Many struggling readers (and their parents) may not realize they are dealing with dyslexia.
That doesn’t have to be a bad thing! Once we uncover what’s going on, dyslexia has so much to offer.
Genius of Dyslexia
Officially, dyslexia is often marked by a “deficit in reading that is surprising compared to that person’s intelligence”, which is just a fancy way of saying:
Most struggling readers are
REALLY SMART.
strong problem solving
thinking “outside the box”
highly creative/artistic
strong social awareness
3D perception/building
Signs of Dyslexia
Dyslexic brains are neurologically different and process information differently than non dyslexic brains. There’s a wide spectrum of the possible indicators. Every dyslexic brain has a unique fingerprint of strengths and weaknesses - just like any brain.
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trouble with rhyming
difficulty with word retrieval (dates, names, facts, etc.)
frequent difficultly with pronunciation
trouble with directions (left/right, before/after) -
inaccurate letter naming
trouble remembering letter sounds
slow, inaccurate decoding
missing "little words" (the, an, of)
slow, laborious reading; guessing
poor reading comprehension -
laborious handwriting
trouble putting ideas on paper
doing well on weekly spelling tests, but continuing mistakes on daily work
difficulty in proofreading -
dyslexia often runs in the family
slow processing speed
issues attention/focus
trouble organizing
trouble following directions