Are there any alternatives to the primary approach that you're suggesting?
- How quickly will we see progress?
- Are there any brochures or other printed material that I can take home with me? Can you recommend any Web sites?
- Will my other children have dyslexia too?
- What kind of help can I expect from my child's school for dyslexia?
What to expect from your doctor
Your doctor will likely have a number of questions for you as well, such as:
- When did you first notice that your child was having trouble reading? Did a teacher bring it to your attention?
- At what age did your child start talking?
- Have you noticed if he or she writes any letters or words in reverse?
- Have you tried any reading interventions? If so, which ones?
- Have you noticed any behavioral or social skill changes associated with your child's reading difficulty?
- Has your child had any vision problems?
- Lyon GR. Specific language and learning disabilities. In: Kliegman RM. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.; Saunders Elsevier: 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/142934465-3/0/1608/82.html?printing=true. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- NINDS dyslexia information page. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/dyslexia/dyslexia.htm. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Learning disabilities. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec19/ch299/ch299d.html. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Dyslexia. National Center for Learning Disabilities. http://www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=454. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- What are the signs of dyslexia? International Dyslexia Association. http://www.interdys.org/SignsofDyslexiaCombined.htm. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Grizzle KL. Developmental dyslexia. Pediatric Clinics of North America. 2007;54:507.
- Hamilton SS. Interventions for children with reading difficulty. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 22, 2009.
