Signs of Dyslexia

Often students that are high achievers mask the symptoms of dyslexia and their difficulties and it only becomes apparent when the curriculum becomes more complex and demanding.

The Total Learning Center in Monmouth County seeks to help before then. Early intervention with a highly multi-sensory language curriculum such as the Wilson Reading System that integrates sounds, decoding, encoding and written language skills is essential for this type of learner.

25 Dyslexia Signs

The Total Learning Center offers dyslexia tests in Monmouth County. If your child is demonstrating some of these characteristics testing for dyslexia would be recommended:

1. Difficulty learning the alphabet.Often these children learn to sing the alphabet song as a rote song, but are unable to say the individual letters one at a time, even despite substantial practice.
2. Difficulty learning the names of the letters.
3. Difficulty learning the corresponding sounds for the letters of the alphabet.
4. Difficulty writing the alphabet.
5. A lack of symbol to sound association. These students have a very limited repertoire of sounds, so they tend to do wild guessing or use their sight memory to read and spell.
6. The student is unable to read satisfactory, despite adequate intelligence and educational opportunity.
7. Difficulty sound blending words that are unfamiliar.
8. Difficulty segmenting words into syllables.
9. Decoding errors (adding sounds, omitting sounds, substitution of sounds, omission of syllables). Sing read as sling, punishment read as punched, from read as form.
10. The student’s written work does not reflect his/her potential. Often these students can be very bright with strong verbal skills and vocabulary. However when they attempt to express their ideas on paper, it is difficult to decipher what they have written.
11. The student may have unusual difficulty with handwriting: forming the letters, remembering the shape of the letters or the direction of the letters such as g and q.
12. Difficulty with spelling beyond the weekly spelling list. Often students can memorize words for a spelling test, but then the next day can not spell these words. They have memorized a string of letters, but are not segmenting the sounds to spell accurately. They often have difficulty spelling words not in his/her memory bank: difficulty with short vowel discrimination, sound/symbol association, omissions, substitution and addition of sounds, and syllables, and sounds out of sequence when spelling words: Bart spelled brat.
13. Frequent letter reversals: b/d,p/q,w/m, g/q.
14. Transposition of letters within words: who/how, left/felt.
15. The student’s recall ability for names and words are poor.
16. The student has difficulty remembering and following directions.
17. The student has difficulty copying from a near point/far point or both.
18. Auditory discrimination difficulties particularly with the short vowels: Confusion between short e (ed) with short i (it), short o (hot) with short u (hut).
19. High talents in other areas that do not require reading, spelling, or writing : such as math ( with the exception of reading word problems), art, athletic prowess, creativity, building without looking at directions(such as legos).
20. There may be a history of dyslexia in the family.
21. May have strong listening skills which have been a compensation for the inability to read adequately.
22. They may have poor listening skills due to difficulties with attention , concentration and frustration.
23. Strong comprehension skills when read to,which indicates the ability to understand language despite a lack of memory for the letter symbols or sounds.
24. Generally these students are average to above average intelligence.
25. A lack of fluency when reading and generally reading one word at a time, due to a difficulty with decoding of words.

To learn more, contact the Total Learning Center online or by calling (732) 922-6655.