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:

  1. Trouble learning common nursery rhymes such as “Jack and Jill,” “Humpty Dumpty,” etc.
  2. A lack of appreciation of rhymes
  3. Mispronouncing words or persistent baby talk
  4. Difficulty in learning and remembering names of letters
  5. Failure to know the letters in his own name

SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA – KINDERGARTEN AND FIRST GRADE

  1. 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/
  2. Inability to associate letters with sounds
  3. Reading errors that have no connection to the sounds of the letters, for example reading “big” as “goat”
  4. Cannot read or sound out simple words—mat, hop, nap, etc.
  5. A history of reading problems in parents or siblings

SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA – GRADES 2, 3, 4

  1. Slow and labored reading
  2. Misreads same words repeatedly
  3. Cannot read nonsense words
  4. Trouble with reading and spelling small, easy words (this, that, and, is, was, etc.)
  5. Comprehension better than decoding
  6. Listening comprehension better than reading comprehension
  7. Weak spelling
  8. Avoidance of writing

SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA – GRADE 5 AND UP

  1. Poor fluency (slow reading)
  2. Many errors when reading
  3. Cannot read nonsense words
  4. Cannot read longer words (two syllables or more)
  5. Avoids reading—little or no reading for pleasure
  6. Weak spelling
  7. Brief writing with poor spelling
  8. Vocabulary can lag behind
  9. Struggles with foreign language study

          Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Sally Shaywitz, Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, NY, 2003