Dyslexia at age 5? How do you know? And what to do?

[HolyCalamityJane]

Hi All,

Seem to be posting a lot these days. DD aged 5 has ADHD, Dyspraxia and now I suspect dyslexia. I have been really struggling with her homework any writing is totally illegible and she writes a lot of her letters and numbers the wrong way round. I really struggle to get her to attempt any written work but had assumed this was down to dyspraxia. Her reading is ok but she does jumble up her words in a sentence. She really struggles with rhyming and her sequencing skills are really poor.
She has just started a new school so the teacher is just getting to know her but hasn't mentioned dyslexia she probably assumes ADHD and dyspraxia explain the issues I did until I noticed the writing backwards.

So what should I be doing now? Can a 5 year old be DX with dyslexia and what help should I be requesting. DD has a statement and full-time TA hours (not recruited yet)

Any advice gratefully accepted.

HolyCalamityJane

Developmental Dyslexia has three cognitive subtypes: auditory, visual, and attentional. So the ADHD is the cause of your DDs dyslexic symptom

Hi Holy!!

I personally don't think that a child would be easily diagnosed with dyslexia at 5. Also, i'm not sure what they're doing at your dd's school, but at mine it's still very much revolved around play, so they may not have noticed anything because the expectations are still fairly limited. Can she concentrate for long periods of time on anything? Does she tend to just concentrate when it's something that she has a specific interest in? I would have thought so if she has ADHD, but that could be making it more difficult for her to learn.

Does your dd like her new teacher? It's such a difficult one isn't it. I know some children in dd's class who can't write their name or recognise numbers 1-10, but AREN'T considered to have any SN and then there are other children who are practically writing sentences and recognising numbers well past 10, who are. My dd still isn't considered to have SN because so far she doesn't require any extra help and isn't disruptive..............anymore, but when her class work becomes more demanding, i'm not sure if that will still be the case.

I would ask the school if they do dyslexia assessments at this age. I think most schools do now, but i'm not sure at what age.

Sorry i've not really told you anything you probably don't already know, but I know that horrible feeling of are they? aren't they? and it can drive you round the bend!!

Remember, whatever happens there are loads of brilliant mums on this board who will point you in the right direction to get help for your dd...............if necessary.

DS is 7 and was picked up as query dyslexic at 6. I don't think that you would get a diagnosis til at least 7, and I have been told by school it's not worth being tested in our county as they don't dive a dyslexia dx, just "dyslexic tendancies" - not a lot of help!

We have taken DS to a Behaviour Optometrist. He has tracking and focussing problems which actually could be responsible for some (if not all) of his writing issues (he reads really well, amazingly)....We are having vision therapy to try to correct this.

To follow on from what mrsbaffled said. Developmental Dyslexia is a symptom of a wide range of clinically diagnosable conditions.
So you need to have a medical diagnosis of either the auditory processing disorder, visual processing disorder, attention disorder, all of which share the dyslexic symptom. Each of these conditions has a different set of support and remedial needs, which can sometimes been seen as conflicting. So any support has to be based on the needs of the underlying cognitive issues which are causing any dyslexic symptom.

Few children suffer from Alexia, acquired dyslexia, there are a few rare cases of children who suffer from strokes, which are a major cause of Alexia, especially in adults who are loosing or have lost their abilities to read.