The POWER of Knowledge: Signs and Strengths of Dyslexia
The Preschool Years
Kindergarten and First Grade
Kindergarten and First Grade
Challenges:
- Struggles with learning traditional nursery rhymes like "Jack and Jill."
- Finds it challenging to learn and recall the names of letters in the alphabet.
- Appears unable to identify letters within their own name.
- Frequently mispronounces familiar words, exhibiting persistent "baby talk."
- Lacks recognition of rhyming patterns, such as words like "cat," "bat," and "rat."
- Family history includes instances of reading and/or spelling difficulties, suggesting a potential familial predisposition to dyslexia.
Overcoming Dyslexia, by Sally Shaywitiz, pp. 122-123
Kindergarten and First Grade
Kindergarten and First Grade
Kindergarten and First Grade
Challenges:
- Demonstrates reading errors where the spoken word doesn't correspond to the written text, like saying "puppy" instead of "dog" despite a visual illustration of a dog.
- Lacks the concept that words can be broken down into individual sounds.
- Voices frustration regarding the difficulty of reading and often avoids reading tasks.
- Family history indicates a pattern of reading difficulties among parents or siblings.
- Struggles to phonetically decode simple words such as "cat," "map," or "nap."
- Does not connect letters with their corresponding sounds, for instance, failing to associate the letter "b" with the sound "buh."
Strengths:
- Displays curiosity and a vivid imagination.
- Shows proficiency in grasping the essence of concepts and enjoys exploring new ideas.
- Exhibits a strong understanding of novel concepts.
- Demonstrates surprising maturity for their age.
- Possesses an extensive vocabulary beyond typical developmental stages.
- Enjoys problem-solving activities and has a knack for building models.
- Exhibits excellent comprehension of stories, whether read or narrated to them.
Overcoming Dyslexia, by Sally Shaywitiz, pp. 122-123
2nd grade - High School
Kindergarten and First Grade
2nd grade - High School
Reading Skills
- Demonstrates slow acquisition of reading skills.
- Reads slowly and awkwardly.
- Struggles with unfamiliar words, often resorting to guessing instead of phonetically decoding them.
- Lacks a systematic approach to tackling new words.
- Shows reluctance to read aloud.
Speaking Abilities
- Struggles to recall specific words, resorting to vague language like "stuff" or "thing" instead of precise terms.
- Frequently pauses, hesitates, or fills speech with "um's."
- Confuses words that sound similar, such as "tornado" for "volcano" or "lotion" for "ocean."
- Mispronounces long, unfamiliar, or complex words.
Academic and Personal Challenges
- Difficulty recalling dates, names, phone numbers, or lists.
- Struggles to complete tests within time limits.
- Finds foreign language learning challenging.
- Exhibits poor spelling and messy handwriting.
- Experiences low self-esteem.
Strengths
- Possesses strong thinking skills, including conceptualization, reasoning, imagination, and abstraction.
- Learns best through understanding rather than rote memorization.
- Demonstrates aptitude for grasping the overall concept.
- Shows high comprehension of well-practiced words, particularly in areas of personal interest.
- Exhibits a sophisticated listening vocabulary.
- Excels in non-reading-dependent subjects like math, computers, visual arts, and conceptual fields such as philosophy, biology, social studies, neuroscience, and creative writing.
Overcoming Dyslexia, by Sally Shaywitiz, pp. 122-123