For children with language-based reading disabilities like dyslexia, early detection can lead to greater progress throughout the course of their lives, according to one expert.
Children should undergo screenings for such disabilities in kindergarten, said Karen Kimberlin, a speech-language pathologist who practices in Tinton Falls. She served on a 12-member reading-disabilities task force that published a series of recommendations last summer, including required tests of all students before they complete kindergarten.
State Assemblyman Nelson T. Albano (DCumberland) and several others sponsored a bill last year that would have mandated the kindergarten screenings.
The Assembly sent the legislation to its education committee, which amended it and sent it to another committee for review, according to state records.
The state Senate passed the amended version of the bill in June, much to Kimberlin’s dismay, she said.
“The wording of the bill was changed to say that children need to be screened by the end of first grade,” Kimberlin said. “… That’s the path we’re on, as is. We usually don’t get children with reading disabilities until third grade or sometimes later.”
To prove that the early examinations are effective, Kimberlin recently teamed up with a professor from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey to perform free screenings for children who graduated from kindergarten this spring. She is spending her own cash to fund the initiative, she said.
“We’re trying to get as many children as we can,” Kimberlin said. “We want children whose parents feel are typically developing as well as children who might be considered to be at risk.”
About 20 percent of the population has some form of a language-based reading disability, she said.
A parent’s decision to take the step could bear long-term benefits for his or her child, Kimberlin said.
“There is a lot of research that shows that the earlier you intervene, in terms of identifying that there might be an issue and [addressing it], the more lasting the effects are and the easier it is to close the gap between the student’s performance and their peers,” Kimberlin added.
The screenings will begin Aug. 30 and continue into September. They will take place at Kimberlin’s Tinton Falls office and at Stockton, Galloway Township. To register a child for a free exam, contact Kimberlin’s office at 732-450-1111, ext. 2 or email [email protected].