Although formal reading instruction does not start until Pre-K or kindergarten, there are a number of risk factors as well as early signs that a child might have dyslexia by the time they start school.
How to recognize early signs of dyslexia in children?
Researchers have pointed to three main characteristics of child development as predictors for future reading ability. These include:
- Phoneme awareness
- Letter knowledge
- Rapid automatic naming (RAN)
With these skills, children are able to process the sounds of the language, recognize the letters that “code” those sounds, and access this information from their memory quickly and fluently.
In turn, these pre-reading skills lead to the basics for reading development with skills emerging such as ignition decoding and reading fluency. Eventually, in a child on a normal development path, these skills enable increasingly complex reading processes such as comprehension, summarization, and inferencing.
Here is a simplified chart to understand the development of reading skills for children that are on a normal development path.
The International Dyslexia Association has identified several signs of dyslexia for elementary school-aged children. These include:
- Difficulty with remembering simple sequences such as counting to 20, naming the days of the week, or reciting the alphabet
- Difficulty understanding the rhyming of words, such as knowing that fat rhymes with cat
- Trouble recognizing words that begin with the same sound (for example, that bird, baby”, and big all start with b)
- Pronunciation difficulties
- Trouble easily clapping hands to the rhythm of a song
- Difficulty with word retrieval (frequently uses words like “stuff” and “that thing” rather than specific words to name objects)
- Trouble remembering names of places and people
- Difficulty remembering spoken directions
Instantly determine the risk level of dyslexia for your kid
The same handbook provides a useful instant test that can help you determine the risk level of dyslexia for your school-age kid. This is probably the first step towards determining whether you need professional help at this point:
Recognizing Dyslexia Across Ages
When considering signs and symptoms of dyslexia in kids, it’s crucial to understand their developmental trajectory. Early Signs Of Dyslexia In Teenagers help establish this understanding by creating a connection between the signs observed in kids and potential manifestations in teenagers. This developmental progression aids in comprehending how challenges observed in kids might evolve over time.
Moreover, recognizing signs in kids contributes significantly to understanding the continuum of dyslexia indicators, as highlighted in Early Signs Of Dyslexia In Preschoolers. Referencing the signs observed in kids and how they might manifest in preschool-aged children underscores the importance of recognizing and understanding dyslexia indicators across developmental stages.
Additionally, understanding the Early Signs Of Dyslexia In Toddlers offers insight into the importance of recognizing signs in kids by referencing even earlier developmental stages. Emphasizing the continuum of dyslexia indicators from toddlers to teenagers helps in better understanding and identifying dyslexia signs and symptoms in kids.
