Dyslexia early signs

[OnNaturesCourse]

Query ongoing as to if DD7 is dyslexic.

Wondering if anyone can remember their, or their child's, signs?

Obviously the school won't assess her until she is older but are pretty certain something is happening so are putting support in place (at my request - as they were pretty happy to leave her sitting quietly struggling but that's another thread) but I wonder how I can further support her at home?

What has highlighted a potential issue is:

• she is a very, very slow reader and makes mistakes with reading out loud with simple words and sounds that she can say/does know when the word/sound is singled out ie written down itself away from others.
• she knows her sounds individually but is really struggling to blend these together so she can sound out "ch-a-t" but can't put these together to form "chat" for example.
• she often can't rely written information back verbally, but has no trouble retaining verbal information or instruction.
• she can't write in or on a straight line
• very often, almost always, she gets her "b, d, p, g" mixed up and can't tell you what is what
• she read her numbers back to front, and example of this would be in sums - 71 + 1 =? and she has read this as 17 + 1, and written 81 as the answer but when verbally asked she is able to say that 71+1=72 and that 17+1=18. She also gets her 3s and 8s mixed up sometimes.
• her handwriting is almost unreadable.
• the school has assessed her learning age at between age 5.5 but when this was done verbally it was age 6.5 and on par with her peers/class **

** this is still a bit behind her age as she is the oldest in her class after being deferred at her start date. She is 8 at the end of this calender year whereas her classmates are mostly turning 7 this year.

Does any of this ring true with others? What is the best way to support her? She's very intelligent and gets incredibly frustrated with all the above, and has recently started saying she is silly or not as smart as her friends etc.

It does sound like she might be. Ask her if words leap around of blur as she looks at a page of text. If they do she might benefit hugely from tinted glasses. Beware though as normal eye tests don't pick it up. If she is affected it doesn't necessarily mean she's dyslexic. I just thought I'd mention it in case. Imagine how hard it must be to read if words are moving!

DDs earliest signs

• struggled learning sequences of things. For example counting... she could arrange items into groups of equal sizes, but couldn't remember the sequence of numbers. That continued with things like times tables and spellings

• instructions. She would get confused if asked to do too many things at once (like put your shoes on, get your hat then go to teacher for sun cream.). She could do them all, just not remember all of them

• then obviously the learning to read. She stayed on "pink" (level 1) all through Reception and into Yr1.

She still sometimes reverses letters now as a teenager but her handwriting has finally improved.

It may not be connected but shes also ambidextrous.

Dyslexia can cause problems outside of reading and writing. DD is a poor sense of time and struggles with things in series: days of the week and months of the year etc, for example. There's a good list of potential signs here www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/advice/children/is-my-child-dyslexic/signs-of-dyslexia-primary-age

I have asked her this previously and she says they don't move but look different when in a word.

She has regular eye check ups as she was born with strabismus and has had operations on it. I know these tests wouldn't pick up dyslexia but does let me know it's not her vision.

School could do a screener from now, but you will be very unlikely to get a full diagnostic assessment paid for by the school. The majority of parents/carers have to pay privately now costs from £400-2000 depending on who does the assessment. An educational psychologist will cost the most and be £1-2k most likely.

For a visual stress eyetest this will have to again be private and costs approximately £150 plus then the cost of overlays or tinted glasses. Do not let people confuse visual stress and dyslexia with you. Approx 30% of dyslexics will have visual stress but you don't have to have dyslexia to have visual stress.

My daughter sounds very similar to yours so I would definitely keep it on your radar until she is 8 and you can have her formally assessed (the minimum age now is 8 for formal assessment).

I have a severely dyslexic DD who is now nearly 16.

She was very early to talk and we just expected she would read very early and basically be like DH and I.

What became clear was a massive disconnect between her verbal abilities and her relationship with the written word. There was also significant avoidance of anything to do with letters or words. Things like pointing out her name or letters on signs "ooh look DD, there's the letter S like S for 'Sophie'" type thing. She would put her hand over my mouth and say "No".

