if your child turned out to be dyslexic were there early signs?

[rhetorician]

looking back, would you say that there were early signs? DD1 is 3.2 and generally lovely and interested in lots of things (e.g. can tell you names of lots of plants, flowers and birds, the directions to places etc), speech pretty good. She knows a few letters and maybe a couple of numbers, but (so far) doesn't seem very interested - which is fine. Her uncle is dyslexic as is her grandfather, so I guess I am curious as to what to watch out for, if anything at this early stage.

TIA - and apologies if this is a stupid question - I know a bit about dyslexia from my work, but not about how it might manifest (if at all) in small children

Very slow to decide if left or right handed but I think it can be different for different children. Also not very good at shape sorters and jigsaws. Then it was a slowness to pick up a pencil and make marks etc. Slow to talk and learn numbers and letters were never a problem but these would be other signs to watch out for. I also think it might be more common to run on the male side of the family.

she's a very messy eater, is only just starting to use a pencil grip, but seems fairly dominant with right hand, fairly good at puzzles (was never remotely interested in shape sorters). I'm not looking for a diagnosis of any kind - just wondering if anything early on stands out looking back

At 3.2yr I don't think you can look for anything.

My ds is dyslexic to be honest was on the look out for it,his dad and 2 of my brothers are.
Sequencing and planning were always difficult for him, he still doesn't know days of week or months of year he is 8.5.planniong including a number ofinstructions are difficult e.g brush your teeth, then put on your socks and put your pjs in the wash( an example from this morning!) would be very hard for him.
Getting organised,is generally hard, often messy,as has been said is slow to choose left or right hand.I am lucky that he is a very chilled out kid and thinks he is fab

Learnt to talk early and with extensive and sophisticated vocabulary which was always remarked upon
Mispronounced the odd word eg nap for map and refused to accept her pronounciation was incorrect
No dominant hand until age 5 and even after that ambidextrous at lots of things
Non-typical pencil grip
Uninterested in doing puzzles or learning numbers and letters (although I never pushed on this)
Loved art
Couldn't ride a bike until age 10
hated other children clapping (would clasp hands to ears) - my child has an auditory processing disorder

To be honest dyslexia is a blanket term covering a lot of different problems and in that way it is unhelpful. Two dyslexic children may have totally different problems with no overlap whatsoever other then the fact that they both find it hard to learn to read. Kind of like 2 people might both have cancer - one has a dodgy mole and another has metastatic bone cancer - lumping them together as both having cancer isn't particularly helpful.

Oh yes - not being able to follow a sequence of verbal instructions, needs one instruction at a time

and found it impossible to learn the alphabet

No not at all, even though I was on the lookout as his dad is dyslexic. DS has none of the dyspraxic elements at all, in fact dd is much more that way inclined, but her literacy is great. DS (now 7) is only mildly affected, finds reading a struggle and reverses some words and symbols. He writes very neatly though! It really only showed in reception/year 1 and has become more obvious as he has needed more help with reading to try and keep up with the class. He will not do well in the SATS reading comprehensions...

DS is quite good with verbal instructions but was not interested in letters, numbers or puzzles. DD (12) is terrible with verbal instructions and I often wonder about her - she could have some kind of dyslexia/dyspraxia couldn't she?

I would have thought 3.2 was way too early - but the point about dyslexia covers a wide range of things is most interesting - I hadn't really thought of it like that. Some of the things you mention are true of dd, but a lot of them aren't - it not that I am concerned about her particularly at this point, just intersted to see if there's anything to look out for. She can't distinguish between W and M but this is pretty normal for this age I think (she has a cousin who knew all letters perfectly at 2, so the family does seem to think that dd is a bit slow out of the blocks - whereas I think she is just normal)

My DS was slow with speech, hated being read to would pretend to listen for a few pages and them ask "can I go and play now". Didn't have any favourite stories and couldn't end the sentence ( like my other son would jump in and finish the sentences). He loved puzzles, and jigsaws and mazes. Loved his older brother's computer Maths games anything animated and interactive he loved -still does. His word recall was very poor. Hated drawing or picking up a pencil, was a daydreamer in school.

Identical with Efa's save got on with others. Didn't crawl. Couldnt get d/b, q/p, sorted, 5, 3 wrong way round. Loved being read or told stories but couldn't recall even the simplest word. Poor spelling especially the easiest words. No sense of direction.

even from these posts, there is such a range of things and so many permutations. DD crawled, and has a very good sense of direction 'no, not this way, mummy', can do rhymes, but no clue about sounds that words begin with (yet). I think she doesn't recognise a lot of letters because she doesn't have the concept yet - so letters of different colours or shapes are different to her. Which is perfectly logical. Understands verbal instructions (doesn't always follow them, but that's a different section!). Well, we'll see - thanks for sharing your experiences, I found them very interesting

I know there's a list of early signs (can't remember rhymes etc) but so many of these apply to so many children anyway.

