Common Signs of Dyslexia

By: International Dyslexia Association (2000)

Facts about dyslexia

Startling facts about dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities:

Fifteen to twenty percent of the population has a reading disability.
Of students with specific learning disabilities who receive special education services, seventy to eighty percent have deficits in reading. Dyslexia is the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties.
If children who are dyslexic get effective phonological training in kindergarten and first grade, they will have significantly fewer problems in learning to read at grade level than do children who are not identified or helped until third grade.
Seventy four percent of the children who were poor readers in the third grade remained poor readers in the ninth grade. This means that they couldn't read well when they became adults.
Individuals inherit the genetic links for dyslexia.
Dyslexia affects males and females nearly equally, and people from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds as well.

Common signs: Preschool

The following difficulties may be associated with dyslexia if they are unexpected for the individual's age, educational level, or cognitive abilities. To verify that an individual is dyslexic, he/she should be tested by a qualified testing examiner.

May talk later than most children
May have difficulty pronouncing words, i.e., busgetti for spaghetti, mawn lower for lawn mower
May be slow to add new vocabulary words
May be unable to recall the right word
May have difficulty with rhyming
May have trouble learning the alphabet, numbers, days of the week, colors, shapes, how to spell and write his or her name
May have trouble interacting with peers
May be unable to follow multi-step directions or routines
Fine motor skills may develop more slowly than in other children
May have difficulty telling and/or retelling a story in the correct sequence
Often has difficulty separating sounds in words and blending sounds to make words

Common signs: Kindergarten through fourth grade

Has difficulty decoding single words (reading single words in isolation)
May be slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
May confuse small words – at/to, said/and, does/goes
Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including:
- Letter reversals – d for b as in, dog for bog
- Word reversals – tip for pit
- Inversions – m and w, u and n
- Transpositions – felt and left
- Substitutions – house and home
May transpose number sequences and confuse arithmetic signs (+ - x / =)
May have trouble remembering facts
May be slow to learn new skills; relies heavily on memorizing without understanding
May be impulsive and prone to accidents
May have difficulty planning
Often uses an awkward pencil grip (fist, thumb hooked over fingers, etc.)
May have trouble learning to tell time
May have poor fine motor coordination

Excerpted from: ABC's of Dyslexia. (2000). International Dyslexia Association.