Diagnosed with Dyslexia - The Early Signs

What does Dyslexia mean?

Often you’ll hear the term “dyslexic” thrown around as a joke or meant as a supposed funny excuse as to why someone’s messed something up. But what does it really mean?

Quite simply, it’s the way people with dyslexia process language. Their brains process language differently, so they have extra challenges when it comes to reading, writing and spelling. And also around reading comprehension.

A great way to explain it to younger kids is, “you have a superpower where your brain processes words differently.” You may want to adjust that for your child’s age, but putting a positive spin on it as a superpower can do wonders.

Also, pointing out which famous people have dyslexia can help too.

• Richard Branson – entrepreneur
• Orlando Bloom – Hollywood actor
• Tom Cruise – Hollywood actor
• Leonardo da Vinci – famous painter
• Jamie Oliver – chef, cookbook author, TV personality
• Dick Smith – entrepreneur
• Alex Edmonson – Olympic cyclist
• Muhammad Ali – world champion boxer
• Magic Johnson – professional basket baller
• Carl Lewis – Olympic champion

Dyslexia in kids – what are the early signs?

When it comes to children with dyslexia, it’s often not picked up until late primary school or into high school in a lot of cases. But the earlier, the better as kids are so adaptive when young, and the older they get, the harder it can be to diagnose as they’ve put coping mechanisms in place.

The early signs of dyslexia are:

• Struggles with picking up letter sounds
• Relating their sounds to letters
• Letter recognition – quite often, they can’t tell the difference between similar letters. For example, p and b
• Struggles hearing sounds in words
• Word pronunciation
• Reading
• Spelling
• Working memory
• Avoids reading wherever possible

If your child displays some or all of the above dyslexia symptoms, don’t just jump to a dyslexia diagnosis, though. We all learn differently and in different ways and at different rates. So, it may be as simple as that. On the other hand, there are also oodles of other learning challenges and learning disorders, so it’s best not to rule anything out.

Assessment and Diagnosis of Dyslexia

Does any of the above sound familiar?

If so, speak to your child’s teacher as a start point. From there, your child’s teacher will be able to advise the next course of action.

Depending on your child’s school, they may have a Learning Co-ordinator or similar who will review your child’s work and possibly undertake some assessments themselves.

Or they may refer you to a speech pathologist or psychologist, which may be through school, or you may need to see them privately. How the school allocates its resources will depend on whether you are in the private or public education system. And whether your child is getting any other assistance at school – speech, behavioural, etc.

If you do need to see a psychologist or speech therapist privately, speak to your GP too, as you may be eligible for a:

Mental Health Plan

Team Care Plan

Either can give you additional rebates through Medicare. Or, if you have private health check your coverage and see what you can claim.

Dyslexia Diagnosis

To determine whether your child has dyslexia or not, a speech pathologist and/ psychologist need to undertake tests. These tests are usually performed over 1 or 2 sessions so as not to overwhelm your child.

If your child has the dyslexic superpower, you’ll probably find they get tired easier as they have to concentrate that bit harder when reading or doing school work.

It’s quite common that if your child has been diagnosed with dyslexia, a parent also has it, as research shows dyslexia does seem to run in families.

Signs of Dyslexia in adults

Do you think you may have dyslexia, or do you think a loved one or friend may be dyslexic?

The signs of dyslexia in adults is slightly different as you’ve become quite accustomed to dealing with it and learning to adjust. You just don’t know you have been.

Some general signs of dyslexia in adults to look out for are:

• when reading out loud, it’s more disjointed and doesn’t flow as evenly as others
• difficulty focusing
• has a dislike for reading in general
• good memory as you’ve gotten reliant on remembering things
• avoid writing wherever possible

Depending on your job, it may be more evident than others that things are different. An office job where writing and reading are needed on a regular basis vs an artist is going to be more obvious. But quite often, you’ve learnt to live with it and don’t think about how you avoid some situations.

What does Dyslexia mean for my child?

Depending on your child’s age, the school needs to adjust how they teach your child. The adjustments could be with:

• working in small groups more
• one on one work with a tutor or your child’s teacher or teacher’s assistant
• laptops/ipads/tablets to utilise voice to text apps, audio recordings and audio instructions
• breaking down how they give your young person instructions – small chunks are better than 10 instructions at once

What does Dyslexia mean for my teenager?

As your child gets older, they will be supported by the school to access the right tools at their disposal.

When undertaking tests or exams, your young person will be given extra time to complete the work or allowed to use laptops/ipads to utilise audio instructions.

How can I help my child or young person?

From a parent or guardians perspective, support and encourage your child as much as possible. Highlight their accomplishments to help build confidence and self-esteem - making for confident and happy learners long term.

And although there is no quick fix or cure for dyslexia, there are many tools and resources available these days with technology that makes managing and living with dyslexia easier.

You will find your child will have many strengths:

• a curious mind
• good problem solver
• creative thinker
• likes to know how things work and connect the dots
• quite often have better peripheral vision

Fun games and tools to support Dyslexia

There are many great ways you can encourage your child to learn and read. And we have some awesome games and resources in our shop if you’d like to check them out or visit us at our Altona North store.