For a diagnosis of the symptoms of dyslexia, the starting point is normally the teacher. Time and again it is your child’s teacher who is the first to point out problems, even though they don’t typically tell you that your child has dyslexia. A definition for dyslexia is “difficulty with words or language”, and will difficulties don’t always mean dyslexia per se, difficulties with language may lead you to start thinking about testing your child for this problem.
Dyslexia can obstruct short term memory function too. Dyslexics deepest desire routinely is to be able to read a really thick book from start to finish. The result is that they have to read something eight to ten times for them to store what a phrase means. Dyslexics can have difficulty lining up words and letters as the pure white background of paper can trigger visual stress. For a dyslexic to read like a non-dyslexic (i.e. as though they had no disability) they must spend a large part of their lives working at remembering things.
The symptom that is most common with dyslexia is called letter reversal. Confusing characters, like b and d, or 13 and 31 or even no and on, are one of the signs. However, there are many young children who do this and don’t have dyslexia. Difficulty mimicking hand gestures, like “lift your right arm’ or ‘touch your right toe with your left hand’. Another sign is sounding out letters like d-o-g and then saying another word like “draw”. Omission of letters like saying “sing” when reading “string” is common . Watching the gym teacher lift their left arm and then having difficulty figuring out which arm they should be lifting is an indicator. If your child reads letters or syllables in the wrong order, for starters parc and carp, or syllables like animal and animal. This is called sequencing.
The first step of a dyslexia diagnosis in children is to understand that the mere discovery of some symptoms does not automatically mean that it is actually dyslexia. There is a possibility that the signs are just indicating that you need to investigate more deeply. So don’t panic if you see some reading difficulties. However, you may find that once a diagnosis of dyslexia is made, all the pressure can ease, as finally there is a reason for the difficulties.
Dyslexia often means that a child needs to be taught in a certain way that fits how a child’s brain is working. That’s all dyslexia is, really. Be sure to give your child adequate time. For more information on the symptoms of dyslexia, I would like to invite you to visit Dr. Linda Silbert’s website.
There’s more to dyslexia symptoms than you can read in an article. Stop by DrLindasBLog.com for more information.