Screening for Dyslexia

• Spoken Language

  • Late learning to talk

  • Inability to rhyme or understand the concept of rhyme

  • Difficulty pronouncing long words

  • When young, funny pronunciations for long words (mawn lower for lawn mower, amiwuz for animals, hangabur for hamburger, callipittar for caterpillar)

  • When older, still may mispronounce long words

  • Difficulty learning the alphabet between ages three and six, and older

  • Difficulty following a series of directions

  • Unable to master a foreign language

  • Difficulty finding the right word for objects and having to use the word thing, stuff or 'you know'

  • May have a limited vocabulary

• Written Language

  • Difficulty writing and spelling their first and last name still in first and second grade

  • Can’t spell their middle name correctly by third grade or older

  • Extreme difficulty learning cursive

  • Great difficulty writing their full address at third grade or older

  • Difficulty learning and writing phone numbers, zip codes

  • May spell the same word several different ways within the same paper or paragraph

  • Does very poorly on weekly spelling and handwriting is extremely poor when writing spelling words. May do well on weekly spelling tests, but will forget the words by next week.

  • Difficulty learning to read and write sight words. Continues to misspell sight words despite lots of practice.

  • Handwriting is very poor, holds pencil in a very awkward manner, non-uniform and inadequate spacing between words and letters, letter heights are not correct, tails of letters do not go below the lines. Letters and words do not sit on the lines of the paper but float all over.

  • Poor inventive spelling. Many missed consonant and vowel sounds.

  • Frequent letter and number reversals past first grade.

  • Incorrect, inconsistent application of capitalization and punctuation rules.

  • Copying from the board is very difficult

  • Difficulty putting ideas on paper.

  • In upper grades, cannot take written notes during a lecture.

• Emerging Reading

  • Difficulty learning the sounds of letters in kindergarten

  • Difficulty remembering the names and shapes of letters and cannot name the letters quickly

  • Transposes the order of letters when reading or spelling

  • Difficulty learning to read

  • Difficulty hearing the sounds in words and the order of sounds

• General Reading

  • Omits common, short words when reading out loud

  • Makes mistakes reading small words, often substituting the wrong word (reading them as the, his as has, etc.)

  • Stumbles through long words

  • Reads a word correctly on one page and incorrectly on another

  • Reads by shape (reading house as home)

  • Slow, choppy, laborious reading

  • Ignores suffixes when reading

  • Cannot sound out unknown words

  • Cannot sound out words as a study aid for spelling

  • Difficulty with comprehension; may have to read something two or three times to understand it

• Additional Symptoms

  • Weak memory for lists, directions or facts

  • Distracted by visual or auditory stimuli

  • Downward trend in achievement test scores or school performance over time

  • Inconsistent school work (in early grades - does better in social studies and science, but struggles with math and language arts)

  • Relatives may have similar problems

  • Late establishing a dominant hand

  • Chronic ear infections

  • Difficulty naming colors, objects or letters rapidly

  • Difficulty learning to tell time

  • Difficulty learning to tie shoes

  • Extremely messy bedroom, backpack and desk

  • Dreads going to school; complains of stomach aches and headaches

  • May develop anxiety towards school and tests

  • Often gets lost, even in a familiar place

  • Difficulty learning to read printed sheet music

  • May develop anxiety, aggression, class clown behavior or withdrawal in order to deal with school demands

Symptoms Count: 0