In Preschool
- Delayed speech
- Mixing sounds & syllables in long words
- Chronic ear infections
- Severe reactions to childhood illnesses
- Constant confusion of left versus right
- Late establishing a dominant hand
- Struggles with learning to tie shoes
- Difficulty memorizing their address, phone number, or the alphabet
- Unable to create words that rhyme
- A close relative with dyslexia
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In Elementary School
- Dysgraphia (slow, non-automatic handwriting that is difficult to read)
- Letter or number reversals continuing past the end of first grade
- Extreme difficulty learning cursive
- Slow, choppy, inaccurate reading
- - guesses based on shape or content
- - skips or misreads prepositions (at, to, of)
- - ignores suffixes
- - cannot sound out unknown words
- Extremely poor spelling
- Often cannot remember sight words (i.e. they, were, does)
- Often cannot remember homonyms (i.e. their, they're, there)
- Difficulty telling time on a clock with hands
- Math struggles:
- - memorizing multiplication tables
- - memorizing a sequence of steps
- - directionality
- Difficulty finding the correct word
- - lots of "whatchamacallit" & "thingies"
- - common sayings come out slightly twisted
- Extremely messy bedroom, backpack, & desk
- Dreads going to school
- - complains of stomach aches or headaches
- - may have nightmares about school
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In High School
- All of the above symptoms plus:
- Limited vocabulary
- Extremely poor written expression
- - large discrepancy between verbal skills and written
- Unable to master a foreign language
- Difficulty in reading printed music
- Poor grades in many classes
- May drop out of high school
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As Adults
- Education history similar to above plus:
- May have to read a page two or three times to understand it
- Extremely poor spelling
- Difficulty in putting thoughts onto paper
- - dreads writing memos or letters
- Still has difficulty with right versus left
- Often gets lost, even in a familiar city
- Sometimes confuses b and d, especially when tired or sick
