What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a specific kind of reading difficulty. Despite average to above average intelligence, children with dyslexia have difficulty learning to “decode,” or read words by associating sounds and letters or letter combinations. They have difficulty recognizing common “sight words,” or frequently occurring words that most readers recognize instantly. Examples of sight words are “the” and “in.” Children with dyslexia also have difficulty learning how to spell, sometimes referred to as “encoding.” Recent research suggests that there are two main features of dyslexia. First of all, people with dyslexia have weak phonemic awareness. This means that they have difficulty hearing the fine distinctions among individual sounds, or phonemes, of the language. They also have difficulty rhyming and breaking words down into individual sounds. Phonemic awareness relates directly to learning to decode and to spell words. In addition, it takes longer for people with dyslexia to “process” phonemic information, or to make connections between sounds and letters or letter combinations. When reading, people with dyslexia need more time than typical readers to put together individual sounds into words.
Dyslexia comes disguised in many packages. These are the most common signs of dyslexia:
Note: The following Warning Signs of Dyslexia list was created by, and is copyrighted by, Susan Barton, the founder of Bright Solutions for Dyslexia. It is reprinted here with advance written permission from Susan Barton.
Warning Signs of Dyslexia
If a child has 3 or more of the following warning signs, encourage that child’s parents and teachers
to learn more about dyslexia.
In Preschool
• delayed speech
• mixing up the sounds and syllables in long words
• chronic ear infections
• stuttering
• constant confusion of left versus right
• late establishing a dominant hand
• difficulty learning to tie shoes
• trouble memorizing their address, phone number, or the alphabet
• can’t create words that rhyme
• a close relative with dyslexia
In Elementary School
• dysgraphia (slow, non-automatic handwriting that is difficult to read)
• letter or number reversals continuing past the end of first grade
• extreme difficulty learning cursive
• slow, choppy, inaccurate reading:
– guesses based on shape or context
– skips or misreads prepositions (at, to, of)
– ignores suffixes
– can’t sound out unknown words
• terrible spelling
• often can’t remember sight words (they, were, does) or homonyms (their, they’re, and there)
• difficulty telling time with a clock with hands
• trouble with math
– memorizing multiplication tables
– memorizing a sequence of steps
– directionality
• when speaking, difficulty finding the correct word
– lots of “whatyamacallits” and “thingies”
– common sayings come out slightly twisted
• extremely messy bedroom, backpack, and desk
• dreads going to school
– complains of stomach aches or headaches
– may have nightmares about school
In High School
All of the above symptoms plus:
• limited vocabulary
• extremely poor written expression
– large discrepancy between verbal skills and written compositions
• unable to master a foreign language
• difficulty reading printed music
• poor grades in many classes
• may drop out of high school
In Adults
Education history similar to above, plus:
• slow reader
• may have to read a page 2 or 3 times to understand it
• terrible speller
• difficulty putting thoughts onto paper
– dreads writing memos or letters
• still has difficulty with right versus left
• often gets lost, even in a familiar city
• sometimes confuses b and d, especially when tired or sick
This was provided by: Bright Solutions for Dyslexia
To find out more about Bright Solutions for Dyslexia – click here www.BrightSolutions.US