What Are The Signs Of Dyslexia?

Children in preschool through elementary school age may exhibit any of these signs of dyslexia:

• Talk later than most children
• Have difficulty pronouncing words, changing the order of syllables within words
• Vocabulary is not learned as easily
• Word retrieval is difficult (uses words such as “thing”, “it” instead of specific nouns)
• Difficulty with rhyming
• Difficulty memorizing; learning the alphabet, numbers, days of the week, colors, shapes, how to spell and write his or her name
• Unable to follow multi-step directions or routines
• Difficulty with fine motor tasks
• Difficulty sequencing events from a story
• Difficulty segmenting sounds in words
• Difficulty in blending sounds into words
• Has trouble with phonics; the relationship between letters and sounds.
• Has a hard time reading words in isolation, relies on context
• Has difficulty with invented spelling
• Typical reading and spelling errors include:
  • Letter reversals - "d" for "b" as in: "dog" for "bog"
  • Word reversals - "tip" for "pit"
  • Inversions - "m" for "w," "u" for "n"
  • Transpositions - "felt" for "left"
  • Substitutions - "house" for "home"
• Confuses small, abstract words - "at" for "to," "said" for "and," "does" for "goes"
• Artistic ability
• Strong visual-spatial skills
• People skills, intuition and empathy
• “Out of the box” thinking, problem solvers
• Curiosity, looking beyond the obvious
• Musical ability
• Relies on guessing and context
• Has trouble remembering facts
• Is slow to learn new skills; relies heavily on memorizing without understanding
• Has difficulty planning, organizing and managing time, materials and tasks
• May use an awkward pencil grip (fist, thumb hooked over fingers, etc.)
• May have poor "fine motor" coordination
• Has difficulty with directional concepts; left, right, before, after, on etc.
• May be reading below grade level
• Often reverses letters within words - "soiled" for "solid," "left" for "felt"
• Spelling and written composition are very difficult
• Avoids reading aloud
• Word problems in math are difficult
• Handwriting is messy, letters may be formed differently each time
• Dislikes school

These are some of the warning signs of dyslexia. In addition it is important to look at the child’s “sea of strengths”. (Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia) There is a pattern here as well. Some examples of strengths that accompany dyslexia include:

• Artistic ability
• Strong visual-spatial skills
• People skills, intuition and empathy
• “Out of the box” thinking, problem solvers
• Curiosity, looking beyond the obvious
• Musical ability