Dyslexia

People are always asking the signs of dyslexia. Sally Shaywitz, M.D. and Professor of Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine provides information on what to look for in her book Overcoming Dyslexia. Shaywitz (2005) says the earliest clues involve mostly spoken language. The first clue may be delayed language. Once the child begins to speak, look for the following problems:

• Trouble learning common nursery rhymes such as "Jack and Jill" and "Humpty Dumpty"
• A lack of appreciation of rhymes
• Mispronounced words; persistent baby talk
• Difficulty in learning (and remembering) names of letters
• Failure to know the letters in his own name

Kindergarten and First Grade:

• Failure to understand that words come apart (batboy - bat and boy)
• Inability to learn to associate letters with sounds, such as being unable to connect the letter b with the "b" sound
• Reading errors that show no connection to the sounds of the letters (big read as goat)
• The inability to read common one-syllable words or to sound out even the simplest of words, such as mat, cat, hop, nap
• Complaints about how hard reading is, or running and hiding when it is time to read
• A history of reading problems in parents or siblings (p. 122)

In addition to the problems of speaking and reading, you should be looking for these indications of strengths in higher-level thinking processes:

• Curiosity
• A great imagination
• The ability to figure things out
• Eager embrace of new ideas
• Getting the gist of things
• A good understanding of new concepts
• Surprising maturity
• A large vocabulary for the age group
• Enjoyment in solving puzzles
• Talent at building models
• Excellent comprehension of stories read or told to him. (p. 123)

This book is a great resource: Overcoming Dyslexia, Sally Shaywitz, 2005 Vintage Books

Fluency

One may wonder the benefit of reading passages over and over. The National Reading Panel emphasized the importance of fluency and how guided repeated oral reading can improve children's reading through fifth grade and may even prove helpful for some students in middle school and high school. Shaywitz (2005) shared, "reading a passage over and over while receiving feedback is a means of obtaining input to master a specific word (p. 232). The repeated reading builds a more accurate neural representation of that word within the brain (2005, Shaywitz, p. 232)