She was also weird about lists of things - only 4 colours were permitted to exist. Days of the week and months of the year were also strange. It was quite confusing as she was obviously bright and yet these very odd disconnects that were nothing to do with ability to learn.

School kept saying she was super bright and just young for year and age and when she decided to join in then she would fly. By Year 3, she still couldn't really read or write, and her dyslexic form teacher called me and said he suspected that she was too.

Primary organised a very extensive set of tests with an Ed Psych and she has a very spiky profile - 98th centile for VR and NVR and 7th centile for working memory and only average processing. Plus deficits with phonological processing. She also has hypermobile fingers.

She still finds reading hard work and can only spell phonetically. But is considered gifted at creative writing and is exceptionally musical (but cannot read musical notation - she has workarounds so it doesn't actually matter).

The main things that have helped us:

• ignore all spelling errors and go for content over accuracy.
• move to touch typing and a laptop for everything as soon as possible.
• find work arounds - films, audio books, YouTube
• reduce GCSE burden and consider adding in a BTEC as an option if there are working memory issues.
• above all, find something that they can be really good at and put a lot of focus on that in order to protect self esteem.
• fight for all the access arrangements and tech you can get.

From what you have said, I definitely think it is worth getting an Ed Psych work up to see what is going on.

I would get her privately assessed asap if you can afford it OP. The sooner you know exactly what her issues are the sooner you can try putting things in place to help her. I wouldn't bother waiting for school to decide to do something.

Your description is very much like my little dyslexic (we did a private assessment at 7 years old, so worth having a look at that, I think it was £500). Small words were very difficult to read and a lot of the time he subsituted words when reading (he was interpretating the picture). The big thing for school was that he could answer the questions when they were read to him.

https://www.kingston.ac.uk/faculties/faculty-of-health-social-care-education/department-of-education/kudyt/kudyt-webinars/?dm_i=1M62,8V4H5,9DECSO,10WY6Y,1 is a good place to look if you want to build your understanding of dyslexia and understand when interventions are best.

There is a dyslexia screener available on Nessy https://www.nessy.com/en-us/dyslexia-explained/testing-and-screening which might be of interest. We are currently trying the Dyslexia Quest programme from there, although I would start that after a diagnosis TBH. We also use toe-by-toe book which is dry but does seem to help with building reading. Squeebles app is used for spelling.

I don't think schools ever offer assessment now so you will have to pay privately. There are charities that can help with the cost so maybe get the ball rolling there.

As pp said many dyslexics also suffer from visual stress. You can buy coloured overlays from amazon - get a few colours and see if this makes any difference for her.

Also don't push her to read if she doesn't want to, read to her and use audio books.

My dd is 8 and has dyslexia. We had suspicions from 6ish. She is fortunate that her reading is good but spelling terrible! She had a private assessment which also included finding the best coloured overlay. The teacher recommended Toe by toe and Nessie like a PP.

It sounds quite likely. DD had many of these indicators. Still does though she's now flying through her GCSE course work we still have left and right issues, some comedy spelling and there have been some real blind spots like rote learning of times tables.
www.dyslexiaessex.org.uk/indicators-of-dyslexia

We had DD privately assessed at 7. She is summer born so was only 7 heading into Year 3 and her school had danced around saying she was too young to be assessed. She was in independent school so a) either way we'd have had to pay and b) you would most definitely have to wait to a suitable age point and join a lengthy waiting list if state sponsored.

So if funds permit I would crack on now though it's now really very expensive at circa £800. She was too young for the full extent of testing but fine for most of it and it gave us and the school sufficient detail to be able focus on what's needed.

