Am I dyslexic?

This is a growing question among many of all ages and due to the fact that early

identification can facilitate the long term outcome of the dyslexia treatment, we

would like to list some of the dyslexia symptoms. In understanding the dyslexia

definition, one can better prepare for a dyslexia action plan. There is no one

certain dyslexia test, and a person should be encouraged to visit a professional in

the field to best ascertain if the dyslexia symptoms are positive. Below are a few

signs of dyslexia.

Difficulties sequencing

This is the difficulty to perceive and then remember something in sequence, like

the order of the letters in a word and this will directly affect their reading and

spelling skills. To be able to read, a person should perceive the letters in sequence

and recall what that word meant by the sequence the letters were put in. Simply

changing the order of the words can result in a different meaning like ‘listen’ can

become ‘silent’.

The result is that the dyslexic may omit letters like ‘wet’ instead of ‘went’, or

simply get the order of the letters wrong, or even get the order of the syllables

wrong. They may not remember the order of numbers like telephone numbers and

other things like the order of the seasons.

Getting stuck on little words

Often thought of as a sign of laziness, this can be very common, despite at times

succeeding with bigger more complex words the person may make mistakes with

smaller words like ‘and’, ‘if’. Further mistakes are misreading words like, ‘then’ for

‘than’. Also he may omit or repeat twice the same word or even add little words

where they should not be.

Issues with directional confusion

An example is a person may be uncertain of their right and left side and by age 5

should easily make this distinction. This also shows with getting confused with

what is up or down and losing one’s position when playing board games. This

tends to show 80% of the time with children with dyslexia where this number

drops with children with milder conditions. This is what leads to mirror writing or

reversing letters like b and d or invert letters like n and u.

Lateness in talking

A baby should be able to understand basic words and commands by nine months

and by one year of age be saying a few words and by two knowing up to 200 words

and saying 2 letter phrases like “drink water”. By three years of age they should

know about 1000 words and using sentences that are comprehendible albeit at

times mixing up of the consonants. By four their speech should be fully developed

and be able to talk despite some grammatical mistakes.

There has been research that strongly suggests that backwardness in speech

development is indicative to speech disturbances in dyslexic children compared to

normal children. This Learning disability in dyslexics showed that about 60% of

dyslexics were late in talking.

Poor handwriting

Another term that describes this Learning disability is dysgraphia and is typically

characterized with:

- Unfinished letters and words

- Letter inconsistencies

- Illegible writing

- Mixing of upper and lower case letters as well as print and cursive letters

- Irregular letter size and shape

Poor math skills

The term dyscalculia is often used to when referred to this learning disability and

dyslexics can struggle with maths up to the age of twelve. Here are a few typical

signs:

- Reversal of numbers like 23 instead of 32

- Struggles with arithmetic

- Difficulty telling time

- Mixing of numbers like instead of 321 says 132

- Although understanding what subtraction means, he cannot find the total

value

- Confusion with mathematical sign like + and x or < (less than) and > (greater

than)

Strange spelling and reading

This severe form of dyslexia involves wild guessing of word regardless of if makes

sense and involves bizarre use of words and content structure. There will also be

strange spelling like ‘did’ spelt ‘don’.

More dyslexia symptoms

- Struggles to attach a name to a person or object

- Difficulty copying text

- Does not use full stop and commas and does not understand use of capital

letters

- Cannot associate the word to the sound

- Does not remember what was read

- Reads but may not comprehend what was read

- Adds or omits suffixes and prefixes

- Substitutes words for ones with similar meaning like ‘rat’ for ‘mouse’

- Although written in past tense, will read in future tense

- Shortens words, like ‘proportion’ to ‘portion’

- Mispronunciation of words and stress on the wrong syllables

- Hesitantly reads in monotonous manner

- Misses lines on page where was reading from

- Fabricates a story with no relation to text

Is there a dyslexia treatment? Further reading.

Written by AssistiveMart.com