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If a child has 3 or more of the following warning signs, I encourage you to learn more about dyslexia.

• delayed speech
• mixing up sounds and symbols in long words
• ear infections
• stuttering
• no desire to learn to read or write
• doesn't recognize their own name
• constant confusion of left versus right
• late establishing a dominant hand
• trouble memorizing their address, phone number, or the alphabet
• cannot rhyme
• has a close relative with dyslexia

• dysgraphia (slow, non-automatic handwriting that is difficult to read)
• letter or number reversals past the end of first grade
• extreme difficulty learning cursive
• terrible spelling
• often cannot remember sight words (they, were, does) or homonyms (their, they're, there)
• difficulty telling time with a clock with hands
• extreme messy backpack, desk, or bedroom
• when speaking, difficulty finding the correct word

                              - lots of "whatyamacallits" and "thingies"

                              - uncommon sayings come out slightly twisted 

• dreads going to school
• trouble with math 

                              - memorizing multiplication tables

                              - memorizing a sequence of steps

                              - directionality

• slow, sloppy, inaccurate reading:

                              - guesses based on shape or context

                              - skips or misreads preposition (at, to, of)

                              - ignores suffixes

                              - cannot sound out unknown words

                              - will not recognize a word they just read a couple seconds prior

All of the above symptoms plus:

• limited vocabulary
• unable to master a foreign language
• difficulty reading printed music
• extremely poor written expression

                              - large discrepancy between verbal skills and written compositions 

• poor grades in many classes
• may drop out of high school

Education history similar to above, plus:

• slow reader
• may have to read a page 2-3 times to understand it
• terrible speller
• difficulty putting thoughts onto paper

                             - dreads writing memos or letters 

• still had difficulty with left versus right
• often gets lost, even in familiar city
• sometimes confuses b and d, especially when tired or sick

Bright Solutions

www.dys-add.com/resources/RecentResearch/DysWarningSigns.pdf

Poor phonology or phonemic awareness- in any/all ages is a vital warning sign for dyslexia. 

The ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds in a spoken word. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken words and syllables are composed of a specific sequence of individual speech sounds. This ability also relates to larger units of sound- like the ability to rhyme and the ability to hear, identify and count syllables correctly.

Patricia Lindamood states: "If a student cannot perceive contrasts in speech-sound units, and cannot conceptualize the identity, the number, and the sequence of sounds in syllables and words, he or she has no way to verify the letter-sound compatibility in spelling and reading words. The student learns to read and spell more through rote memory then through an understanding of the structural link between sounds and letters. Such rote learning can restrict progress in reading and spelling because it does not permit precise comparison between spoken units and written units of words."

Our brains are made to obtain and produce language- we pronounce language the way that we hear it. Individuals without phonemic awareness hear individual sounds in a spoken word differently, which causes them to pronounce, read, and spell our spoken language incorrectly (i.e- “baf,” for “bath,” “comterferble,” for “comfortable,” etc).  Without this skill, one word is often mistaken for one sound, causing the inability to encode/decode. 

Imagine hearing individual sounds in a word the same way we hear language when we are spoken to under water; and then trying to sound that out. The ability to break up those individual phonemes and utilize them will be impossible- which proves that reading and spelling is impossible without phonemic awareness. A person struggling with dyslexia who has poor phonemic awareness skills hears individual sounds in a word the way others hear underwater. People struggling with dyslexia who lack phonemic awareness will hit a roadblock. While having to only rely on rote memory, they can only get so far, due to their poor memory for written language. Therefore, phonemic awareness has to come first, and continue to be the main foundation when learning how to read and spell.

• Pronouncing:

"tookie," instead of, "cookie."

"pus-get-ti," instead of "spaghetti"

"free" for "three"

"bafroom" for "bathroom"

                        etc...

• Hard to blend words
• Hard to recognize the same and/or difference of phonemes and/or words that sound similar

Services and support used to help young children who have learning disabilities that run in their family.

Creating neural connections instead of having to rewire them. If dyslexia runs in your family, early intervention is highly recommended to prevent the need of remediation. Early intervention provides the opportunity to learn the correct way a dyslexic brain needs to learn, the first time. 

Rewiring the neural connections in the brain. With dyslexia, think of learning how to read while [involuntarily] and continuously missing "gaps" throughout literacy. As time goes by, the gaps continue to grow larger.  Sooner rather than later, the gap will be much bigger than the amount of literacy retained. Remediation is the ability to get students who struggle with dyslexia to "unlearn" what they have been taught, so that they can successfully learn in a way that works for them. 

Without remediation, a child may not be able to ever learn how to read or spell at an appropriate level.