Jennie Sjursen 00:00
Have you started noticing that your child mispronounces more words on their friends? Maybe they say the bsketti instead of spaghetti. Or maybe you notice that reading some words backwards, like reading was a saw, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. They are not quote growing out of it. In fact, they're beginning to hate anything associated with reading, or these signs of dyslexia. I'm Jenny Shearson. X special educator turned dyslexia interventionist. It wasn't so long ago, that I too, was overwhelmed by balanced literacy versus structured literacy, education speak, and everything in between. Fast forward after many, many hours of self driven education. And you'll see I've built a thriving dyslexia practice helping students from ages six to 18. My specialties, working with a quote unquote difficult almost always to the student, and breaking down the complexities of dyslexic to everyday language strategies and action steps.
Jennie Sjursen 01:08
First, before we dig in too far, it's important to know that dyslexia is a spectrum disorder, meaning that no two Dyslexics will have the exact same symptoms. One dyslexic may have mild symptoms, while their sibling may be severely dyslexic. And that brings us to another important point. Dyslexia is genetic. It runs in families. My family is a living example, and are three current living generations. There is at least one dyslexic in each generation. So let's dig deeper into the possible warning signs for dyslexia. Dyslexia can be identified with 92% accuracy by the age of five and a half. Let me say that again. Dyslexia can be identified with 92% accuracy by the age of five and a half. This stat comes from the National Institute of Health, you do not have to quote wait and see. A preschool kindergarten aged child with dyslexia can show the following warning signs, speech delay, difficulty rhyming, either recognizing and or producing rhymes. mispronouncing words like the skinny spaghetti example I used earlier, struggles with words or name retrieval, they can't remember the names of the kids in their playgroup, and have trouble learning which letters make which sounds. This is by far not an exhaustive list.
Jennie Sjursen 02:38
As a dyslexic child moves into elementary school, additional warning signs can appear. It's important to know the original warning signs don't normally go away, especially if there hasn't been any language therapy or intervention. At the elementary stage, you may begin to notice the following. Persistent the onset and a half years old letter confusion of similar letters like B, D and n h. trouble hearing all the sounds in a letter, substituting words with those that look similar, or they think fit the sentence. Unable to sound out words, relying more and more on memorizing words, are poor spellers, and have a general dislike for anything related to reading.
Jennie Sjursen 03:24
Without intervention, by the time dyslexic students get to middle school or high school, they hate reading. Their oral comprehension is much higher than their reading comprehension. They read slowly and often have difficulty finishing tasks that require a lot of reading or writing. For these students writing is often torture. They have poor spelling, organization or sequencing skills, and sentence structure. Their writing is often not a true representation of their understanding of a topic. For students who heavily relied on their ability to memorize words. During their elementary school years, they start to find around fifth or sixth grade, this strategy will no longer work for them and their grades and self esteem starts to suffer.
Jennie Sjursen 04:12
Again, everything presented here is not an exhaustive list of warning signs or symptoms for dyslexia. They are however, commonly found warning signs. So let's recap. Dyslexia can be diagnosed as early as five and a half. Some of the common signs of early dyslexia are difficulty with rhyming, trouble matching letters to sounds, mispronouncing words and word recall. In elementary school Dyslexics can have difficulty with reading words accurately, poor spelling and relying heavily on their ability to memorize common words. By the time they reach middle school or high school. Dyslexics have much higher oral comprehension skills than reading skills, lack fluency and are terrible spellers and writers. Oftentimes, this is also the point where their grades and self esteem take. Now you know the common signs of dyslexia and what it may look like in your child.
Jennie Sjursen 05:12
What do you do from here? In our next episode, we'll look at the steps to getting your child assessed and identified as dyslexic. I hope you enjoyed this episode of literacy untangled. If you love this episode as much as I did, head on over and rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you want to continue the conversation or share your takeaways, head on over to our Instagram @literacyuntangled and comment on your favorite part. I can't wait to hang out with you again soon. Bye
