symptoms of dyslexia
Dyslexia Symptoms in Adults
Before we take a look at the symptoms of dyslexia in adults let us first take a quick look at what is Dyslexia in the first place.
What is Dyslexia?
There have been many definitions of Dyslexia over the years and with more and more understanding we have come to understand dyslexic patients and their condition a whole lot better. Dyslexia is a disability that specifically deals with learning. Dyslexia is of a neurological origin. Keep in mind that it is NOT a disease and being dyslexic has nothing to do with being intelligent. Dyslexia is not an ethnic, racial or gender based disorder. It can happen to both men and women alike.
Dyslexia should not be confused with the following
- Disease
- Being poor on intelligence
- Laziness or not being of a caring nature
- Something that can be cured with medicines or drugs
How Does Dyslexia happen to an Adult?
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that has neurological roots. It is a hereditary or a genetic condition. Remember that Dyslexia is not a disease but a disorder. Therefore, it cannot be contracted at any age or time. Adults with dyslexia have the disorder since childhood. 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 individual to receive necessary training and treatment to overcome future educational problems.
Having said the above, Dyslexia can be treated at any point in time in the life of an individual. However, it is necessary that it be diagnosed so that it is dealt with. There is no cure for dyslexia but an individual is treated or trained to grasp words and information.
Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia among Adults
The symptoms given below are to be associated with dyslexia if it is not usual for the individual’s age, level of education or cognitive abilities.
Signs and symptoms depicted by a dyslexic adult are as follows
- A dyslexic adult will not be able to read properly. Hence, they might hide their reading problems.
- They will have poor spelling abilities and will often rely on others to correct their spellings.
- They may also not be able to write. However, they are very confident in oral form of communication.
- At work they may be working well below the intellectual capacity required at their level.
- They may not be very good at planning, organizing and managing time, materials and tasks.
On the bright side, many dyslexic adults also have the following positives
- They are very good entrepreneurs.
- They could have very strong memory. This is largely because they are unable to use words in the written format and they start relying on their memory
- They are also known to have excellent people and inter personal skills.
- The right hemisphere in the brain is larger for a dyslexic as compared to a normal person. Therefore, they are stronger in areas controlled by the right side of their brain. Hence, you will often come across talented and creative people who are dyslexic. They do really well in the creative fields, sports and at visualizing 3-D images. For e.g. engineers, architects, designers, pastry arts, sports and musicians, etc…
- Dyslexics have a very good intuitive sense as well. They are very good at reading people and understanding them.
Posted in Dyslexia in Adults
Dyslexia Symptoms In Kindergarten Children
What is Dyslexia?
Before we get into the symptoms of dyslexia in kindergarten children, it is worth spending a min on understanding Dyslexia. Dyslexia has had many descriptions over the ages and has changed as people have come to understand more and more about dyslexia. A basic description of Dyslexia would be that it is a disability that specifically deals with learning. Dyslexia is of a neurological origin. It is worth pointing out and noting that it is NOT a disease and being dyslexic has nothing to do with being intelligent.
Children who are dyslexic can be spotted early, as early as kindergarten. In fact, it is the earliest stage at which dyslexia should be diagnosed as dyslexic children can be trained to learn and grasp words. This would help them tremendously as they grow. Being able to read, form words, understand text, participate in discussions and lead a healthy normal life is all possible even if you are dyslexic.
Kindergarten 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 at the kindergarten stage. Keep in mind that Dyslexia is not an ethnic or racial disorder. It can happen to both boys and girls, alike. It is not gender specific in anyway.
Symptoms of dyslexia in kindergarten children
Children in kindergarten, who have dyslexia, will show the following symptoms or signs
- 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.
- Confusion regarding 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.
If your child is showing any of the signs then you can bring these points for discussion with your child’s teacher and ask them to evaluate your child for a learning disability. This is done by schools at no cost and your child’s teacher would be best person to help you assess your child’s condition.
Please bear in mind that children at the kindergarten level do tend to reverse words and letters 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.
Can a Dyslexic Learn or be Taught?
The answer is, YES! A dyslexic child can be taught to read, write, spell and even pronounce and understand words and their formation. Dyslexia does require an early diagnosis and assessment. Then, these children can be phonologically trained and taught to absorb and process information in a manner that will make them understand words and sounds.
They will definitely take up more time as compared to other children. However, if children are identified as dyslexic at the kindergarten level then they can have additional help and this goes a long way to help them have fewer problems as they grow up.
Posted in Dyslexia in Children
Tagged dyslexia symptoms, kindergarten duslexia symtoms, symptoms of dyslexia