Dyslexia: Early Detection Is Key

Troubles from the day put aside, we lay side-by-side, stretched out on her silky purple comforter. Sliding her finger to where the once glittery bookmark held our place, Hayleigh read from The Little House on the Prairie. “They came closer and closer,” she glanced up with worried eyes while pausing and questioned, “Mommy are the Indians going to hurt them?” “Read on sweetie, and we’ll find out,” I persuaded her. Every night we found ourselves absorbed in a book. The faithful time of reading twenty minutes a night evolved into a special time we both looked forward to. To my surprise, this daily reading time saved my daughter as a reader.

Each night, I jotted down many of the errors she made while reading and made it a point to discuss my concerns with her teacher. Her reading level and her written expression did not match her intelligence. By the end of second grade, she fell below grade level. “She is capable of more,” I told the reading specialist. Not willing to accept the obvious plateau in her reading, I searched for an explanation.

After reading books on how to teach your child to read and talking to people until blue in the face, I was discouraged. Even with my teaching degree, I struggled to find an answer to my own daughter’s reading difficulties. It took a reading specialist in a town 150 miles away —who never even met my daughter— to diagnose the problem: Dyslexia.

I was dumbfounded. My understanding of dyslexia did not match Hayleigh’s reading and writing behaviors. Besides, both my brother and father are dyslexic. This, I thought, could not be dyslexia.

Yet when I started researching it, it made sense. The question was: How could a complete stranger diagnose Hayleigh over the phone in five minutes, and I, a daughter of a dyslexic, a sister of a dyslexic, a teacher, and a mom of a child who struggled to read miss it? How did I let Hayleigh go this long without even questioning the possibility of dyslexia? Simple: the stranger knew the early signs of dyslexia and I didn’t.

Now, however, I am informed and my goal is to equip you as a parent with the early signs of dyslexia. You may be asking, “How can I watch for tendencies in my four or five year old when they’re not even reading?” This is a great question. The signs creep up in their spoken language. Here is a helpful list compiled from Overcoming Dyslexia, The Dyslexic Handbook, and the Bright Solutions website.

Preschool
• May not begin saying their first words until fifteen months or so. Don’t assume it’s family history
• May mix up sounds in long words. (aminal for animal, bisgetti for spaghetti, hekalopter for helicopter, etc.). Don’t assume it is “baby talk”
• May not be able to recite nursery rhymes
• May have trouble using the correct sound in a word (uses the word tornado when meaning volcano).
• May seem as if the child is just guessing or is totally confused. Uses lots of um’s. Don’t assume it is stuttering
• May struggle to learn the names and sounds of the letters of the alphabet.
• May have difficulty learning numbers, days of the week, colors, shapes, and how to spell and write their name
• Dyslexia runs in families: between one-quarter and one-half of the children born to a dyslexic parent will also be dyslexic.

Kindergarten
• May not be able to tell you a word has parts (monkey—“mon” “key”).
• May struggle to hear individual sounds in words (cat broken into C-A-T).
• May not be able to compare two words that rhyme (cat and hat, tall and ball).
• May not be able to name a word that rhymes with another word.
• May not know a majority of the names and sounds of the alphabet
• May struggle to spell words the way they sound (“lik” for “like”)

When looking at these early signs of dyslexia, Susan Barton, founder of The Barton Reading and Spelling System, stresses the importance of understanding that not all children exhibit the same signs, nor will they show all of them, but they will demonstrate many of them. The more signs identified, the more in tune you must be to their language and reading progress. Because parents and teachers often believe speaking and reading problems are temporary or will be outgrown, many children are not evaluated. Keep this in mind and push for a professional diagnosis if you suspect a problem. It is imperative that children are diagnosed early: Most are not diagnosed until third grade, and dyslexia is much more difficult to treat when found this late.

Looking back at Hayleigh’s preschool years, she showed all but one of the early signs associated with dyslexia. At the time, each sign appeared developmentally appropriate and harmless. Many of the slips she made, my favorite being remoka macontrol (remote control), made it in her baby book under “cute sayings”.

Today, after intense tutoring with a specific dyslexia program, Hayleigh is back on grade level and loving school. Sometimes she hits bumps in the road, but now I know where to turn to for help. Despite the downfalls of dyslexia, we focus on her strengths. She is on the forward path to becoming a strong reader.