Warning Signs
Dyslexia can look different in many students. It can range from mild to profound. If a student shows 3 or more of the following warning signs, it is a good time to learn more about dyslexia and appropriate means of intervention.
5 years and under:
• Close relative with reading struggles
• A delay in speech development
• Late establishment of a dominant hand
• Frequent ear infections
• Difficulty with learning letter names and sounds
• Difficulty with nursery rhymes and songs
• Difficulty with pronunciation of sounds in words
• Mixes up syllables in words
• Confuses before/after, above/below, yesterday/tomorrow
• Confuses left/right
• Unable to rhyme words
• Difficulty tying shoes
Elementary Grades
• Letter/Number reversals past Grade 1
• Difficulty with meorizing Sight Words
• Slow, laborious reading
• Difficulty counting syllables
• Difficulty with rapidly naming letters/objects
• Difficulty identifying sounds within words
• Great difficulty copying
• Inability to manipulate sounds in words
• Inability to sound out words despite knowing letter sounds
• Dysgraphia – difficulty with writing
• Skips or confuses small words when reading(to, on, at, the)
• Difficulty remembering proper letter formation
• Skips suffixes when reading
• Difficulty with homophones
• Poor spelling
• Forgets capitalization and punctuation when writing
• Might pass spelling tests but unable to spell same words later
• Difficulty telling time on clock with hands
• Trouble with word retrieval
• Guesses at words when reading
• Difficulty with cursive writing
• Poor comprehension
• Difficulty reading multi-syllable words
• Difficulty with memorization of math facts
• Difficulty with word problems in Math
• Enormous difficulty with memorization of sequences
• Downward trend in achievement testing
• Homework is a battleground
• Fear of reading aloud
• Over reliance on context to discern words and meanings
• Difficulty reading words in isolation
Teens and Adults
• Poor grades in school despite being bright
• Slow reader
• Terrible spelling
• Difficulty with organization
• Still confuses right and left
• Limited vocabulary
• Difficulty with mastering a foreign language
• Writing skills are much weaker than verbal skills
• Often needs to reread passages 2 or three times
• Gets lost easily
• May still confuse b and d
• Difficulty with word retrieval
• Low Self-esteem
• Difficulty with time management
• Good listening comprehension and poor reading comprehension
• Performs poorly on tests and essays
• Difficulty with proofreading
• Mixed dominance (ie:writes with right, sports with left)
If more than 3 or 4 of these warning signs describe your student, you probably are looking for answers. See Parent Action Plan