Couple of things made a huge difference
Tablet app [subscription] called Lexia, you have to work through the stages
A kindle as she got older - she could make the text bigger.
Quick classroom techniques. - not asking her to write the question on the board and then answer it. Just hand her the question on a sheet and tell her to start. She'd waste 10 mins just writing the question.
Depending on just how dyslexic she is, there are options. A classroom assistant who will act as scribe especially in exams, a reading pen,

I'm not a SEN teacher but also worth researching alternatives to phonics for dyslexia, there are a lot of resources for both but it became obvious that my daughter learned to read by a "whole language" approach as well as phonics.
https://www.teachearlyyears.com/learning-and-development/view/beyond-phonics#:~:text=Whole%20language,connections%20and%20understanding%20the%20words.
Repetition. Teach her to type, DD had to join classes remotely during lockdowns and putting short sentences into chats taught her to spell her everyday words consistently as she had a little red squiggle under all misspellings.

Lastly. When she's old enough and possibly straight away, be honest and open. DD's assessment showed what she was poor at but also off the charts good at. It was a huge confidence boost for a bright child who felt totally stupid and unable to keep up . One of the best things the school did was to build on her confidence and remind ALL children it's unlikely you are going to be A** at everything and some stuff you just have to work harder at.

DS2 was diagnosed (late!) at 11. Early signs were very much like many of those listed above:

• difficulty with blending letters/phonics
• reluctance/ avoidance & tears to do with anything word-related (but loved being read to/ watching films etc)
• very tired after school day
• frequent muddling of letters, which we thought was cute as a toddler, but then became a red flag e.g bagspetti bolognese
• always ate the same thing in restaurants - we realised later he had problems reading/ processing the menu - a huge block of text - under time pressure!

School were reluctant to test, even though I was 95% certain there was something going on, so we went private. He has a very 'spiky' profile - poor auditory and verbal memory/ comprehension (doesn't remember or process long verbal instructions) but in top 1% for visual and spatial skills/ recognition.

He is now 22 and all is good! Got a first at uni in Theatre and is now doing a post-grad. He's brilliant at creative skills - photography, design, film editing etc and he benefits from help from AI with his written stuff 😀

I really wish we'd got him tested sooner, as his self-esteem was severely dented by feeling 'slow' in class, but once we understood what was going on and got help it made a world of difference.

Just to say, DS had none of the often cited problems - didn't see 'letters jumping around the page' and coloured paper or overlays made no difference.

What did help was planning and repetition and looking at something a variety of ways e.g. read a book and listen to the audio, then watch a film version (Harry Potter) and dress up for World Book Day - really helps them 'see' and understand.

Also encourage reading skills in any form they show an interest in. For DS this was Star Wars comics which he was really motivated to read (less so Biff and Chip!) And totally ignore any fellow idiot parents who say things like comics and audiobooks are 'cheating' - you know your child best, and what works for them.

Audio books, cartoon books (Asterix, Monkey Vs Bunny) and the Phoenix magazine here as well.

Yes one of the most should destroying things forvDD was being given books meant for children a lit younger. She was a lit happier with books where she couldn't read every word, but were aimed at her age. After a school move, she was given a toddler book because that's what the computer said she should be reading (she was 8!). Luckily she was quickly moved off the scheme onto Nessy instead but I wish there had been some common sense applied.

Barrington Stokes have some great books for dyslexics that are age appropriate for them in respect of content.

Outside of school related things my son (now 16) struggled/still struggles with.
As a child couldn't blend phonics.
Telling the time. Manages OK now with digital, but cannot do AM/PM or traditional clock.
Remembering instructions if too many given. Max he can do is 2.... add a 3rd & he automatically forgets at least 1.
Reading any form of instruction & comprehending it.
Counting money.
Remembering orders to do things in.

