Dyslexia signs can be difficult to recognize before the child enters school, but some early clues may indicate a problem. Once your child reaches school age, your child’s teacher may be the first to notice a problem. The condition often becomes apparent as a child starts learning to read.
Common Characteristics Of Dyslexia
How can I tell my child may have dyslexia?
Before school
Signs and symptoms that a young child may be at risk of dyslexia include:
- Late talking
- Learning new words slowly
- Difficulty learning nursery rhymes
- Difficulty playing rhyming games
School age
Once your child is in school, dyslexia signs and symptoms may become more apparent, including:
- Reading below the expected level for your child’s age
- Problems processing and understanding what he or she hears
- Difficulty comprehending rapid instructions
- Problems remembering the sequence of things
- Difficulty seeing (and occasionally hearing) similarities and differences in letters and words
- Inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word
- Difficulty spelling; spells the way the word is pronounced e.g. faiv, for five, fon – phone, tabal-table
- Trouble learning a new language
- Reversing of letters e.g. ‘d’ for ‘b’ ‘p’ for 9, – doy for boy,
- Prone to mix ‘b’ ‘d’ and ‘p’ or read the word ‘top’ when in fact the word ‘pot’
Teens and adults
Dyslexia symptoms in teens and adults are similar to those in children. Though early intervention is beneficial for dyslexia treatment, it’s never too late to seek help. Some common dyslexia symptoms in teens and adults include:
- Difficulty reading, including reading aloud
- Difficulty with time management
- Difficulty summarizing a story
- Trouble learning a foreign language
- Difficulty memorizing
- Difficulty doing math problems.
