About Dyslexia

A short list of possible symptoms would include some, but not all, of these in a dyslexic child:

• a noticeable difference between the pupil's ability and their actual achievement;

• a family history of learning difficulties;

• difficulties with spelling;

• writing letters or numbers backwards;

• confusion over left and right;

• difficulties organizing themselves;

• difficulties with math/s;

• difficulty following instructions.

POSSIBLE DYSLEXIA SYMPTOMS IN MORE DETAIL

A discrepancy between the pupil's ability and their actual achievement

If you notice that your child appears to be average or bright when they are talking to you, but is struggling to read, spell or cope with math/s, this may be the strongest indicator that they may be dyslexic. It is very common for dyslexic children to be quite able, especially in the areas of creativity (art, drama, drawing, etc) and physical co-ordination (physical education, swimming, sports, model-making, etc.). However, there are differences in the neural links in their brain that makes it hard for them to deal with text (and often with numbers) without extra support. A reading age or grade level of two years below what you would expect from them is a sign of possible dyslexia. Obviously, this could also be caused by other factors such as lengthy absences from school due to illness.

A family history of learning difficulties

Dyslexia is frequently inherited. It can be made worse by early ear infections which make it harder for a young child to be able to distinguish the difference between similar sounding words. The numbers of boys and girls who are dyslexic are roughly the same.

Difficulties with spelling

Spelling is the activity which causes most difficulty for a dyslexic child. The observation of spelling errors in short, simple words is the way in which most dyslexic children first come our notice. Examples of words which cause particular difficulty are: any, many, said, island, because, they, friend, and enough. Other words will sometimes be spelt in the way that you would expect them to be spelt if our spelling system were rational, for example does/dus, please/pleeze, knock/nock, search/serch, journey/jerney, etc.

Dyslexic children also experience difficulties with 'jumbled spellings'. These are spelling attempts in which all the correct letters are present, but are written in the wrong order. Examples include dose/does, freind/friend, siad/said, bule/blue, becuase/because, and wores/worse. 'Jumbled spellings' show that your child is experiencing difficulty with their visual memory.

Writing letters or numbers backwards

You will have noticed some children who mix up 'b' and 'd', or even 'p' and the number 9. These letters are the same in their mirror image, and cause regular confusion for a dyslexic person. Some pupils make a point of always writing the letter 'b' as au upper-case or capital 'B', as they find this much easier to remember in terms of the direction it faces.

Confusion over left and right

A fairly quick way to establish this type of confusion is to ask a child to point to your left foot with his or her right hand. If you try similar instructions - in a non-threatening environment - you will soon be able to see if this causes difficulties or not. (Try it on a colleague - who is not dyslexic - and you can see how a non-dyslexic person is able to sort out the left and right elements quite readily.)

Difficulties organizing themselves

Whilst you may quite reasonably think that all children live their lives in a mess, this is particularly so for dyslexic children and students, who may have genuine difficulties with planning and thinking ahead to when a book or pen might be needed next. They can really benefit from help with organizing papers and folders under a simple color-coded system.

Difficulties with math/s

One feature of dyslexia is difficulties with sequencing - getting things in the right order. Math/s depends on sequences of numbers - 2. 4. 6. 8. etc. Whilst many people are aware that dyslexic children and students have problems with reading and spelling, they do not know that math/s can also be a real challenge.


Difficulty following instructions

'Go to Mrs. Green and ask her if Peter Smith is in school today. Oh, yes, and ask if I can borrow her dictionary' - such an instruction is just too much! It involves both sequencing and memory skills, and you would be very surprised to see a dyslexic child return with the dictionary and information about Peter Smith! Dyslexic children love to take messages as much as any other child, but it has to be a less complicated instruction, e.g. 'Ask Mrs. Green if I can borrow her stapler'.