My ds rode a bike at 3 and had no problems with gross motor skills but his speech was slow to develop.

Thinking back to how Year R was when he was younger, I was worried he wouldn't be ready to start because he couldn't recognise all numbers to 100!

Positive note - he's 15 now and very dyslexic but doing fine at his grammar school. Even on tartget for a B for English GCSE!

spendthrift I'm interested that your child's early signs map closely to mine! How old is your child now, how much are they still affected and what things have helped most would you say?

This is such an interesting thread. I would be really interested to know more about secondary school children who are succeeding despite their difficulties. Goingmadinthecountry - how has your son managed in English? Does he use a computer?

Would also add that my son didn't really have any obvious problems learning to read. He learnt letters and numbers at a very young age and would shout out shop names. He memorized words rather than learned how to de-code them. He certainly has subtle difficulties now like mis-reading and missing out words and lines. His maths is more affected and he will make careless mistakes and mis-read 6 and 9 and not know left from right. His spelling is &&^%$%&*!

Organisation and ability to follow instructions is appalling!

Niceweather my dd is now in Y7 and is flying high at secondary - suddenly top or near top of the class which she never was in primary school, and enjoying school a lot more too. How old is your son?

This is so interesting - I'm mildly dyslexic so have wondered about DS mainly due to really poor pencil grip and reluctance to learn to reading/write. But it's hard to tell what is bog standard 5yr old boy stuff and what might be an indicator.
Just reading through all these posts shows the differences. Doesn't answer the questions re DS but really an eye opener

Learnt to talk early and with extensive and sophisticated vocabulary which was always remarked upon
Loathed all drawing, scribbling type activities - no interest at all
Loathed learning to read
Very awkward pencil grip
Uninterested in doing puzzles or learning letters
Poor sense of balance
Poor hand eye coordination
Very poor sequencing
Poor short term memory

DS is 12 now. He was diagnosed as ASD at 7 and his multiple cognitive impairments (which give him an umbrella diagnosis of Dyslexia) were diagnosed at 8.
He is at a school that specialises in teaching dyslexic kids & it has made a huge difference. I think he will always struggle to some degree with the written word, but he will be literate and should be able to take GCSE English. He is flying in maths, music & science - so am hoping that these will all give him a path forward.

DD2 is 13. I think she is sort of dyslexic but have never had a diagnosis - I seem to draw blanks when trying to get her officially diagnosed! Here are a few points about her:

Was late walking and talking (but not worryingly so - just much later than older DD1).

Wanted stories as a younger child but couldn't concentrate on listening, kept grabbing book, trying to turn pages before I'd finished reeading them. As an older child, sort of enjoyed being read to (longer chapter books etc) but could never follow the plot and always asked questions like "what happened last time?" "who's he?" (referring to main character)! and generally did not have much of a clue as to what was happening.

No grasp of phonics (or limited grasp). DD1 would sound out c-a-t = cat. DD2: C-a-t - kite? Kate? cart? (wild guessing based on initial letter/certain other letters in the word).

However, physically she's fantastic! Amazing balance, very agile, talented dancer, remembers sequences of dance steps almost immediately. This was evident from around 3 yrs old, and she was always more physically active.

Oh, and she has unusual looking handwriting, bad spelling (and the spelling mistakes are bizarre, IYSWIM, rather than obvious mistakes like "seperate" instead of "separate", say.)

But she is obsessively tidy and relatively organised

DS is very organised and tidy.
NigellasGuest, if you really think your DD may come under the term dyslexic, you should try and get a diagnosis. If she has cognitive impairments, there will be teaching methods that can be used to help her. I don't know where in the country you are, but if you are in the south of the UK, consider talking to the Helen Arkell centre www.arkellcentre.org.uk

dd - slow to talk, mispronounced words for ages (which we thought cute at the time..) ie ds and the dog were both called "dodo" till she was around 4. "Music" was "munix" - still has difficulty with some words.
Started to muddle up colours at nursery - green and yellow / black and white
WOuld say "down" when she meant "up" etc (although had a fantastic vocabulary)
Could not learn her numbers. Hated jigsaws
Forgot nursery rhymes
No real dominant hand until 4 ish - and even then used her left hand for some stuff
Poor gross coordination

Yes, we are just north of london so the Helen Arkell centre is accessible. Thank you for the link! I am going to have a good look at their website.