What were the first signs that your child was dyslexic?

[Anonymous]

And what age did you first notice it?

Thank you, in advance, for sharing your experiences.

[Anonymous]

There were signs earlier that we missed..but the 4 year pre-K teacher mentioned right away she was concerned about fine motor skills which later became writing and reading concerns as he got older. No one really wants to commit to a problem until much later though. Lots of kids reverse letters and have struggles with reading.. 2nd grade teacher was the one who really pushed for testing.

[Anonymous]

Making up (filling in) words rather than sounding them out, getting certain sound combinations wrong frequently, resisting reading (looking back, because it required more energy than it would for the average child). Terrible spelling.

Read Sally Shaywitz' book Overcoming Dyslexia. She has checklists of issues to note for different ages. The younger a child is the harder it is to detect, but her point is that done right, you can gather information at a much younger age than the school systems tell you. (The school systems often prefer to wait till 3rd grade before asking the question.)

[Anonymous]

Obviously bright, talkative kid, could not identify letters from one moment to the next. This is the letter A, what is it? The letter A. Ok, now I'm mixing up these three wooden letter blocks. Which one has the A on it? Random guessing ensues.

We noted this by age 4, but even up through first grade, teacher just said she wasn't very bright. Boy, were they wrong.

[Anonymous]

Kid #1 could not identify letters in K, also could not rhyme.

Kid #2 could not remember the names of stuff... like his cereal or an apple... he would say, can I have this (holding the box), I'm going to eat one of these (pointing to the apple).

[Anonymous]

When my 3 year old was evaluated at KKI the doctor mentioned that we more at risk for dyslexia and other language based lds in addition to ADHD. We were still doing speech at age 6 when we got a neuropsych evaluation. Wasn't a huge surprise. He was struggling with blending sounds.

This site might help you figure out what you're seeing:
https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/understanding-dyslexia#item1

[Anonymous]

First clue that we MISSED was not using hands at all in PK4. He didn't write, he didn't color, he didn't read or sound out.

Second clue that was not our fault, his K teacher "Helped" him with the PALS (a virginia reading test)

First grade teacher figured it out about January. We had some behavioral problems, got evaluation, got Dx and behavior rapidly improved.

[Anonymous]

Not OP, how about any early signs of dyslexic for kid that has severe speech disorder? I have a 3 year old that can recognize all letters, say all letters out loud, but does not have many words to say. However, when he sees some pictures in the picture book, he will say the name out if he knows how to pronounce the sound. He has phonological disorder.

[Anonymous]

My child talked to the crayons. Played elaborate games with the crayons. Created names and background information for the crayons. But never used the crayons to color.

A bit o hyperbole, but yeah—not that interested in drawing, writing, or coloring.

[Anonymous]

I know nothing about dyslexia....but what does no interest in coloring or writing at an early age have to do with dyslexia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child talked to the crayons. Played elaborate games with the crayons. Created names and background information for the crayons. But never used the crayons to color.

A bit o hyperbole, but yeah—not that interested in drawing, writing, or coloring.

Mine too..we just thought NBD..he's not an artist..but if we had more info we would have worked with him more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child talked to the crayons. Played elaborate games with the crayons. Created names and background information for the crayons. But never used the crayons to color.

A bit o hyperbole, but yeah—not that interested in drawing, writing, or coloring.

Mine too..we just thought NBD..he's not an artist..but if we had more info we would have worked with him more.

It’s such a diverse disorder! My dyslexic kid has always loved to color and draw. But there were signs very early. He talked at 10 months, recognized and could name letters before 2. But...I missed that in all those rhyming games we played he couldn’t rhyme anything at all. And though he knew the letter names and shapes he didn’t understand sounds they made until he was 6 or 7 and getting remediation.

[Anonymous]

In PreK3 - he identified more letters correctly in the fall than in the spring.
In PreK4 - did not know any more letters at the end of PreK4 than he did at the end of PreK3.
In PreK3 and 4 and K - could not remember the names of his teachers or friends.
K could not identify all his letters by Feb.
Diagnosed at the end of K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Making up (filling in) words rather than sounding them out, getting certain sound combinations wrong frequently, resisting reading (looking back, because it required more energy than it would for the average child). Terrible spelling.

Read Sally Shaywitz' book Overcoming Dyslexia. She has checklists of issues to note for different ages. The younger a child is the harder it is to detect, but her point is that done right, you can gather information at a much younger age than the school systems tell you. (The school systems often prefer to wait till 3rd grade before asking the question.)

Although, on the flip side, it's doesn't always mean dyslexia... my child did those things and it turned out that she just hadn't learned to read properly. It happens a lot in schools these days. I retaught her over the summer (before school started) and she's fine now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously bright, talkative kid, could not identify letters from one moment to the next. This is the letter A, what is it? The letter A. Ok, now I'm mixing up these three wooden letter blocks. Which one has the A on it? Random guessing ensues.

We noted this by age 4, but even up through first grade, teacher just said she wasn't very bright. Boy, were they wrong.

Teachers also said our dyslexic boy wasn’t very bright and my concerns were just that of a mother who couldn’t accept that her boy was just ordinary. And yet, he had an IQ of 138..... When we finally hired an advocate, he took one look at DC’s IQ and acheievement test scores and told us the school was full of $&?! and gaslighting us (although in more circumspect language)

Those years definitely took a toll on his psyche.