Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which affects language and words.  Below are some of the syptoms for pre-school and primary school children, as described by the people at Focus on Learning.

Pre-school children may have some of the following symptoms:

• persistent difficulty in learning nursery rhymes
• enjoyment in being read to but showing little or no interest in letters or words or writing;
• signs of not paying attention;
• continuing difficulties in getting dressed efficiently and putting shoes on the correct feet;
• problems with catching, kicking or throwing a ball or with hopping or skipping;
• difficulty with copying a simple rhythm using clapping;
• delayed speech development- may say things like ‘puter’ instead of ‘computer’
• difficulty learning the alphabet, for example l,m,n,o,p’ may sound like ‘lmenopey’
• difficulty with jigsaw puzzles – may not recognise the difference between outside and inside pieces

Primary school children may have some of the following symptoms:

• a poor sense of direction and confuse left and right;
• difficulty tying shoe laces and dressing;
• a discrepancy between receptive and expressive language;
• Has trouble paying attention or loses focus easily and often;
• short-term memory limitations, for instance, finding it hard to remember times tables or the alphabet or classroom instructions;
• difficulty putting thoughts in to words, speaks in halting phrases;

• reading difficulties such as:
  • hesitant or laboured reading
  • omitted lines or repetition of the same line – loss of place in the text
  • muddling words that look alike, e.g. ‘no’ and ‘on’, ‘for’ and ‘off’ and ‘was’ and ‘saw’
  • difficulties in saying multi-syllabic words
  • problems understanding what they have read.
  • substitution of words such as ‘house’ and ‘home’, (words with similar meaning in their minds)

• Difficulties with writing and spelling. Errors might include:
  • a disparity between written and spoken language
  • messy work, for example, curled pages, crossings out and badly set out
  • handwriting that looks heavy and laborious
  • confusion of similar letters, like ‘b’ and ‘d’, ‘p’ and ‘q’ and ‘w’ and ‘m’
  • the same word spelt differently in the same piece of work, such as ‘more’, ‘mor’ and ‘mro’
  • confusion between upper and lower case letters
  • confusion between letter name and its sound

They may also surprise you, as in all other ways they are bright and alert, often artistic and creative.

This information provided by Focus on Learning, offering Davis Dyslexia Programs for adults and children.  Link:  www.focusonlearning.com.au

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