We discuss 40 common signs of dyslexia in children — the typical errors children with dyslexia make when reading and writing, and how dyslexia may show up in the classroom.
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Table of contents:
- A mom tells her story
- What is dyslexia?
- Signs of dyslexia in reading
- Signs of dyslexia in writing
- Signs of dyslexia in the classroom
A mom tells her story
One day after school, Jonathan’s mom asked him to take his lunchbox out of his schoolbag, put his shoes away, and drop his clothes in the laundry basket. About 10 minutes later, she walked into his room and found him sitting on his bed — still in his school uniform.
“Jonathan was always in trouble with me because I thought he wasn’t listening,” says his mom, Ann. “I thought he was lazy.”
Things weren’t much better at school. Seven-year-old Jonathan often received poor behavior reports, and other children teased him because he struggled to read and spell.
At the end of 2nd grade, Ann and her husband, John, were told that their son might have to repeat the year. He confused letters such as b and d, struggled with spelling, had difficulty concentrating, and often mixed up left and right.
Jonathan had reached the point where he no longer wanted to go to school.
“He said he wished he were dead so he wouldn’t have to battle anymore,” Ann recalls.
Jonathan wasn’t lazy. He wasn’t deliberately ignoring instructions, and his difficulties weren’t simply a matter of not trying hard enough.
Jonathan had dyslexia.
What is dyslexia?
The word dyslexia comes from the Greek dys, meaning difficult, and lexis, meaning word.
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the development of accurate and fluent reading and spelling. Children with dyslexia may struggle to recognize words quickly and automatically, decode unfamiliar words, and spell words accurately, even when they have received appropriate instruction and have had adequate opportunities to learn.
Dyslexia is not a sign of low intelligence. Children with dyslexia can have intellectual abilities ranging from below average to average to highly gifted. Research has also shown that reading difficulties occur across the full range of intellectual ability.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) uses the term Specific Learning Disorder with impairment in reading. Dyslexia is commonly used as an alternative term to describe a pattern of difficulties involving accurate or fluent word recognition, decoding, and spelling.
Dyslexia is also not primarily explained by intellectual disability, uncorrected hearing or vision problems, neurological disorders, inadequate schooling, or a lack of opportunity to learn.
In short, dyslexia is a persistent difficulty with learning to read and spell accurately and fluently. It can look different from one child to another, which is why it is important to consider the child’s overall pattern of strengths and difficulties rather than relying on a single sign.
Signs of dyslexia in reading
Dyslexia can affect both reading accuracy and reading fluency. Some children struggle to decode words correctly, while others can read reasonably accurately but do so slowly and with considerable effort. A child with dyslexia may:
- Read a word correctly on one page but fail to recognize the same word on the next.
- Read unfamiliar words slowly and inaccurately, particularly when there are no contextual clues.
- Confuse words with similar letter patterns, such as form and from.
- Add, omit, or substitute letters when reading words, for example reading cold as could.
- Change the order of letters within words, for example reading was as saw.
- Confuse letters that are similar in shape or orientation, such as b and d or p and q.
- Substitute one word for another that looks similar, such as house for horse.
- Substitute a word with a similar meaning, such as journey for trip.
- Omit or misread small words such as a, the, of, and to.
- Omit or change word endings, for example reading talking as talk.
- Sound out a word correctly but struggle to blend the sounds together to identify the word.
- Read aloud slowly and laboriously, with frequent pauses or a choppy rhythm.
- Continue to sound out words that have been encountered many times instead of recognizing them automatically.
- Lose their place, skip words or lines, or reread the same line.
- Understand considerably more when listening to a passage than when reading it themselves.
- Avoid reading whenever possible because reading requires so much effort.
Signs of dyslexia in writing
Dyslexia can also become very noticeable when a child has to put their thoughts on paper. A child may be able to explain something clearly when speaking but struggle to express the same ideas in writing. They may:
- Avoid writing tasks or be reluctant to write more than a few words or sentences.
- Misspell familiar words, including words they have spelled correctly before.
- Spell the same word in different ways within the same piece of writing.
- Spell words largely according to how they sound, producing unusual or highly inaccurate spellings.
- Confuse or reverse letters such as b and d when writing.
- Omit, add, substitute, or put letters in the wrong order when spelling words.
- Have difficulty remembering common spelling patterns and applying spelling rules consistently.
- Take considerably longer than expected to complete written work.
- Struggle with sentence structure, punctuation, and capitalization.
- Have difficulty organizing their thoughts into a logical sequence when writing.
- Fail to notice obvious spelling errors when rereading their work because they read what they intended to write rather than what is actually on the page.
Signs of dyslexia in the classroom
The effects of dyslexia are not limited to reading and spelling lessons. Because so much classroom learning depends on reading, writing, memory, sequencing, and the ability to process information efficiently, difficulties may show up in many different ways. A child with dyslexia may:
- Perform considerably better in oral discussions than in written work.
- Have difficulty following and remembering a series of verbal instructions.
- Struggle to learn and remember new words, names, or subject-specific vocabulary.
- Have difficulty finding the right word when speaking, even though they know what they want to say.
- Confuse sequences, such as the days of the week, months of the year, or the order of events.
- Have persistent difficulty distinguishing left from right.
- Take longer than classmates to complete reading and written assignments.
- Have difficulty copying accurately from the board or another source.
- Struggle to remember information that has previously been taught and appear to know something one day but not the next.
- Become distracted or lose concentration during tasks that require sustained reading or writing.
- Avoid tasks that involve a great deal of reading or writing, or become frustrated when faced with them.
- Appear careless or unmotivated because their performance does not reflect the effort they are putting in.
- Show an uneven pattern of achievement, performing well in some areas while struggling unexpectedly in others.
Overcoming the signs of dyslexia
Dyslexia does not have to determine a child’s future. With the right intervention, children can make significant improvements in reading, spelling, and the underlying skills needed for successful learning.
At Edublox, we address reading and spelling difficulties through cognitive training combined with structured reading and spelling instruction. Cognitive skills such as attention, memory, processing speed, visual and auditory processing, and sequencing work together when a child learns, and these skills can be developed and strengthened.
The aim is not simply to teach a child ways to cope with dyslexia, but to improve the skills that are causing difficulty and help reading and spelling become more accurate, fluent, and automatic.
Below are the stories of children who made significant progress in overcoming their dyslexia signs and symptoms — and the difference this made in their lives:
References:
- American Psychiatric Association (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed. revised). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
- Simos, P. G., Rezaie, R., Papanicolaou, A. C., & Fletcher, J. M. (2014). Does IQ affect the functional brain network involved in pseudoword reading in students with reading disability? A magnetoencephalography study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7(932).
- Tanaka, H., Black, J. M., Hulme, C., Stanley, L. M., Kesler, S. R., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Reiss, A. L., Gabrieli, J. D. E., & Hoeft, F. (2011). The brain basis of the phonological deficit in dyslexia is independent of IQ. Psychological Science, 22(11): 1442-51.
- Wood, T. (2011). Overcoming dyslexia for dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc.
40 Common Signs of Dyslexia in Children was authored by Sue du Plessis (B.A. Hons Psychology; B.D.), a reading specialist with 30+ years of experience in the learning disabilities field.
Edublox is proud to be a member of the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), a leading organization dedicated to evidence-based research and advocacy for individuals with dyslexia and related learning difficulties.
