Early Intervention: 10 (or 11) Early Signs of Dyslexia | Succeed With Dyslexia

We’re probably all pretty confident we know what dyslexia ‘looks like’: it’s a learning difference that primarily- but not solely- affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word-reading and spelling. We primarily associate dyslexia with difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed- but what’s important to remember is this isn’t an exhaustive list.

Most people with dyslexia experience a much broader range of symptoms than ‘struggling to read’ – it can even vary throughout a lifetime. And especially in younger children, there may be signs and signifiers of dyslexia that might not link up with our pre-existing expectations of ‘what dyslexia looks like’. It’s a condition that actually has a wide spectrum of indicators, and these can vary according to how an individual’s dyslexia particularly manifests.

The chances are that if you have it, you’re well aware of at least some of these early signs of dyslexia- but if you’re an advocate or a parent, you might be surprised by some of the ways that dyslexia can manifest, especially when we’re in the early years timeframe. So let’s take a run-down of some of the earliest signs that a child might have dyslexia so that we can intervene early and get them access to the support they need to succeed.

• Difficulty learning bits of poetry, song, or nursery rhymes. Some children learn to hide it, too - do they mouth along to songs or rhymes in groups, but not know the words when they’re alone?
• A history of slow speech development, and slow acquisition of the alphabet. And do they reverse letters when they’re writing them?
• Enjoying listening to stories, but acting averse or indifferent to books and words, or even showing an interest in books that’s limited to the illustrations. Or are they an avid learner but only sometimes, showing far more interest in non-written school activities like art, music, tech or gym class?
• Confusion in directional words or instruction, for example up and down, left and right. May demonstrate additional confusion when presented with directional neologisms too, such as ‘across the way’ or ‘just up there’.
• Difficulty with sequencing tasks (put the bookmark in the book, and then put the book on the shelf) or learning ordered routines (a morning getting up routine, a classroom routine etc).
• Word substitution, where the thinking is there but the words aren’t lining up: saying ‘skydive’ for ‘skylight’, for example.
• Sometimes forgetting the names of things that they commonly interact with, such as friends, colours, school objects or teachers- or even just mislabelling them, saying ‘pink’ for ‘red’.
• Muddling or switching letters in age-appropriate words and phrases - saying something like ‘radsberry’ or ‘sprasberry’ for ‘raspberry’; or ‘beddy tear’ or ‘tebby dare’ for ‘teddy bear’.
• Struggling (or even simply learning late) how to deal with fastenings- things like laces, buttons, buckles, clips and hair ties.
• Rhythm and rhyme problems: do they struggle to see the sound links between words like ‘cat’, ‘mat’ and ‘pat’- can they provide a rhyme when asked for one? And do they struggle with sound constancy, like clapping to the rhythm in a song?

Of course, an early years child having any of these symptoms isn’t a guarantee that they have dyslexia- some of these are relatively common as we develop and grow. But when there’s an instance of them- or even if you just have a gut feeling based on how they interact with the world around them- it’s always better to pursue an assessment. An assessment during this period of their lives is the gateway to getting children the help they need at the time when it has the power to have the most positive effect, before there’s much chance to fall behind in classes, or develop mental links between reading and anxiety that are difficult to break.

We did promise a +1 to this list, so here’s our last early years sign of dyslexia for today:

• A family history of dyslexia.

Dyslexia tends to run in families. It’s regarded as a neurobiological condition that’s genetic in its origin, and this means that you can very easily inherit dyslexia from your mother or your father. Sometimes it skips a generation, too- your grandfather might have it, your father might not, but then it appears again in you- or it may only effect certain members of a generation, for example, your dad and your aunt may not have dyslexia, but their brother might. It’s a mixed bag, and there’s no real way of predicting with any certainty- what is important is that we remember that dyslexia runs in the very fabric of our DNA. If you’ve relatives who have dyslexia, it’s worth getting children in your family assessed even if they’re not showing more than one of the above signs- dyslexia is so easy to miss to the untrained eye, but it’s much better to have an assessment and not need it than not have one and find out later on that you really did.

It might be difficult to know if you have any relatives from your parent or grandparent generations with dyslexia- until relatively recently, assessment and diagnosis was pretty rare. So be on the lookout for family members who left school early, disliked school or say that they don’t like reading, and chat to them about what they actually experience if they’re comfortable enough to do so. Some people might not be yet, so it’s a good idea not to press them. And watch out for those ‘familial quirks’ that older relatives might have an idea of, too – if your dad was always ‘mixing up his words’ as a young child, or your uncle struggled to tell the time or tie his shoes until he was older, it might warrant investigation. Remember, not all symptoms occur on the page.

For more on early signs of dyslexia, visit The British Dyslexia Association or The International Dyslexia Association.