Reading symptoms Assessment Questionnaire

Why: to determine if acute or chronic.

Why: e.g. difficulty focusing for reading, poor ability to understand the written word.

Why: e.g. if the person is a child, may represent a learning difficulty or dyslexia; if elderly may represent Alzheimer's disease, presbyopia, stroke, brain hemorrhage or brain tumor.

Why: may detect prenatal infections, prenatal drugs and toxins, birth trauma, neonatal infection as a possible cause of learning difficulties and problems with reading ability.

Why: e.g. smiling, able to remain in sitting position unsupported, crawled, walked.

Why: assesses expressive language.

Why: assesses receptive language. Receptive language is usually well in advance of expressive language.

Why: the parent is usually the first to suspect a hearing problem.

Why: Many factors in the child's environment may contribute significantly to their ability to learn and consequent school problems. Determine if home environment is appropriately stimulating to enable good language development and presents opportunities for a wide variety of play experience.

Why: Children from deprived socioeconomic circumstances are at risk of learning difficulties and school problems (due to family disruptions, suboptimal medical care and nutrition, lack of early stimulation, low parental education and expectations).

Why: In some children there does seem to be an inherited basis for their learning difficulties and problems with reading.

Why: e.g. high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, family history - can assess risk of stroke as the cause of reading problems.

Why: e.g. recurrent ear infections may result in hearing problems and speech delay which may also affect the reading ability; prolonged hospitalization may cause transient learning difficulties; Children with any form of chronic disease may have learning difficulties and school problems (due to multiple factors including the illness itself, side effects from medications, frequent absences from school or reduced self confidence due their perception as being different.

Why: e.g. chronic marijuana or cannabis use can interfere with cognitive, concentration and memory processes to limit learning.

Why: may suggest attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Why: e.g. poor eye contact, aloneness, difficulties relating to peers - may suggest autism as cause of learning and reading difficulty.

Why: Increasingly it is being recognised that children with subtle hearing problems are at a major risk of learning difficulties and school dysfunction. These children may develop subtle language and academic problems, as well as problems with attention and behavior.

Why: Children with any form of visual problems which affect visual acuity or eye movements will be at risk of learning difficulties including difficulty with reading. Adults who develop visual problems which are not corrected will inevitably have problems with reading.

Why: e.g. seeing objects smaller or larger than actual - suggests macula degeneration.

Why: suggests glaucoma, cataracts.

Why: e.g. child begins talking late; adds new words slowly and has difficulty rhyming; inability to recognise words and letters on a printed page; a reading ability well below the expected level for age of the child; problems processing and understanding what they hear; may have difficulty comprehending rapid instructions, following more than one command at a time or remembering a sequence of things; reversal of letters (b for d) and reversal of words (saw for was) persisting after the age of 6.

Why: e.g. impaired memory, impaired judgement and thinking, impaired verbal fluency and impaired ability to perform complex tasks. Personality may change, impulse control may be lost and personal care deteriorates. People with dementia may also have psychiatric symptoms such as delusions, paranoid ideas, hallucinations, mood disturbance and behavioral disturbance.

Why: e.g. limb weakness or paralysis, facial muscle weakness or paralysis, difficulty with speech and swallow. If the stroke affects a particular area in the brain may also get difficulty with understanding the spoken and written word.