Often called on for children with dyspraxia and children with dysgraphia, the occupational therapist can also ease the symptoms of dyslexia. Often prescribed by a doctor, their work aims to “smooth over” these symptoms through tailored care, advice and educational activities. Let’s take a look together at the scope of their support for this written-language disorder.
What is the standard approach to treating dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning disorder whose difficulties centre on reading and writing. While its symptoms can appear as early as nursery school, they become more obvious in primary school: delayed speech, limited vocabulary, poor pronunciation, mirror writing, and so on.
Faced with these lasting, persistent difficulties, it’s recommended to establish a diagnosis as early as possible to begin treating the dyslexia. Traditionally, the child’s doctor and/or the school health service will recommend speech and language therapy. At this stage, support from the teaching team and parents is essential for the treatment to succeed.
If the difficulties are significant, other professionals may become involved in the care, such as the occupational therapist…
What role does the occupational therapist play in dyslexia?
Alongside the speech and language therapist and, potentially, other professionals such as the orthoptist or psychologist, the occupational therapist looks for personalised solutions to “work around” the difficulties encountered both at school and in daily life (and later, at work).
Holder of a state diploma obtained after three years of study, this healthcare professional draws on multidisciplinary knowledge (medical, technological, human and social sciences) to assess the difficulties faced by a child with dyslexia and design targeted adaptations.
For this type of patient, they generally focus their work on learning various technical skills, such as holding a pencil or using a computer. In every case, they take the child’s environment into account to assess what can be put in place to give them greater independence in everyday life.
What do occupational therapy sessions look like for a child with dyslexia?
While consultations can take place at the occupational therapist’s practice, they can also be carried out remotely, a practice that grew since the covid health crisis. After an initial assessment, you should expect around ten individual sessions of 45 minutes to 1 hour for rehabilitation, at a rate of one per week. If the goals set out in the initial protocol aren’t reached, it’s of course possible to continue with further sessions.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to one of the occupational therapists on the Ora-Visio platform, they specialise in DYS disorders such as dyslexia. Available online, this approach helps to reduce the inequalities in access to these professionals across French territory.
Good to know: while speech and language therapy sessions are reimbursed at 60%, occupational therapy sessions are not covered at all by the French national health insurance. However, some supplementary health insurance plans may offer full or partial reimbursement for a set number of sessions.
