Is it too early to worry about dyslexia?

[Sanamarin]

DD turned 5 in Oct and started Reception in Sept. She's been doing phonics since she was 3 and has a great phonic awareness. She loves writing, for instance the other day they learned at school 'we' so she came home and wrote: 'we hav a cat' which I thought was good. She's been writing her name for a long time.

If I ask her how do you spell pond...she'll go: p-o-n-d. And do on.

She is a fast learner usually, she learned all the sight words, about 25 so far (push, pull, put, the, and, I etc.)

HOWEVER, she finds reading very frustrating. She comes home with books that have simple Cvc words ...and all she does is segmenting and blending. We read every day for 10-15 mins and she doesn't seem to get past the segmenting of even the simplest words. I mean she's been writing 'cat' for ages but when it comes in a book she goes c-a-t. Plus half way through the book she gets really frustrated, I suspect the graphemes start jumbling up and she starts mis-reading. Then she says she doesn't want to do it. I feel there is no progress there. She gets very emotional and hates it.

Plus the pace is very slow. It takes her quite a bit to read 'Dad sat in it'.

There is a strong genetic link from her fathers side to dyslexia and I have been worrying about it for quite a while so I guess I might be reading into it a bit too much. Her dad is an avid reader now, but his spelling is very poor.

Can anyone relate to this?

I'm pretty sure DD is dyslexic (really strong family history on both sides) and possibly has visual stress or Irlens... she's only just 4! There's no rush but she's interested in reading but gets really frustrated as soon as we try something, there's some other things that point to it too so it's in the back of my mind to eventually investigate that at some point.

Peter and Jane books ?

My DS is severely dyslexic and couldn’t read himself until he was in year 4. He practiced reading everyday but reading the words was just part of it, we also spent time looking at the pictures to work out what was happening in the story and trying to guess what
could happen next etc. He’s 14 now and his comprehension skills are better than his individual word reading skills.

That's great advice. I actually did try to do this in the morning, reading it to her and then ask her to read, but she was already stressed and refused it altogether.

She does look at the pictures and tries to understand what is going.

To be fair she is learning by decoding words and this method is likely to be wrong a lot of the time because a lot of words aren't said how they are written. Phonics is a shit way of teaching kids to read imo and I don't know why schools do it.

I taught them the same way I was taught, whole word recognition. Stuck post its to literally everything in the house, saying what the items are. Door. Wall. Chair. Iron. Fridge. Drawer.

They picked it up remarkably quickly and are reading fluently at 6 and 9. 6 year old is just starting proper books. I found an entire set of Sheltie the Shetland pony in a charity shop and she loves them. She's a bit stilted with unfamiliar words so I'm teaching her to decode them by comparing them to similar words she already knows. So far it does seem to be working and she's getting quicker.

Having subtitles on TV helps as well as they hear them said aloud at same time as they read them.

Can I ask you how is their spelling? I think phonics are great at helping children to spell. Of course, there are loads of words that are not spelled phonetically, but it's a great way for the kids to start writing.

My DD was writing on her own initiative all sorts of cvc words before starting school as she could decode the sounds (ie rat, sat, bat, shop and so no). Now she is having a go at longer words too, doesn't always get them right but she can do it though her phonic awareness.

I find it really odd she can spell them but not read them.
I would be tempted to try some colour overlays and see if she can read them through one of them or printing some simple sentences on different coloured paper. See if she can read them then.

Pretty good. They get tripped up with ie vs ei like in the word friend and silent letters but that seems pretty common amongst most kids their age. We're doing Look, Cover, Write, Check for spelling at the moment. 9 year old does really well like that, he seems to be a visual learner, he remembers what he sees.

6 year old is doing OK but keeps putting an e in said. It's her worst word, lol she hates it. She spells it seid. I don't know if that because she tries to sound it out or if its just a mental block. But I think everyone has the odd word they cant remember. I can't spell necessary for love nor money.

Have you tried flash cards! Label things around the house like ‘door’ ‘carpet’ ‘room’ etc, but keep it simple. You cab make a game of flash cards with the most common words too, like is, it, in , the, up, to, like. There’s bound to be a list of 100 most common words you can Google. Not too many at a time though, or she’ll get overloaded.

They get tripped up with ie vs ei like in the word friend and silent letters but that seems pretty common amongst most kids their age.

