Signs & Symptoms

Before School

• History of slow speech development
• Difficulty learning nursery rhymes
• Finds phonological difficulty with the selection of the odd one out e.g. cat : pig : fat
• Slow in name finding
• Some dyslexic children enjoy being read to, but show no interest in letters or words
• Others have no patience for sitting and listening
• Difficulty with 2 or more instructions at one time (due to weak memory system) but well able to carry out tasks when presented in smaller units
• Difficulty keeping simple rhythm
• May not crawl but walks early
• Persistent difficulty in dressing
• Difficulty with shoe laces, buttons, clothes the right way around
• Difficulty with catching, kicking or throwing a ball
• Difficulty with hopping and skipping
• Excessive tripping, bumping into things and falling over things
• Obvious ‘good’ and ‘bad’ days for no apparent reason

At School

• Personal organisation poor
• Poor time keeping and awareness
• Difficulty in remembering what day of the week it is, birth date, seasons of the year, month of the year
• Difficulty in learning to tell the time
• Difficulty remembering anything in sequential order, e.g. days of the week, the alphabet, tables, foreign languages
• Poor reading progress, particularly on look-and-say methods
• Inability to blend letters together
• Difficulty in establishing syllable division, beginnings and endings of words synthesis and analysis of word
• Hesitant and laboured reading, especially when reading aloud, often misses out words or adds extra words or fails to recognise familiar words
• Making anagrams of words, e.g. tired for tried, breaded for bearded
• Undetermined hand preference
• Confusion between left and right
• Poor handwriting with many reversals and badly formed letters
• Poor standard of written work in comparison with oral ability
• Losing the point of the story being written or read.
• Messy work with many crossings out and words tried several times e.g. wippe, wype, wiep, wipe
• Persistent confusion with letters which look similar, particularly b/d, p/q, n/u, m/w
• Confusion with number order, e.g. plus and minus
• A word spelt several different ways in one piece of writing
• Badly set out written work, inability to stay close to the margin
• Seems to dream, does not seem to listen
• Easily distracted
• Limited understanding of non-verbal communication
• Fine motor skills may be poor leading to weakness in the speed, control and accuracy of the pencil
• May become the class clown, disruptive or withdrawn (these are cries for help)
• Employs work avoidance tactics (sharpening pencils, looking for books etc.)
• Rests head on desk or right over to one side when colouring or writing
• Performs unevenly day to day
• Excessive tiredness due to the amount of concentration and effort required

• Perceptive and streetwise
• Good at reading social clues and subtleties
• IQ above average
• Good at finding visual patterns
• Excellent at creative and entrepreneurial professions, but difficulty keeping a 9 to 5 job
• Potential to be extremely successful with the right support
• Simultaneously, potential to engage in anti-social behaviour
• Non-conformist, thinks outside the box, coming up with innovative ways of doing things
• Difficulty budgeting and managing money
• Difficulty driving, cycling, dancing, doing aerobics
• Difficulty making decisions
• Difficulty following instructions
• Either obsessed with cleaning or alternatively very disorganised
• Dependent on others to accomplish tasks
• Sensitive to food and alcohol
• Popular with children