Signs & Symptoms

Warning Signs for Dyslexia/Struggling Readers:

Preschool/Kindergarten:

• Delayed speech
• Saying sounds in the wrong sequence (e.g. eminy = enemy, aminal = animal)
• Trouble with rhyming words
• Trouble with Phonemic Awareness (hearing and manipulating sounds in words)
• Delay in establishing a dominant writing hand
• A history of family members with learning difficulties

Early Elementary:

• Difficulty learning the alphabet
• Difficulty learning the sounds of letters
• Issues with writing hand dominance: can’t choose between the left and right hand
• Struggles with spelling
• Difficulty with handwriting

Later Elementary & Older Students:

• May read at or close to “grade level” but are slow readers
• Replaces functional words when reading such as the for a or and for is
• Reads the beginning of words correctly but does not read all the way through the word
• Leaves out letters while spelling (e.g. drik = drink)
• Writing is extremely difficult
• Reversal of letters past second-grade

Adapted from Richard Gentry: https://jrichardgentry.com/what-is-dyslexia.html