Is your child at risk for dyslexia? Fort Worth launches summer camp literacy screenings
Along with creative activities and fun learning opportunities, the city of Fort Worth’s summer day camps will include a new element this year: Dyslexia screenings.
The city of Fort Worth, in partnership with the Sid W. Richardson Foundation and the Go Beyond Grades campaign, is launching Literacy Roundup, a series of dyslexia screenings at summer day camp locations across the city.
Staff and volunteers will screen kids at Camp Fort Worth summer programs at six community centers: Chisholm Trail, Como, Diamond Hill, Fire Station, Riverside and Victory Forest. Parents who want their children screened for dyslexia can also fill out an interest form on the city’s website.
Caroline James, a Fort Worth educator and mother of a student with dyslexia, is spearheading the project. James said she hopes the screenings will help families avoid the situation her son Andrew faced. Andrew, now 16, wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until he was in sixth grade. By that time, he got emotional anytime he had reading or writing assignments, and both he and his parents were frustrated.
The screenings aren’t a diagnostic test, which means screeners can’t give students an official dyslexia diagnosis. But they can give families an early indication that their child is at risk. When a screening flags a student for dyslexia, volunteers will talk with them about how to read the screening results and what to do next, James said.
Families will also have the option of being paired with a volunteer from the Rotary Club of Fort Worth. The Rotary Club volunteers will have training on how to help families navigate the process of getting their child connected with whatever support they need, she said.
The city held pilot screening sessions this month at the East Regional Library and the Southwest Regional Library. During those sessions, 20 students showed up to be screened for dyslexia. Ten of those students scored as being at risk for dyslexia.
James said that percentage is probably higher than what they’d see in a broader screening campaign — many of those families knew their kids were struggling in reading and signed up for a dyslexia screening to find out if that was the reason. Still, she said, getting the results was an emotional experience for many families.
“One family, I mean literally, we broke down together, and they cried and I cried,” she said. “And it was helpful for me to say, look, I’ve been in your shoes.”
As difficult as the screening results were for some families, the good news is that those families found out that their children were at risk early, while they have a chance to intervene before problems have time to compound. Although the brain has the ability to adapt to change and rewire itself at every stage of life, that ability is strongest in young children. So by spotting dyslexia risk while students are still in early elementary school, parents can radically change their educational trajectory, she said.
Mayor Parker: Dyslexia screenings are part of literacy strategy
Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said the screenings are an example of the “all-hands-on-deck approach” the city needs to adopt around the issue of literacy. Parker has been vocal about the need for city officials, as well as the broader community, to get involved in finding solutions to the problem.
State test scores suggest the majority of Fort Worth’s public school students struggle in reading. An analysis of 2024 STAAR scores by the nonprofit Fort Worth Education Partnership shows that just 35% of students from all the traditional public schools and charter schools in the city scored on grade level in reading. Parker and other city leaders have said the city’s literacy scores amount to a crisis.
To be sure, not all students who struggle in reading have dyslexia or some other learning disability. Research suggests that about 20% of the general population has dyslexia. But Parker said the screenings offer a way to identify students who may be struggling with reading before their parents are even aware of it, and help families understand what to advocate for.
Helping those families understand why their kids are struggling to read and what support they need could make a big difference, not only for the families themselves, but also the city as a whole, Parker said. Students with dyslexia can go on to become strong readers if they get the right support at the right time. Helping families get connected with that support could be a big part of the strategy that gets the city where it needs to be in terms of literacy, she said.
Disclaimer: The Sid W. Richardson Foundation supports the Star-Telegram’s education coverage through its Crossroads Lab. All editorial decisions are made independently.
