Indicators of dyslexia

The word dyslexia comes from Greek and means “difficulty with words.”

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty (SpLD) and is defined by the 2009 Rose Report as: “a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling.”

Key characteristics of dyslexia are difficulties with:

  • Phonological awareness

  • Verbal memory

  • Verbal processing speed

Difficulties regarding organisation, motor skills and concentration can also co-occur with dyslexia. However, individually these traits do not indicate dyslexia.

Dyslexia is regarded as a continuum, rather than a clear category with cut off points and it isn’t linked to intelligence- it can affect children and adults of all intellectual abilities.

Dyslexia often runs in families.

Dyslexia occurs in approximately 10% of the population.

Indicators of dyslexia

 The British Dyslexia Association highlight the following as possible indicators of dyslexia:

 Early Years

  • Difficulty learning nursery rhymes

  • Difficulty paying attention, sitting still, listening to stories

  • Likes listening to stories but shows no interest in letters or words

  • Difficulty learning to sing or recite the alphabet

  • A history of slow speech development

  • Muddles words e.g. cubumber, flutterby

  • Difficulty keeping simple rhythm

  • Finds it hard to carry out two or more instructions at one time, (e.g. put the toys in the box, then put it on the shelf) but is fine if tasks are presented in smaller units

  • Forgets names of friends, teacher, colours etc.

  • Poor auditory discrimination

  • Difficulty cutting, sticking and crayoning in comparison with their peer group

  • Difficulty in dressing, e.g. finds shoelaces and buttons difficult

  • Difficulty with catching, kicking or throwing a ball

  • Often trips, bumps into things, and falls over

  • Difficulty hopping or skipping

  • Obvious 'good' and 'bad' days for no apparent reason

Primary age children

  • Speed of processing: slow spoken and/or written language

  • Poor concentration

  • Difficulty following instructions

  • Forgetting words

 Written work

  • Poor standard of written work compared with oral ability

  • Produces messy work with many crossings out and words tried several times, e.g. wippe, wype, wiep, wipe

  • Confused by letters which look similar, particularly b/d, p/g, p/q, n/u, m/w

  • Poor handwriting with many ‘reversals’ and badly formed letters

  • Spells a word several different ways in one piece of writing

  • Makes anagrams of words, e.g. tired for tried, bread for beard

  • Produces badly set-out written work, doesn’t stay close to the margin

  • Poor pencil grip

  • Produces phonetic and bizarre spelling: not age/ability appropriate

  • Uses unusual sequencing of letters or words

 Reading

  • Slow reading progress

  • Finds it difficult to blend letters together

  • Has difficulty in establishing syllable division or knowing the beginnings and endings of words

  • Unusual pronunciation of words

  • No expression in reading, and poor comprehension

  • Hesitant and laboured reading, especially when reading aloud

  • Misses out words when reading, or adds extra words

  • Fails to recognise familiar words

  • Loses the point of a story being read or written

  • Has difficulty in picking out the most important points from a passage

 Numeracy

  • Confusion with place value e.g. units, tens, hundreds

  • Confused by symbols such as + and x signs

  • Difficulty remembering anything in a sequential order, e.g. tables, days of the week, the alphabet

Time

  • Has difficulty learning to tell the time

  • Poor time keeping

  • Poor personal organisation

  • Difficulty remembering what day of the week it is, their birth date, seasons of the year, months of the year

  • Difficulty with concepts – yesterday, today, tomorrow

 Skills

  • Poor motor skills, leading to weaknesses in speed, control and accuracy of the pencil

  • Limited understanding of non-verbal communication

  • Confused by the difference between left and right, up and down, east and west

  • Indeterminate hand preference

  • Performs unevenly from day to day

 Behaviour

  • Uses work avoidance tactics, such as sharpening pencils and looking for books

  • Seems ‘dreamy’, does not seem to listen

  • Easily distracted

  • Is the class clown or is disruptive or withdrawn

  • Is excessively tired due to amount of concentration and effort required

Teenagers/adults

Written work

  • Has a poor standard of written work compared with oral ability

  • Has poor handwriting with badly formed letters or has neat handwriting, but writes very slowly

  • Produces badly set out or messy written work, with spellings crossed out several times

  • Spells the same word differently in one piece of work

  • Has difficulty with punctuation and/or grammar

  • Confuses upper and lower case letters

  • Writes a great deal but 'loses the thread'

  • Writes very little, but to the point

  • Has difficulty taking notes

  • Has difficulty with organisation of homework

  • Finds tasks difficult to complete on time

  • Appears to know more than they can commit to paper

  • Reading

  • Is hesitant and laboured, especially when reading aloud

  • Omits, repeats or adds extra words

  • Reads at a reasonable rate, but has a low level of comprehension

  • Fails to recognise familiar words

  • Misses a line or repeats the same line twice

  • Loses their place easily/uses a finger or marker to keep the place

  • Has difficulty in pin-pointing the main idea in a passage

  • Has difficulty using dictionaries, directories, encyclopaedias

 Numeracy

  • Has difficulty remembering tables and/or basic number sets

  • Finds sequencing problematic

  • Confuses signs such as x for +

  • Can think at a high level in mathematics, but needs a calculator for simple calculations

  • Misreads questions that include words

  • Finds mental arithmetic at speed very difficult

  • Finds memorising formulae difficult

Other areas

  • Confuses direction - left/right

  • Has difficulty in learning foreign languages

  • Has indeterminate hand preference

  • Has difficulty in finding the name for an object

  • Has clear difficulties processing information at speed

  • Misunderstands complicated questions

  • Finds holding a list of instructions in memory difficult, although can perform all tasks when told individually

  • Behaviour

  • Is disorganised or forgetful e.g. over sports equipment, lessons, homework, appointments etc

  • Is often in the wrong place at the wrong time

  • Struggles to meet deadlines

  • Is excessively tired, due to the amount of concentration and effort required for academic/ other tasks that require focus.