About Dyslexia

What is dyslexia?

According to MN Statute 125A.01, subd 2: “Dyslexia” means a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate or fluent recognition of words and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

Students who have a dyslexia diagnosis must meet the state and federal eligibility criteria in order to qualify for special education services.

How widespread is dyslexia?

About 3-4% of the school population nationwide has a learning disability in reading that qualifies them for special education. Many more people—perhaps as many as 5–20% of the population as a whole—have some of the symptoms of dyslexia, including slow or inaccurate reading, poor spelling, poor writing, or mixing up similar words. Even though they may not qualify for special education, they still struggle with many aspects of academic learning.

Symptoms

A helpful list of symptom by age if you suspect dyslexia. Lots of these can be common behaviors on their own, but if three or more of these warning signs exist, especially if there is dyslexia or ADHD in the family tree, the child should be for dyslexia when the child becomes five years old. Thank you to Susan Barton and Bright Solutions for Dyslexia, for these warning signs.

  • Delayed Speech: Not speaking any words by the child’s first birthday. Often, they don’t start talking until they are 2, 2½, 3, or even older.
  • Mixing up sounds in multi-syllabic words: For example, aminal for animal, bisghetti for spaghetti, hekalopter for helicopter, hangaberg for hamburger, mazageen for magazine, etc.
  • Early stuttering or cluttering.
  • Lots of ear infections.
  • Can’t master tying shoes.
  • Confusion over left versus right, over versus under, before versus after, and other directionality words and concepts.
  • Late to establish a dominant hand: May switch from right hand to left hand while coloring, writing, or doing any other task. Eventually, the child will usually establish a preferred hand, but it may not be until they are 7 or 8. Even then, they may use one hand for writing, but the other hand for sports.
  • Despite listening to stories that contain lots of rhyming words, such as Dr. Seuss, cannot tell you words that rhyme with cat or seat by the age of 4½.
  • Difficulty learning the names of the letters or sounds in the alphabet; difficulty writing the alphabet in order.
  • Trouble correctly articulating R’s and L’s as well as M’s and N’s. They often have “immature” speech. They may still be saying “wed and gween” instead of “red and green” in 2nd or 3rd grade.
  • Family history of dyslexia.

 

  • Handwriting issues (dysgraphia)
  • Slow, choppy, inaccurate reading.
  • Can read a word on one page, but won’t 
recognize it on the next page.
  • Difficulty with spelling.
  • Confusion with word recall (um, that thing, um, the one that does ____).
  • Often can’t remember sight words or 
homonyms.
  • Dreads going to school.
  • Trouble with following multi-step directions.
  • Difficulty learning address and phone number.
  • When they misread, they often say a word that has the same first and last letters, and the same shape, such as house-horse or beach-bench.
  • They may insert or leave out letters, such as could–cold or star–stair.
  • Mixes sequence of letters: who–how, 
lots–lost, saw–was.
  • Substitutes similar-looking words, even if it changes the meaning of the sentence, such as sunrise for surprise, house for horse, while for white, wanting for walking.
  • When reading a story or a sentence, substitutes a word that means the same thing but doesn’t look at all similar, such as trip for journey, fast for speed, or cry for weep.
  • Misreads, omits, or even adds small function words, such as an, a, from, the, to, were, are, of.
  • Omits or changes suffixes, saying need for needed, talks for talking, or late for lately.
  • Becomes visibly tired after reading for only a short time.
  • Reading comprehension may be low due to spending so much energy trying to figure out the words. Listening comprehension is usually significantly higher than reading comprehension.
  • Extremely messy bedrooms, lockers, desks, and backpacks.

All of the symptoms in Elementary School plus:

  • Limited vocabulary.
  • Misspells even when copying something from the board or from a book.
  • Extremely poor written expression 
- large discrepancy between verbal 
skills and written compositions.
  • Avoid writing whenever possible.
  • Write everything as one very long sentence.
  • Difficulty mastering a foreign language.
  • Poor grades in many classes.
  • North, South, East, West confusion; Adults with dyslexia get lost a lot when driving around, even in cities where they’ve lived for many years. Often have difficulty reading or understanding maps.
  • Doing long division; To successfully complete a long division problem, you must do a series of five steps, in exactly the right sequence, over and over again. They will often know how to do every step in the sequence, but if they get the steps out of sequence, they’ll end up with the wrong answer.
  • Touch typing; Learning to touch type is an essential skill for people with dysgraphia. But it is usually more difficult (and requires much more effort) for a dyslexic child to learn to type since the keys on the keyboard are laid out in a random order (which requires rote memorization).
  • Rote memory of non-meaningful facts. Memorizing non-meaningful facts (facts that are not personally interesting and personally relevant) is extremely difficult for most dyslexic children and adults. In school, this leads to difficulty learning science and history facts (Water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, memorizing dates, names, and places.)

