How to know if my child has dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disorder of reading and writing that has a neurobiological origin. It is a condition that has as its main characteristic a significant difficulty in developing reading skills and that it does not have some other cause such as vision problems, age or poor schooling. Children with this type of disorder find it difficult to understand what they read, to recognize words, to verbally express written texts and to carry out tasks. The detection of this type of condition must be done as quickly as possible to start treating it and not continue to develop.

If you are worried about your child since you suspect that he may have this type of disorder but not you have it completely clear, there are things that you can take into account to help your prompt detection. This is why in this Psychology-Online article: how to know if my child has dyslexia, we are going to give you a series of tips so that you can detect it as soon as possible.

Index

1. How do I know if my child has dyslexia? Guidelines to follow
2. Symptoms of dyslexia in children
3. How to Detect Dyslexia During School Age
4. Late detection of dyslexia in adolescents

Although disorders such as dyslexia cannot be diagnosed at an early age, because in order to do so, the reading level must be compared the child has at least from one year to another, usually between first and second grade, you can always help prevent when certain symptom. Here are some clues that can help you know if your child is suffering from dyslexia.

• Get informed well about this this disorder. The first and most important thing is to inform yourself thoroughly about dyslexia. This includes knowing exactly what it is, what are the causes that originate it, what are its symptoms, how it has to be treated, etc.
• Know well what the symptoms of dyslexia are. Above all, be clear about the specific symptoms of dyslexia so that you do not go to confuse them with another type of condition and so that you can better detect the problem that it presents your son.
• Pay attention to your child's behavior. Spend a certain amount of time every day to observe your child closely and take note of the attitudes that catch your attention and that are cause for alarm. Keep in mind that dyslexia may not only be causing problems with literacy, but also others associated with it, such as poor spelling, speech, difficulty in following instructions, as well as may be directly affecting interaction with others kids.

As I mentioned earlier, you need to know what the specific symptoms of dyslexia so you can detect it. Pay attention to them because if you notice that your child is manifesting them, you can help prevent them early. How do I know if my child has dyslexia? Here we show you which are the main ones symptoms exhibited by a child with dyslexia.

Suspicious factors before school age: early symptoms

• They start to talk late.
• Get confused when verbally expressing words that have a similar pronunciation.
• Difficulty learning new words
• Difficulty expressing yourself
• Difficulty identify the letters
• When there have been literacy problems in the family history
• Confusion when it comes to distinguishing one's own body parts
• Problems to orient yourself correctly in time and / or confusion to distinguish the left side from the right.
• Delay in learning to memorize numbers, learn colors, days of the week, among other things.
• Difficulty learning new routines and following instructions given.
• They present a great lack of concentration and begin to increase their activity as well as their level of impulsivity
• Trouble keeping balance
• Difficulty holding the pencil correctly
• Problems regarding their social skills

At these ages, which are between 7 and 11 years old, it should already be known whether the child is dyslexic or not. The main and most obvious symptoms that it presents are the following:

TO. Reading problems

• His reading level is very poor for his age
• He has many errors when reading and it is difficult for him to do so
• It has a great difficulty associating letters with their respective sounds and to learn to pronounce the new words.
• Trouble decoding words that are in isolation
• Difficulty reading strange words or any meaningless text
• Usually changes the order of the letters, as well as the order of the numbers
• His reading is very slow and paused
• In phonological tests he obtains bad results
• Difficulty learning other languages

B. Writing problems

• Write in mirror since it usually confuses the left and right
• Reverses the order of numbers, letters and words very frequently
• Has very bad spelling
• Fails to structure and organize thoughts properly so his grammar is deficient
• He has bad handwriting and writes in a disorderly manner, that is, he does not follow the lines in the notebook properly or respect the margins.

C. Speech problems

Although dyslexic children generally express themselves better orally than in writing, they often have these types of difficulties:

• They have a hard time changing words they pronounce incorrectly for the correct ones. In other words, they get so used to the wrong ones that when you want to correct them so that they get used to pronouncing the others, it is very difficult for them to do so.
• At the time of pronounce words, they usually invert them by changing syllables for example or substituting them
• They have some difficulty name the figures
• Sometimes they have a hard time finding the right word based on the context, so they search for synonyms and not always do it correctly.

D. Problems with math and time compression

• It is difficult for you to carry out certain mathematical operations
• You cannot understand math problems even though you can perform arithmetic operations
• You don't handle money properly
• You have great difficulty using your watch properly as well as having trouble learning to control your time and carry out tasks that require a time sequence.
• It costs him a lot of work learn the multiplication tablesas well as make use of them in your daily life.
• It costs him work place yourself in time, that is, know what time it is, what day it is, year, month, etc.

AND. Coordination problems

Not all children with dyslexia can have these types of problems, however it is common for them to occur most of the time. Some of them are the following:

• Difficulty holding appropriately pencil or scissors
• He is clumsy in terms of his motor coordination so he tends to have several accidents
• Has bad handwriting due to poor motor coordination
• He cannot carry out certain movements such as riding a bicycle, jumping, playing ball, etc.

If you think he has these symptoms, we recommend taking note of them 10 exercises to detect dyslexia

If at age 12 he has not yet been diagnosed with dyslexia, the adolescent will have serious problems that will be very difficult to eradicate. This is why a early detection of this problem is extremely important even if we are not totally sure that it is a disorder like this.

The symptoms that the adolescent would present at this age or at older ages would be the following:

• Large trouble concentrating when reading or writing
• Due to reading comprehension problems, you will have difficulties with your immediate memory as you cannot remember that what you have just read
• Trouble properly interpreting what you have read
• Difficulty organizing your thoughts when speaking or writing
• Difficulty organizing your workspace and the materials you will use for it
• Inability to organize your time, have your assignments ready and study planning for exams
• Tends to carry out schoolwork or class work slowly
• It takes a lot of work to adapt to new environments
• Low self-esteem due to the learning difficulties it presents, among other associated difficulties
• His social skills are not well developed
• It hangs when trying to read or do a math problem for fear of making a mistake
• You have your first symptoms of anxiety or depression.

If you detect that a teenager has these symptoms, we recommend the following article to treating dyslexia in teens.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to know if my child has dyslexia, we recommend that you enter our category of Learning disorders.

• Andalusian Dyslexia Association. (s.f.). General guide on dyslexia. Retrieved November 28, 2018, from http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/webportal/ishare-servlet/content/6070dc4f-5da3-459d-bb07-4f8eaaa76f9e