Dyslexia Symptoms, Test and Treatment

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia in Children

Dyslexia and Children

Before we actually look at the signs and symptoms of dyslexia in children, it is best we first try and understand what Dyslexia is all about. Understand dyslexia is important to be able to deal with a dyslexic child or adult.

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia In Children

It is a disability that specifically deals with learning. Dyslexia is of a neurological origin. It is NOT a disease and being dyslexic has nothing to do with being intelligent. It is a hereditary or a genetic condition.

Children with dyslexia have difficulties with accurate and fluent (or both) recognition and utterance of words. These difficulties result from deficiency of the phonological factor in language which in turn hampers the growth of vocabulary and knowledge among children.
Dyslexia is not an ethnic or racial disorder. It can happen to both boys and girls, alike.

Is Dyslexia found in Children?

Yes, Dyslexia is most commonly found in children. A child is born with dyslexia and as they grow they struggle to learn or remember or express themselves in words.

If diagnosed at an early stage of childhood it will help the child to receive necessary training and treatment to overcome future educational problems.
The research of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) has shown that dyslexia is caused due to a due to the variation in gene ‘DCDC2’. This is the gene on the short arm of chromosome 6. It is because of the variation in this gene that the normal formation of the brain circuits required for fluent reading are disrupted, leading to dyslexia. Further research has shown that genetic screening of these variations will help identify affected children earlier on in their lives and probably prevent misdiagnosis of other learning disabilities that may resemble dyslexia.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia among Children

The signs and symptoms of dyslexia are different among children of various age groups. The age groups are categorized below

• Pre-School
• Kindergarten to the 4th grade
• Grades 5 to 8
• High school (teenagers)

The signs and symptoms mentioned below are often associated with dyslexia if they are unexpected for the child`s age group, level of educational or cognitive abilities. A qualified diagnostician should test the children to determine if they are truly dyslexic.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia among Pre-School Children

Some of signs and symptoms of Dyslexia that can be observed in pre school children are listed below

• Will talk much later than most of the children their age.
• Will have difficulty in understanding simple directions or will not remember what you asked.
• Will not be able to follow multi-step routines or directions.
• Will mix up the pronunciation of words.
• The child will struggle to produce intelligible speech which an unfamiliar listener will not grasp.
• Will be slow at adding words in their vocabulary.
• Uttering three to five words may be difficult for the child.
• Will often be unable to recall the right words for common vocabulary.
• Might have difficulties in rhyming or knowing which of the words begin with the same sounds.
• May face difficulty in learning things like the days of the week, alphabets, numbers, shapes etc
• May face difficulty in how to spell and write his or her name.
• The development of the fine motor skills will be slower than the other children.
• May have difficulty telling a story in the correct .
• Often will face difficulty in separating and blending sounds when trying to speak words.

Recognition, diagnosis and treatment of the above risk factors at an early stage may not prevent dyslexia, but it will largely reduce the severity of the disorder.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia among Kindergarten to 4th Grade Children

• Delayed learning of tasks such as tying shoe laces or telling the time in a watch or clock
• These children start talking very late as compared to children of their age group
• They have a confusion of their right and left side or be confused with arithmetical signs
• It is difficult for them spell in a phonetic manner
• They have difficulty with reading and spelling
• They may face difficulty in letter reversal, such as ‘D’ or ‘B’
• They may not be able to recognize similar or closely related words, such as ‘Town’ or “Down’, ‘Mine’ or ‘Dime’
• They may not recognize ‘Inversions’ such as –’d’ or ‘b’, ‘m’ or ‘w’ and ‘u’ or ‘n’.
• They may also have problems with transposition of words. For e.g. ‘house’ and ‘home’ , ‘come’ or ‘go’ and ‘give’ or ‘take’.
• They may take a lot of time in learning vocabulary
• They may face difficulty is organizational, planning and time management skills.
• They will grip their pencil in an awkward fashion
• May not able to recollect or remember facts
• The might even have poor fineness in motor coordination or struggle to perform sequential motor tasks, such as tying or untying shoe laces.

Please bear in mind that children at the kindergarten level do tend to reverse words and letter as they begin learning. It is completely normal for a child at the kindergarten level to do that. However, this tendency of mix ups usually disappears by the time the children reach the 2nd grade.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia among Children in the 5th to 8th Grade

• Tend to read below their grade’s level.
• Will reverse the sequence of letters, such as ‘soiled’ for “solid’, ‘left’ for ‘felt’.
• Might be slow in determining the differences between words or things.
• Have trouble with root words, suffixes, prefixes and other spelling and reading.
• May spell the same words differently on the same page.
• May avoid reading loudly.
• May find math problems especially word problems difficult.
• May have awkward grip of their pencil and will write with illegible handwriting.
• May even avoid writing altogether.
• May find difficulty with written composition.
• May have slow or poor recollection of facts.
• Might face difficulty with comprehension.
• For dyslexic children non-literal language will be incomprehensible. For e.g. – idioms, jokes, proverbs or slang.
• May have difficulty with planning, organizing and managing time, materials and tasks.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia among Children in High School (teenagers)

Dyslexic teenagers tend to have all of the above signs and symptoms described above and a few more as they grow older.

• Might have difficulty in processing information that is auditory in nature.
• Dyslexic teenagers have a tendency to lose things and often have poor organizational skills.
• Slow at reading as compared to the teenagers in their class.
• Their reading comprehension is very low.
• Dyslexic teenagers will face difficulty in remembering the names of people or places or both.
• May have a hesitant pattern of speech and will not be able to use appropriate words in their sentences.
• It is usually difficulty for them to organize ideas while writing a letter or paper.
• Poor in spelling.
• Difficulty in recollecting numbers or even phone numbers in a proper sequence.
• Since teenagers with dyslexia will be relatively behind the children their age, they will tend to have a lower sense of self-esteem due to frustration and the inability to grasp things faster.
• Dyslexic teenagers may be excellent navigators or can be very bad at directions.

In case of all the above categories of children a cluster of dyslexic symptoms must be observed before you can suspect dyslexia. Do not jump into conclusions that your child is dyslexic just because he/she portrays one of the above signs or symptoms. Always consult a licensed medical practitioner to determine symptoms and treatment for any medical diagnosis and treatment.

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