Are you trying to determine if your child has true dyslexia? Do you need to know which issues are actually dyslexia symptoms?

Dyslexia Symptoms:

While reversals of letters are common among kids with dyslexia, there is a lot more to true dyslexia than an occasional reversal of letters. Below are the common symptoms of true dyslexia, which is (not a vision-based problem):

Difficulty with rapid naming or recalling names of objects, people, etc.
Speech-Language mispronunciations using incorrect sounds or syllables in words.
Hearing a new word and properly speaking the word is challenging.
Difficulty with properly identifying or naming rhyming words.
Inability to remember simple words when reading even after multiple encounters.
Recalling what a word is even though your child just read the same word in a prior sentence is difficult.
Inability to remember simple word spellings even after multiple teachings.

A lack of phonemic awareness is the primary characteristic of dyslexia. This occurs when a student does not understand the sounds that relate to a specific letter or set of letters.

True dyslexia does not involve visual difficulties that interfere with reading. Those are an entirely different matter than true dyslexia, which requiries specialized instruction in reading.

What is a Lack of “Phonemic Awareness”?

Basically, the sound represented by the letter “c” can be pronounced with the same sound as either “s” or “k”. These sound bites and their relationships to letters used while reading are “phonemes”. The phonemes themselves are the little sound bites that make up words.

A child with phonemic awareness deficits doesn’t remember which sounds are represented by which letters. They may confuse the sounds in words when speaking. Therefore a child with true dyslexia will frequently mix up sounds and letters in words when writing. They’ll sometimes also do so when speaking.

As an example, my child with severe dyslexia used to say things like “kapano” for piano, “bebra” for zebra, and “windshiper” for windshield wiper. Indeed, any tot has such cute little expressions. However, when your child misspeaks words as they reach elementary school, they may not be aware of the differences in the sounds. Using the Lindamood-Bell LiPS program is a great first step for children with notable speech-language issues affecting their reading abilities.

It is very important to remember, TRUE dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. I can’t stress enough that dyslexia is not a vision problem. There are visual perception problems, ocular motor deficiencies, and other issues that cause difficulty with reading. However, correction comes through cognitive training, vision therapy, and through other therapies.

Conditions that cause difficulty with reading and dyslexia symptoms often don’t show the complete picture. Therefore, I highly recommend getting a comprehensive, neuropsychological evaluation.

A child with dyslexia symptoms often has accompanying difficulty with working memory skills. This means they will not be able to hold and manipulate information in his mind very easily. For example, if a child is going to write a sentence, he may forget what he was writing before he writes the sentence down. He may not be able to perform math calculations in his mind very easily. Or he may not remember the sounds in a word long enough to write or decode the word.

A third dyslexia symptom is difficulty with processing speed. A child may not be able to find information he wishes to recall and use very quickly or easily. It becomes laborious for him to find and use information he may have learned before. Therefore, he will often seem very inconsistent in his recall and usage of information.

It’s important to know that True “Dyslexia” (as defined by the International Dyslexia Association) is indicated when a person has a lack of phonemic awareness and deficits in short-term working memory. Regardless of other dyslexia symptoms, true dyslexia is not a vision problem.

Visual Perception and Other Reading Difficulties

However, some children with language-based dyslexia symptoms also often have visual-perception difficulties with letter orientation. Their brains are awesome for 3-dimensional thinking. This is a gift, except when it comes to trying to learn the proper orientation of letters on a page! To understand what is it like to have dyslexia, you may want to check out this: Article about what it is like to have dyslexia.

MANY other conditions can also cause difficulty with reading. These other conditions are often lumped in together and labeled as “dyslexia” because of the definition of the word dyslexia. The definitiion of the word dyslexia is simply “difficulty with reading”. However, all conditions that manifest as difficulty with reading are NOT clinical dyslexia. It is the definition of the word “dyslexia” that confuses people. That’s because the word is casually used in marketing all kinds of reading products.

Other conditions which can cause difficulty with reading:

Other conditions which can cause difficulty with reading may exist together with or separately from a lack of phonemic awareness and short-term working memory difficulties. Some of these conditions are:

Auditory Processing Disorder,
Apraxia,
Executive Functioning Disorder,
Ocular-Motor deficits,
Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome,
Visual-Perceptual deficits,
etc.

