5 Early Signs a Child May Have Dyslexia
Dyslexia comes with a wide variety of signs and symptoms. Here is a list of five that tend to be noticeable early in a child’s life. Below the graphic, you can find additional information about each of these dyslexia symptoms. If you have noticed dyslexia symptoms in your own child, you may be interested in our online dyslexia tutoring program. Thanks to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity for this list.
A History of Reading Issues In The Family
Many individuals with dyslexia speak of other people in their family who struggled with reading and spelling. Often, those individuals were not diagnosed with dyslexia, but their reading struggles were known due to issues in school or work. Sometimes, these struggles caused the family member or relative to drop out of school. Dyslexia experts believe that dyslexia is passed on genetically. So, if a family member or relative has dyslexia, it makes it more likely that other family members or relatives also have dyslexia.
Avoids Reading Time
Children with dyslexia who haven’t had the type of reading instruction that they need, such as dyslexia tutoring, often find reading extremely difficult and frustrating. For that reason, they tend to avoid it! Trying to read may make them feel like they are failing and disappointing their parents and teachers, and they sometimes come up with creative avoidance techniques. These techniques may include changing the subject, acting out or physically turning away from reading material when it is presented to them.
Does Not Associate Letters With Sounds
Children with dyslexia typically struggle to connect letters with the sounds that they make. While helping them read, you may ask them to sound out a word that they are having trouble with, and notice that they are not able to tell you sounds that letters make. This can be true of basic letter sounds, such as “a”, “t” and “m”, up to more complex sounds, such as “ow”, “au” and others.
Cannot Sound Out Simple Words
This dyslexia symptom relates to the previous one we just looked at, difficulty associating letters and sounds. Since kids with dyslexia have difficult learning letter and letter combination sounds, that causes them to have difficulty sounding words out. For example, you may ask them to sound out the word “pen”, but since they do not know the sound that each of these letters make, or may not know all of them, they have difficulty sounding the word out.
Does Not Recognize Rhyming Patterns
Another sign and symptom of dyslexia is difficulty rhyming. Since kids with dyslexia have difficulty learning letter sounds, they may also have difficulty separating these sounds out in words that they hear or read. As a result, if you ask them to rhyme a word with “tin”, for example, they may have trouble coming up with matches, such as “pin” or “win”. Since rhyming is difficult for them, they may avoid rhyming games at home or school.
If your child is struggling with reading and spelling, online dyslexia tutoring can help them make great progress! Dyslexia tutoring addresses each of these signs and symptoms, and helps the child build a great foundation in reading and spelling that will help them move forward. If you are interested in our online dyslexia tutoring, we would be happy to set up a free trial for you.
Peter Groth
CEO
Dyslexia Connect Online Tutoring