Obvious ones here were

• particular difficulty with small words: complete inability to read the phrase 'it is in' was a 'WTF' moment for me, when she was already reading far harder sentences. Dyslexics learn to read by associating a 'thing' with the image of the whole word (which is as hard as you would imagine), and it's much harder to remember those little joining words than a word which you can picture
• completely failing to read a simple word (the title of the book), despite having just read it many times on previous pages, because it was in a different font
• enormous, unexpected resistance to reading - despite having been read to since birth, being part of an academic, book-loving household

I'd repeat what pp have said about finding any way you can to engage her in reading. It's hard and unpleasant for them, but practice is really important. We found that books with lots of pictures like 13 story treehouse were a big hit, and later graphic novels and Lottie Brooks.

If you possibly can, get an assessment. Dyslexia hits childrens' confidence hard, and assessment helps them - and you - to understand why things are so hard and get crucial support in place.

Dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence. Your child can certainly succeed - but they do need to learn strategies, and unfortunately it's hard. The upside is that the dyslexic brain is very awesome, and they will have personal strengths which astonish you!

Thanks all, I have briefly read the responses but will reread with more time later tonight.

Quickly tho, regarding her reading she LOVES books. Has a chapter book read most nights, will sit and flick through her picture books and listens to audio books or tonie books each night (... And often when playing etc too) so I know there is a love for books there.

She uses reading eggs app at the moment and read, write inc workbooks etc from school.

All the PPs advice is great, and I definitely saw many of the things you’ve described in my DD.

My Dd was diagnosed aged 10, and had previously passed the dyslexia screening run by her school. They recommended getting her eyes checked for tracking problems and she did have these. We spent 6 months working hard to improve the eye muscles and it helped but we eventually found she was dyslexic too. She didn’t find words/letters moved around but she just found reading so hard. However she did progress so I kept working with her to keep the momentum going. We tried various methods and they all helped a bit.

At the point of diagnosis, I changed tack a bit and relaxed. We brought a kindle and she would use the kindle with audible plus a paperback version of the book to ‘read’ a book. My reasoning was to simply help her to enjoy stories, whilst being able to see the words.

DD is now 16 and about to take her GCSEs. What I have found over the years:

• DD actually learns words as whole words, she doesn’t learn them phonetically. So, she can spell ‘photosynthesis’ but might struggle with ‘befriend’. If I can known this earlier, I would have tried something other than phonics.
• there are lists of the most commonly used words, it’s daunting but you can check knowledge of these (they are age based). It will speed up reading if these are known.
• try to find areas of talent, to boost self esteem. DD was a great swimmer, not the fastest but very good. This was always useful. In the end others might catch up, but that is true of reading too.
• DDs’ progress has taken off as she’s got older. In the early years, learning to read is such a big part of their learning. But as they get older, it’s a smaller part and other things can come to the fore (the exception here is if the dyslexia is especially severe). So encourage her interest in everything.

Hope this helps 😊

If you think she may be dyslexia, start doing more “crossing the midline” activities.

this the first link I found.
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1489434261562624&id=100069050265790

but you’ll find others

im dyslexic, from a family where all 8 of cousins are dyslexic, and our parents on that side of family are almost illiterate despite attending school so presume they too are dyslexic.

I made sure to work on these skills with my kids, and so far they don’t seem to be dyslexic (obviously this isn’t proving the point definitively. but given the activities are harmless it can’t be a bad thing to work on)

Slightly off topic, but if you could tell me what things you did to improve the eye tracking I would be extremely grateful (we're having problems with that here).

Hi @gato21 , DD was diagnosed with convergency insufficiency which basically meant she couldn’t fully control pulling her focus together (eg couldn’t go bos-eyed equally). She saw an orthoptist for 6 months and did daily exercises. Essentially, there were things like changing focus from near to nearer (so the text might change size), following a pen moved in circles around, in front of her face - lots of things to work the muscles but also asking her to learn to gain and lose focus. I think that’s the best way of explaining. There are online resources for this I think.

I’m pleased to say that she is still ok now, 8 years later, so we haven’t had to repeat it.

Thank you so much for this. Very helpful