How Can You Identify Dyslexia?
The first step in getting help with dyslexia is to identify it. Students who are not doing as well in school as expected are good candidates for testing. While there is no single test for diagnosing dyslexia, a thorough assessment involves a series of tests—cognitive, language, social, emotional and academic. Professionals can identify how individuals learn by performing a comprehensive evaluation, focusing on:
Background Information
Cognitive/Intellectual Ability
Specific Language Skills
Listening Comprehension
Academic Evaluation
Phonemic Awareness
Some of the more common characteristics of dyslexia are listed below:
Early Warning Signs
Delayed speech & articulation problems
Phoneme confusion
Difficulty with directionality
Lack of dominant handedness
Difficulty learning alphabet, numbers, days, months, time
Delayed vocabulary growth
Poor ability to follow oral directions
Critical Warning Signs
Weak phonemic awareness
Difficulty with:
-rhyming
-segmenting
-blending
-distinguishing sounds in words or in isolated letters
Tendency to insert or delete a sound in a word
Difficulties in Reading
Slow and labored reading
Inaccurate oral reading
Poor decoding(reversals, omissions, substitutions, additions, phoneme confusion)
Not fluent
Ignores or changes small words
Deletes or changes suffixes
Tires easily
Reading comprehension compromised
Difficulties in Spelling
Reverses, transposes and rotates letters
Deletes and add letters
Persistent misspellings of common non-phonetic words such as “they” or “where”
Errors in copying
Level of oral vocabulary not evident in writing
Difficulties in Handwriting
Unusual and tight pencil grip
Writing letters is slow and labored
Poor letter formations, spacing and alignment of letters and words
Difficulties in Written Expression
Writing is slow and labored
Numerous errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar
Organizing thoughts and getting thoughts to paper are difficult
Easily overwhelmed by the multitude of tasks required to write
Difficulties in Math
Solving word problems
Mastering math facts
Poor number formations, misaligned numbers, number reversals, insertions, deletions and transposing digits
Number sequencing
Remembering the sequence of steps to solve a problem
Physical and temporal directionality
Processing confusion
Visual discrimination of numbers and signs, such as 6 and 9 or 2 and 5
Poor visual tracking
Auditory discrimination of numbers, such as 13 and 30 or 15 and 50
Errors in copying from the board
General Difficulties
Learning time concepts and time management skills
Study and organization skills
Following directions
Sequencing
Processing language
Word-retrieval
Short-term to long-term memory
Social Difficulties
Low frustration tolerance
Difficulty with interpreting nonverbal cues
Difficulty with making and keeping friends
Misunderstanding figurative language
Poor social judgment
Weak problem solving /coping skills
Difficulty in accepting changes in routine
Low self-esteem
High-risk for depression
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