Dyslexia - What is it?

The International Dyslexia Association of Oregon posted the following definition of dyslexia on their website:

"Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin.  It is characterized by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.  These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities...."

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY CHILD COULD BE DYSLEXIC?  

Dr. Sally Shaywitz, M.D. is one of the premier researchers and experts in the nation on dyslexia.  In her recent revision of her landmark book, Overcoming Dyslexia, Second Edition, she lists the following symptoms as indicators that further follow up and evaluation is warranted.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia

PRIOR TO YOUR CHILD ENTERING SCHOOL:

Listen to your child speak!

a. Was there a delay in speaking?  (Did he or she spoke words after 13 months, phrases after 18 months.  Did he or she continue to point rather than use words to ask for things). 

b. After speech begins, does he or she have atypical difficulties in pronunciation Does he or she talk around specific words. 

c. Does he or she lack ability to identify or create rhyme by age 6. (Dyslexic children have trouble penetrating the sound structure of words and pulling words apart. They often confuse words that sound alike.) 

e. He or she may have trouble accessing phonemes, saying similar sounding words incorrectly – eg, saying volcano instead of tornado

f   He or she habitually uses words lacking specificity.

g. He or she has difficulty identifying the segments of words, is unable to count out the number of syllables (parts) in words.  After age 4 or so, has trouble identifying the number of  distinct sounds (phonemes) in words.

AFTER KINDERGARTEN

Where does he/she stand academically, does he/she:

a. Know that spoken words come apart and that letters represent these sounds.

b. Easily identify the letters of the alphabet in both their upper and lowercase forms.

c. Write the letters of the alphabet (from random dictation order).  (Remember that children often reverse letters and numbers through the age of 7.)

d. Knows most of the letter-sound matches.

e. Sound out simple Consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words.

f. Recognize at least 50 common sight words.

g. Use invented spellings.

h. Spell a few simple words accurately.

i. Know the conventions of print (reads from left to right and top to bottom).

j. Have a growing vocabulary.

k. Look forward to reading activities.

FURTHER TROUBLE SIGNS ACROSS THE LATER GRADES. 

Your child/student:

a. Doesn’t seem to get much from his reading.

b. Has trouble answering the question “What was the book about”

c. Doesn’t enjoy reading.

d. Spends the same amount of time on easy passages as he/she does on difficult ones.

e. Doesn’t finish what he begins to read.

f. Doesn’t seem to be able to relate his reading to things he knows.

g. Doesn’t seem to be able to relate his reading to things he knows.

h. Has trouble drawing inferences from his reading; his interpretations are always extremely literal.

i. Can’t quite come up with main ideas or summarize what he has read.

j. Can’t distinguish important ideas from lesser ones in the text

k. Has trouble making predictions.

l. Rarely looks back to earlier pages to check his reading.

m. Says reading is boring or tiring.

n. Avoids reading