Why I Recommend Comprehensive Evaluations

It is nearly impossible for an untrained professional to determine EXACTLY what is causing a child’s difficulty with reading. You can’t tell just from the dyslexia symptoms. Also, overlapping conditions may exist making an observation-based diagnosis virtually impossible.

Often a child will have multiple conditions. People will jump on the most evident problem. Unfortunately, unless you address all or most of the problems, your child will not benefit completely from instruction he/she is receiving. This is why a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation will help reveal what your child needs in order to learn effectively.

If you are concerned your child may have dyslexia based upon dyslexia symptoms, also consider the quality of reading instruction your child is getting. When looking at your child’s dyslexia symptoms, also look at how persistent and pervasive his problems are. Pay close attention to whether your child omits or inserts sounds within words when reading, has inconsistent reading performance, and strongly resists reading activities. Those can be symptoms of milder dyslexia.

Why Waiting is Not Helpful

A LOT of people would tell you to “wait” and see if your child outgrows his difficulties but that his highly unlikely (check out this article that shares “late bloomers” research). The cost of waiting is tremendous if your child does have dyslexia or some other learning difference. It takes a long time to remediate a child who has dyslexia. There’s no such thing as starting too soon if your child does have dyslexia!

You should know that 85% of children who have difficulty acquiring reading skills have learning disabilities that require special reading instruction. Thus, only about 15% of children will “outgrow” their difficulties.

Put another way, it won’t harm your child to give him extra read instruction if he has dyslexia symptoms. However, it will make learning more difficult if you delay getting an evaluation or giving help. It IS ‘typical’ for a child of 6 to reverse letters sometimes, but not very often, and all children should have outgrown this propensity by age 8.

Here is the writing of a 7 year-old child with significant dyslexia symptoms:

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Copyright 2000, Sandra Cook dyslexia writing sample dyslexia symptoms

As you can see in this dyslexia writing sample, every word except for one has a reversal or is oriented incorrectly. On the last line, the word “Spout” has a backwards “s” and “t”, and an upside down “p.” This child’s reversals are pervasive and affect most letters at different times.

While the visual-perception issues that cause the reversals are not part of the primary clinical definition of dyslexia, even though people think reversals are one of the classic dyslexia symptoms. These visual-perception difficulties with letter orientation are often present in children with true dyslexia. Functional MRIs (fMRI) show differences in the brains of children with true dyslexia, and I think this means they are a different kind of thinker. With their differences in brain processing, the co-existence of letter reversals is common.

In this dyslexia writing sample, you can also see evidence of phonemic awareness issues. In the center word on the bottom line, the word is “water,” but the child thinks the sound of /t/ is the sound of /d/. Children with true dyslexia will often confuse letters and sounds when writing.

Pursuing Other Potential Problems

Determining whether your child has dyslexia, or some other related condition, can be tricky. There are other developmental disabilities that mimic dyslexia symptoms. It is difficult for an untrained person to determine what a child has based solely upon dyslexia symptoms.

A child may have developmental vision problems, Scotopic Sensitivity, Attention Deficits, or other developmental delays which can manifest themselves as dyslexia symptoms.

Scotopic Sensitivity is a sensitivity to reflective light from the pages of a book and is less common than true dyslexia or vision problems. You can order a set of the Irlen overlays on Amazon and try them (for relatively little cost) or find out more about Scotopic Sensitivity at the **Irlen Institute website.

For an initial screenings, I recommend taking your child to a developmental optometrist and an educational evaluator, generally a psychologist, neuropsychologist, or educational consultant.

You can find a develpmental optometrist through the College of Optometrists in Vision Development at **http://www.covd.org/. If your child does have an occular motor deficiency (difficulty with smooth eye movements), then there are home therapy programs available. The vision therapy we used is called **Home Vision Therapy.

You can call your pediatrician to get a recommendation for a qualified psycho-educational evaluator or call the local chapter of **CHADD or International Dyslexia Association for additional guidance.

If your child consistently, and persistently, mis-orients letters or numbers, or interchanges them with each other, you will want to pursue the possibility of developmental vision difficulties and dyslexia. They frequently co-exist even though dyslexia is not a vision problem.

If your child does have dyslexia, you will want to fund and use a reading program for dyslexia that is based upon the Orton-Gillingham methodology. Researched and proven reading programs for dyslexia are based upon this methodology.

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Dyslexia Symptoms List and What Is Dyslexia Like for Reading Strugglers?