General Indicators of Dyslexia


Many of the difficulties listed below are common during a child's first year or two at school. However, if a group of these symptoms persists beyond the time when the average child has grown out of them, this may indicate dyslexia and expert advice should be sought.


READING and SPELLING

  • Confusion of letters similar in shape: e.g. d-b; u-n

  • Confusion of letters similar in sound: e.g. v, f, th: also vowels

  • Reversals: e.g. was-saw

  • Transposals: e.g. left-felt; auction-caution

  • Omission or insertion of words

  • Repetition of word or phrase

  • Changing sequence of words: e.g. she is - is she

  • Confusion of small words: of, for, from

  • Bizarre spelling


READING

  • Difficulty in keeping correct place on line

  • Difficulty in switching from end of line to beginning of next one

  • No expression or intonation in wrong place

  • Difficulty in understanding a passage even if correctly read

  • Faulty auditory sequencing: Roman merains - Roman remains

  • Mispronouncing some words: renember

  • Difficulty in 'sounding out' unfamiliar words


WRITING

  • Foreshortening: rember - remember

  • Fusion of letters: p (up)

  • Repetition of a word or words

  • Capitals left out or in the wrong places

  • i's not dotted. t's not crossed, I's crossed

  • Badly formed letters, or, if shape is correct, formed in unconventional way

  • Difficulty in keeping on the line

  • Omission of punctuation, confusion over punctuation and syntax

  • Odd pencil grip

  • Difficulty in copying from blackboard


OTHER INDICATORS

  • Late in learning to speak

  • Difficulty in repeating long words e.g. unanimous, preliminary

  • Confusion between: right - left; east - west; up - down; etc.

  • Difficulty in sequencing: alphabet, months of the year, numbers, words in a sentence, etc.

  • Difficulty in learning tables, or doing mental arithmetic

  • Slow in looking up words in a dictionary, or names in a telephone book

  • Poor concentration and memory

  • Difficulty in interpreting other symbols; figures, notes in music, morse, etc.

  • Late in learning to tell time and in such things as tying shoelaces etc.

  • Difficulty in understanding concepts such as: in-on-under; yesterday-tomorrow

  • Other poor readers or bad spellers in the family

  • Left handedness or mixed laterality in the child or in members of his family

  • Particular artistic or mechanical talents