The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity has more signs and symptoms.

Common Myths

Dyslexia is widely misunderstood as a vision problem, reversing letters or writing backwards letters. Dyslexia is actually a neurological condition connected to language processing. Check out Nadine Gaab’s list of common myths.

Dysgraphia

Dysgraphia is a learning difference in one or many aspects of writing, such as spelling, legibility, letter and word spacing, grammer, and composition. Diagnosis involves review of history and current concerns, with data from testing. The testing includes screening for co-occurring learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, and ADHD.

Dysgraphia is a learning difference that starts in childhood and persists into adulthood. The following is a list of symptoms that may display in both children and adults. People with dysgraphia often report trouble in the following areas:

  • Difficulty with spelling
  • Illegible or messy handwriting
  • Inconsistent letter/word spacing
  • Awkward pencil grip
  • Difficulty with punctuation and capitalization
  • Difficulty with grammar
  • Difficulty getting thoughts and ideas down on paper
  • Avoidance of writing tasks
  • Difficulty with note taking in the classroom
  • Discrepancy between ability to verbally explain concepts versus ability to write them
  • fine motor issues
  • phonological processing abilities
  • auditory skills
  • visual magnocellular functions
  • Student’s handwriting will be graded only on assignments, quizzes, and tests specifically targeting handwriting and not on assignments, quizzes, and tests for other subjects.
  • Due to writing challenges, child will be able to type rather than write.
  • Student will be graded on the content of his/her writing, not his/her spelling or handwriting (exception: spelling may be considered in classes such as Spanish where spelling can change the meaning of a word or in Language Arts when completing a long-term project or writing task where multiple edits are expected).
  • Student will be allowed to use apps such as Dragon Dictation, Popplet, Padlet, iCard Sort, Co- Writer Universal, or other technology supported by the school district to assist with writing tasks and organization.
  • Three consecutive spelling tests on which student receives a score of 70% or below will trigger a team meeting to discuss alternative spelling tests.
  • Teacher will not write a grade on the spelling test or mark words with an X. The correct spelling should be written next to an incorrect word.
  • Student’s spelling will only be graded on spelling tests. Points will not be taken off for misspellings or reversals in assignments other than spelling quizzes or tests.
  • Student will not be penalized for reversals on spelling assignments, quizzes, and/or tests.
  • Student will not be graded for spelling.
  • Extended time
  • Student will be provided a complete copy of any class notes at the beginning of class.
  • Student will not be required to copy down the notes and if notes are graded student will be allowed to turn in the provided complete notes for his/her grade.

Beware of student’s anxiety and avoid putting them on the spot.

Other individualized recommendations can be provided depending on your neurocognitive test score profile.

  • The Writing Revolution by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler, Jossey-Bass (2017)
  • The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction by Joan Sedita, Brookes Publishing (2022)
  • Speech to Print by Louisa Moats, Brookes Publishing (2020)
  • Understood.org article

Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia is a learning difference in one or many aspects of mathematics. Diagnosis involves review of history and current concerns, with data from standardized testing. The testing includes screening for co-occurring learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD. Testing must also include assessment of mathematics fundamentals including working memory, processing speed, spatial aptitude, and fluid reasoning.

There are two main clinical presentations of dyscalculia, one involving a weakness for number processing (working memory, mental arithmetic, math fact automaticity, and calculations), and one involving a complex cognitive profile with relative deficits in spatial reasoning and spatial memory.

Dyscalculia is a learning difference that starts in childhood and persists into adulthood. The following is a list of symptoms that may display in both children and adults. People with dyscalculia often report trouble in the following areas:

  • Counting 
  • Learning the number line 
  • Learning basic math facts to automaticity 
  • Learning math procedures like multiple digit addition/subtraction or long division 
  • Understanding the concepts of fractions and percentages 
  • Understanding negative numbers concepts 
  • Reading charts and graphs 
  • Reading time on an analog clock 
  • Completing math tests on time 
  • Managing money 
  • Estimating quantities 
  • Estimating the amount of time something will take
  • Working memory/mental math 
  • Attention 
  • Processing Speed 
  • Visual spatial 
  • Fluid reasoning
  • Use of calculator
  • Zone of proximal development – start at current point of mastery
  • Do not move on to next level skill without mastery of prerequisite skills
  • Use manipulatives like blocks
  • Number line posted easy visual access
  • Teach procedures by errorless repetition
  • Extended time
  • Visual reference for multiplication tables

Beware of student’s anxiety and avoid putting them on the spot.

Other individualized recommendations can be provided depending on your neurocognitive test score profile.