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Know The Signs:

Preschool years
Signs that a young child may be at risk of dyslexia:

  • Delay in language development and or family history of speech/language disorder
  • Slow to learn new words
  • Problems forming words correctly, such as reversing sounds in words or confusing words that sound alike
  • Problems remembering or naming letters, numbers and colors, or other items in categories
  • Difficulty learning nursery rhymes or naming words that rhyme

School Age Children

Once your child is in school, dyslexia symptoms may become more apparent, including:

  • Reading far below the expected level for age
  • Problems processing and understanding what is heard especially as sentences get longer and more complex
  • Difficulty finding the right word or forming answers to questions
  • Problems remembering the order of events or stories
  • Difficulty seeing (and occasionally hearing) similarities and differences in letters and words
  • Inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word and break up syllables
  • Difficulty spelling
  • Spending an unusually long time completing tasks that involve reading or writing
  • Avoiding activities that involve reading

Teens and adults
Dyslexia signs in teens and adults are similar to those in children.  Common dyslexia symptoms in teens and adults include:

  • Difficulty reading, including reading aloud
  • Slow and labor-intensive reading and writing
  • Problems spelling
  • Avoiding activities that involve reading
  • Mispronouncing names or words, or problems retrieving words
  • Spending a longer than typical amount of time completing tasks that involve reading or writing
  • Difficulty summarizing or retelling a story orally or in writing
  • Difficulty doing math word problems and/or multi step calculation

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