I'd have thought at 5 you'd be happy enough if they spelled it 'frend'.

Dyslexia runs in my family and I see it a lot . I’m also dyslexic. She sounds like she’s doing well for a 5 year old. Dyslexia can be quite severe ( my niece couldn’t read until she was 9) or more mild. I would say it’s too early at the moment.

Where did I say I wasn't? I'm very happy with their progress, I think they're doing great. They're both either slightly ahead or on target for where their teachers say they should be. And she's 6 not 5.

I find that really odd too. Her teacher has also recognised that her writing is amazing for her age, but reading is very slow and frustrating.

I'll try colour overlays, sounds like a good idea.

Thank you, would you be able to direct me to other resources on how to teach her to recognise whole words?

Sorry, I just made up my own method. We used the Dr Zeus books a lot. I'd show her the words cat and hat, for example and asked her if she could see the difference and built up to more complex words. We'd also read together with her following the words in simple books with me.
It wasn't scientific but it worked with us. Too well really - she could read pretty well (for her age) when she started school and got fed up with the books she brought home from school and refused to read them as they were too easy. She got marked down for reading because of that but I didn't really mind as she was reading well at home. She was always an avid reader from an early age.

Absolutely this. Eye test first!

And don't push reading, you can instil a love of literature with all sorts of other things (reading aloud to her, audio books, the reading pen)

At this age they can mask a lot, or its completely normal.

But with a family history of dyslexia I would get her (and all siblings too) tested regardless. Mine both have dyslexia and DS2 masked it so well even with all my knowledge from DS1 I didn't believe he would be, yet he was.

OP, I think it’s great you’re taking such an interest in your child’s learning and that you’re so aware. Whilst, as others have said, you may not get a diagnosis yet, it’s good to be aware, and also some assessors have hugely long waiting lists (if you go private).

My daughter was similar (although hers was how difficult she found writing….it was like a complete mental block and at complete odds with her ability to read / learn / articulate). She was diagnosed with dysgraphia at 6 years 11 months and it was a huge relief. I think your gut instinct is likely correct that there is something underlying going on.

Audiobooks are absolutely fantastic, so again, I second those who have recommended those.

Best of luck.

Thank you for your advice x

Glad that your daughter got diagnosed and hopefully got supported.

Op the moment I ditched phonics my suspected dyslexia child flew with reading progress. We did other strategies that suited her.
Some children are brilliant with phonics but for many it's become a barrier to reading.

School should be aware and flexible but what can you do when actually they don't know what it is, or how to spot it because they get no training.

It's heartbreaking to force one system on children and then those that don't get it feel stupid,left behind and get low self esteem.

Thank you for your advice. Can I ask you what strategies did you use?

I pm you

How do we pm now!!

1. behavioural optomitry much deeper than NHS test for basic eye sight

2. ditch phonics and do old fashioned reading like aforementioned, Peter and Jane book's.

3. flash cards to learn 100 hfw by rote.

4. get school reading books from somewhere like reading chest, and start her lower than now
   Do things like read page and get her speed reading and make it fun!

5. make sure she has her alphabet.

Dyslexia doesn’t have one cause or presentation. For some people it’s very auditory based and centres around phonological awareness and perception. For others it’s more visual or working memory based. For most people it’s all of these things (and more) in different proportions.
It’s never too early to be aware your child might be dyslexic. I knew when my DD was 18 months she was likely dyslexic.
Most otherwise bright dyslexic children will do well at reading, it just takes a bit longer. Don’t let everyone tell you ‘it’s too early’ it’s a life long neurotical difference present from birth.

If you have a hunch follow up on it. I was fobbed off by the head of my daughters junior school, saying I was over reacting. Fast forward to year 11, yes the final year and GCSE’s, daughter really struggling, student services called by me to try and help her with studying schedules. Dyslexia screening carried out and she is Dyslexic!! Too bloody late, nightmare.

this was 10 years ago and a friend’s daughter just this year was diagnosed with Dyslexia! Also in year 11 and was attending a very well performing Catholic School. It’s shameful that it’s not picked up. Please keep an eye on her and if you’re worried don’t be fobbed off like I was. Most teachers have no training in what to look out for, quite ridiculous in 2022

It's really early days. My DD is 5 in year one (summer birthday) and reading anything beyond cvc blending has really only clicked in the last month. Now she's absolutely away! Give it time.