Dyslexia Symptoms

Dyslexia may skip a generation and never have been diagnosed, but it remains highly heritable. If you have it, there is approximately a 50% chance your child will. Dig carefully through your family tree before concluding it's not there. Many adults hide their reading difficulty or chose careers that did not require reading — something increasingly difficult to do.

Did your child suffer from recurring ear infections as an infant or when they were very young? The ear infections themselves may not be the cause, but they may relate to why dyslexia is an auditory disability more than a visual one. Learning of this odd indicator was an eye opener for us, because my stepson had a history of ear infections as a baby — just another warning sign of which we were not aware. Note that some research in this area has found no correlation between the infections and dyslexia, but study continues.

Distinguishing and manipulating the fundamental sounds of language is very difficult for people with dyslexia, so it's no surprise they may be late in developing speech. Every child learns at his or her own pace, so don't jump to conclusions if your child is behind “the norm”. According to the Mayo Clinic:

Children typically learn the alphabet between 3–5 years of age, but a child with dyslexia may struggle well beyond those ages to achieve mastery — and even then may forget the sequence from lack of practice. Extra repetitions alone may not be enough; alternative multisensory methods of teaching the ABCs may be required.

For most kids, a hand preference emerges between 2–4 years of age and is established by age 5. People with dyslexia usually take longer. Note that people with dyslexia are more likely to be left handed than those in the general population, but being left handed does not cause dyslexia.

Here we are talking not about words but the 44 specific phonemes (sounds) of the English language. For example, difficulty with the /th/ and /r/ sounds is very common. This problem is normal for all younger children, but is more pronounced in children with dyslexia. If weak pronunciation persists it can reflect an auditory processing problem wherein some sounds are simply not being distinguished properly by the brain. If you suspect problems, consider asking your school for support from a speech-language pathologist. In Canada, if the school doesn't provide such a service, check with SAC Canada.

Difficulty with the basic sounds (phonemes) of language is the signature difficulty of the dyslexic. Very simply, the more sounds and syllables in a word, the more likely a child with dyslexia will have trouble pronouncing it. The order of the sounds tends to get jumbled, thus “pasghetti” (spaghetti) and “Kershmal” (commercial). Be careful with this symptom though, because it's quite normal for kids to mash up words when first learning them. The child with dyslexia simply has a more acute problem and it doesn't resolve as easily. In fact, it will never completely go away.

Children with dyslexia often have dysgraphia, which means difficulty writing. It is not simply messy handwriting, although messy writing and difficulty staying between lines are typical. The problem is rooted in weak fine motor skills combined with difficulty memorizing sequences, since drawing each letter is a sequence of pencil strokes. Signs to watch for include poor pencil grip and moving the wrist or arm (gross motor skill) instead of the fingers (fine motor skill). Read more on our dysgraphia page.

Yes, the stereotype contains a kernel of truth. For those with dyslexia, 'pat' may become 'tap' or 'bat' may become 'pat'. All kids will occasionally reverse letters as they learn to write, and everyone makes mistakes when they are tired or not focusing. The difference with dyslexia is that the problem may be more persistent and continue beyond grade two or three.

Reading will tend to be very slow and labored and, in some cases, you may note odd guesses at words based solely on context or word shape. Some with dyslexia tend to see words holistically and thus “witch” and “watch” become almost indistinguishable, as the beginnings and ends are the same and the words have the same number of letters. This is the reason that phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for reading. If students cannot mentally break larger words down into syllables, they can become overwhelmed when faced with multi-syllabic words.

Spelling will be very difficult, especially words that have more syllables in them and irregular words such as 'yacht' or 'enough'. Spelling rules will need to be taught explicitly for real progress to be made. On a positive note, with spell check, speech-to-text technology and predictive typing, spelling is somewhat less important as a critical writing skill today.

Many people with dyslexia have difficulty with mathematics due to working memory and sequential processing weaknesses, as well as difficulties with rote memorization (see dyscalculia). Algebra may be challenging given its language-like sequencing of letters and numbers. Similarly, word problems (e.g. “Sally had three times as many pens as Sam…”) may become opaque not because of mathematical deficiency but simply from poor comprehension of the question.

When you first witness this, it's completely bewildering. Rhyming seems so easy for people without dyslexia because it simply involves swapping out one sound (phoneme) for another. But children with dyslexia just cannot parse (break and reassemble) words in that way. This is one of the more reliable indicators of dyslexia because it requires a very specific ability that a person who actually has dyslexia struggles with: phoneme manipulation. If I had to choose one indicator to quickly identify dyslexia, it would be the ability (or not) to effortlessly rhyme words.

You may notice lots of “ums” and “ahs” and “that thing-a-ma-jig over that way” kind of sentences. This is likely a result of difficulty with word recall and difficulty recounting events and stories, in part because sentences and stories are sequences that have to be assembled in a more or less specific order.

Left/right, east/west, before/after, in front of/behind are all difficult abstractions for children with dyslexia. The term directional dyslexia is sometimes used to describe this problem.

Addresses and phone numbers seem like short and easy things to recall, but they are abstract sequences of information not used often. Without repeated practice, it's information easily forgotten.

Daily failure in the public eye and in the presence of your peers will quickly take a toll if not offset by a lot of encouragement and positives. Ben Foss coined the term 'slow drip trauma' to describe the daily stress and anxiety that people with dyslexia often have to bear. I think it captures the seriousness of the problem. Be sure to recognize and celebrate every success. Find your child's strengths and be sure they spend lots of time on those activities — sports, art, music, drama, dance, even video games. Everyone is good at something.

Obviously poor grades can result from many things, but for those who suffered from a reading deficit as a young child, academic problems begin to compound. Without the right kinds of interventions at home and in the classroom, even twice the homework and private tutoring may not turn marks around.

For many people with dyslexia, school is a place associated with failure, so by high school we should not be surprised they are looking for an exit and drop out. People with dyslexia make up a disproportionate number of creative entrepreneurs who start their own companies — Richard Branson is the perfect example. Sadly, people with dyslexia also make up a disproportionate number of inmates who never found their place in the world.

Without proper help, reading and writing are simply avoided as much as possible — a source of shame or embarrassment.

Adults with dyslexia may be found in lower-skill jobs than expected when overall intelligence and capabilities are considered. People with dyslexia often thrive in “people” jobs such as sales, or as artists, architects, cooks and in the skilled trades.

Books and reading fail to become a source of joy or pleasure. If never introduced to audio books or speech-to-text technology, adults can remain cut off from many sources of information and entertainment that most other adults take for granted.