What is Dyslexia?

Individuals with dyslexia have trouble with reading, writing, spelling and/or math even though they have the ability and have had opportunities to learn. Individuals with dyslexia can learn, but they often need specialized instruction to overcome the problem. Often these individuals, who have talented and productive minds, are said to have a language learning difference.

A person with dyslexia will have several of the following characteristics…

Oral Language

• Late learning to talk

• Difficulty pronouncing words

• Difficulty acquiring vocabulary or using age appropriate grammar

• Difficulty following directions

• Confusion with before/after, right/left, and so on

• Difficulty learning the alphabet, nursery rhymes, or songs

• Difficulty understanding concepts and relationships

• Difficulty with word retrieval or naming problems
  

Reading

• Difficulty learning to read

• Difficulty identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting syllables in words(phonological awareness)

• Difficulty with hearing and manipulating sounds in words (phonemic awareness)

• Difficulty distinguishing different sounds in words (phonological processing)

• Difficulty in learning the sounds of letters (phonics)

• Difficulty remembering names and shapes of letters, or naming letters rapidly

• Transposing the order of letters when reading or spelling

• Misreading or omitting common short words

• “Stumbles” through longer words

• Poor reading comprehension during oral or silent reading, often because words are not accurately read

• Slow, laborious oral reading
  

Written Language

• Difficulty putting ideas on paper

• Many spelling mistakes

• May do well on weekly spelling tests, but may have many spelling mistakes in daily work

• Difficulty proofreading