LEARNING DISABILITIES AND DYSLEXIA
“Dyslexia (or specific reading disability) is the most common and carefully studied of the learning disabilities, affecting 80% of all those identified as learning disabled.”
—Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D.
Department of Pediatrics
Yale University
New England Journal of Medicine
Volume 338, Number 5
SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA – THE PRESCHOOL YEARS
The earliest clues involve mostly SPOKEN LANGUAGE. The very first clue may be delayed language.Once the child begins to speak, look for:
- Trouble learning common nursery rhymes such as “Jack and Jill,” “Humpty Dumpty,” etc.
- A lack of appreciation of rhymes
- Mispronouncing words or persistent baby talk
- Difficulty in learning and remembering names of letters
- Failure to know the letters in his own name
SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA – KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE
- Does not understand that words come apart; for example, that ‘batboy’ can be pulled apart into ‘bat’ and ‘boy’, and later on that the word ‘bat’ can be broken down into /b/…/a/…/t/
- Inability to associate letters with sounds
- Reading errors that have no connection to the sounds of the letters, for example reading “big” as “goat”
- Cannot read or sound out simple words—mat, hop, nap, etc.
- A history of reading problems in parents or siblings
SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA – GRADES 2, 3, 4
- Slow and labored reading
- Misreads same words repeatedly
- Cannot read nonsense words
- Trouble with reading and spelling small, easy words (this, that, and, is, was, etc.)
- Comprehension better than decoding
- Listening comprehension better than reading comprehension
- Weak spelling
- Avoidance of writing
SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA – GRADE 5 AND UP
- Poor fluency (slow reading)
- Many errors when reading
- Cannot read nonsense words
- Cannot read longer words (two syllables or more)
- Avoids reading—little or no reading for pleasure
- Weak spelling
- Brief writing with poor spelling
- Vocabulary can lag behind
- Struggles with foreign language study
Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, NY, 2003