Symptoms of Dyslexia

Dyslexia. You’ve probably heard of it sometime before, right? You might even know someone that has it. But would you be able to tell when somebody has dyslexia and doesn’t know it? My guess is probably not. You may think that having dyslexia means that you’re dumb, but really, some of the smartest people in history were dyslexic. Most people, when they think of being dyslexic, they think that it’s just reading from right to left or jumbling up words. But those are only two of the very many symptoms of the learning disorder.

A lot of the symptoms of dyslexia have to do with not understanding words or the letters that make them up. Elisions, which would be like switching cat and cart, are a quite common thing with dyslexics. Another big symptom is when a person sounds out the right letter, but they say the wrong word, such as spelling c-a-t, but saying cold. Sometimes they will spell things as they sound, like lite for light. When some dyslexics write, they won’t space things out correctly so somethingsmayturnoutlikethis an dot hersm mig htloo kli keth is. They may also read or write letters in the wrong order. Dyslexics may fail to hear and see similarities and differences in letters and words. Even these aren’t all the many dyslexia symptoms.

Although a lot of the signs have to do with letters and words, there are still more. A dyslexic might have very poor or slow handwriting, or will probably have a reading ability way below the expected level for their age. Children who may be dyslexic could start talking late, have difficulty rhyming, and once they start to learn to read, they may read slow and hesitantly. A lot of dyslexics have very poor comprehension in school and may have trouble at math. Some might not recognize the words on a printed page, even if they are familiar with them. Another thing that dyslexics may have trouble with is listening to and following rapid instructions.

You might be thinking right now, "Wow, there sure are a lot of symptoms of dyslexia", and you’re right. But there are even more than this. This is just the tip of the iceberg of things to watch for. If you’re worried that your child might be dyslexic just because he or she has one or two of these symptoms, don’t be. Don’t start worrying until more of them become evident. A lot of these are very common for any child, dyslexic or not, so don’t start to freak out just yet. But, as I said, even these aren’t all the many symptoms, so if you are worried, you may want to do a little more research of your own.