How to recognize dyslexia in child

Dyslexia - Symptoms - NHS

The signs and symptoms of dyslexia differ from person to person. Each individual with the condition will have a unique pattern of strengths and weaknesses.

Some of the most common signs of dyslexia are outlined here.

Pre-school children

In some cases, it's possible to detect symptoms of dyslexia before a child starts school.

Symptoms can include:

delayed speech development compared with other children of the same age (although this can have many different causes)
speech problems, such as not being able to pronounce long words properly and "jumbling" up phrases (for example, saying "hecilopter" instead of "helicopter", or "beddy tear" instead of "teddy bear")
problems expressing themselves using spoken language, such as being unable to remember the right word to use, or putting sentences together incorrectly
little understanding or appreciation of rhyming words, such as "the cat sat on the mat", or nursery rhymes
difficulty with, or little interest in, learning letters of the alphabet

Primary school children

Symptoms of dyslexia usually become more obvious when children start school and begin to focus more on learning how to read and write.

Symptoms of dyslexia in children aged 5 to 12 include:

problems learning the names and sounds of letters
spelling that's unpredictable and inconsistent
confusion over letters that look similar and putting letters the wrong way round (such as writing "b" instead of "d")
confusing the order of letters in words
reading slowly or making errors when reading aloud
answering questions well orally, but having difficulty writing the answer down
difficulty carrying out a sequence of directions
struggling to learn sequences, such as days of the week or the alphabet
slow writing speed
poor handwriting
problems copying written language and taking longer than normal to complete written work
poor phonological awareness and word attack skills

Phonological awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to recognise that words are made up of smaller units of sound (phonemes) and that changing and manipulating phonemes can create new words and meanings.

A child with poor phonological awareness may not be able to correctly answer these questions:

What sounds do you think make up the word "hot", and are these different from the sounds that make up the word "hat"?
What word would you have if you changed the "p" sound in "pot" to an "h" sound?
How many words can you think of that rhyme with the word "cat"?

Word attack skills

Young children with dyslexia can also have problems with word attack skills.

This is the ability to make sense of unfamiliar words by looking for smaller words or collections of letters that a child has previously learned.

For example, a child with good word attack skills may read the word "sunbathing" for the first time and gain a sense of the meaning of the word by breaking it down into "sun", "bath", and "ing".

Teenagers and adults

As well as the problems already mentioned, the symptoms of dyslexia in older children and adults can include:

poorly organised written work that lacks expression (for example, even though they may be very knowledgeable about a certain subject, they may have problems expressing that knowledge in writing)
difficulty planning and writing essays, letters or reports
difficulties revising for examinations
trying to avoid reading and writing whenever possible
difficulty taking notes or copying
poor spelling
struggling to remember things such as a PIN or telephone number
struggling to meet deadlines

Getting help

If you're concerned about your child's progress with reading and writing, first talk to their teacher.

If you or your child's teacher has an ongoing concern, take your child to see your GP so they can check for signs of any underlying health issues, such as hearing or vision problems, that could be affecting their ability to learn.

If your child doesn't have any obvious underlying health problems to explain their learning difficulties, different teaching methods may need to be tried.

You may also want to request an assessment to identify any special needs they may have.

If you're an adult and think you may have dyslexia, you may want to arrange a dyslexia assessment. The British Dyslexia Association has a directory of local dyslexia associations.

Associated problems

Some people with dyslexia also have other problems not directly connected to reading or writing.

These include:

difficulties with numbers (dyscalculia)
poor short-term memory
problems concentrating and a short attention span, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
poor organisation and time management
physical co-ordination problems such as developmental co-ordination disorder (dyspraxia)

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Page last reviewed: 07 March 2022
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Common Signs of Dyslexia | Reading Rockets

By: International Dyslexia Association

Dyslexia is a language-based disability that affects both oral and written language. With help, children with dyslexia can become successful readers. Find out the warning signs for dyslexia that preschool and elementary school children might display.

Facts about dyslexia

Startling facts about dyslexia and related language-based learning disabilities:

Fifteen to twenty percent of the population has a reading disability.
Of students with specific learning disabilities who receive special education services, seventy to eighty percent have deficits in reading. Dyslexia is the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties.
If children who are dyslexic get effective phonological training in kindergarten and first grade, they will have significantly fewer problems in learning to read at grade level than do children who are not identified or helped until third grade.
Seventy four percent of the children who were poor readers in the third grade remained poor readers in the ninth grade. This means that they couldn't read well when they became adults.
Individuals inherit the genetic links for dyslexia.
Dyslexia affects males and females nearly equally, and people from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds as well.

Common signs: Preschool

The following difficulties may be associated with dyslexia if they are unexpected for the individual's age, educational level, or cognitive abilities. To verify that an individual is dyslexic, he/she should be tested by a qualified testing examiner.

May talk later than most children
May have difficulty pronouncing words, i.e., busgetti for spaghetti, mawn lower for lawn mower
May be slow to add new vocabulary words
May be unable to recall the right word
May have difficulty with rhyming
May have trouble learning the alphabet, numbers, days of the week, colors, shapes, how to spell and write his or her name
May have trouble interacting with peers
May be unable to follow multi-step directions or routines
Fine motor skills may develop more slowly than in other children
May have difficulty telling and/or retelling a story in the correct sequence
Often has difficulty separating sounds in words and blending sounds to make words

Common signs: Kindergarten through fourth grade

Has difficulty decoding single words (reading single words in isolation)
May be slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
May confuse small words – at/to, said/and, does/goes
Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including:
- Letter reversals – d for b as in, dog for bog
- Word reversals – tip for pit
- Inversions – m and w, u and n
- Transpositions – felt and left
- Substitutions – house and home
May transpose number sequences and confuse arithmetic signs (+ - x / =)
May have trouble remembering facts
May be slow to learn new skills; relies heavily on memorizing without understanding
May be impulsive and prone to accidents
May have difficulty planning
Often uses an awkward pencil grip (fist, thumb hooked over fingers, etc. )
May have trouble learning to tell time
May have poor fine motor coordination

Excerpted from: ABC's of Dyslexia. (2000). International Dyslexia Association.

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Dyslexia: symptoms, causes, treatment of the disease

Speech therapist

Bratanova

Olga Aleksandrovna

Experience 31 years

Speech therapist

Make an appointment

Dyslexia is a disorder related to reading skills. Due to problems with certain mental functions that should be involved in the formation of such skills, a child may experience a variety of difficulties when working with a text. Most often, it is difficult to recognize individual characters, signs - as a result, the meaning of words, phrases or sentences is not captured or distorted.

The problem manifests itself from childhood and, with proper correction, can be leveled to a level that allows you to live comfortably and study effectively. But if you do not pay attention to it at an early age, it remains in adulthood, causing a lot of inconvenience. At the same time, it is important to understand that dyslexia does not determine the development of the child by itself - he can effectively perceive information through other channels, for example, to understand well by ear.

Why dyslexia occurs - the causes of the disease

The main causes of dyslexia are neurobiological in nature. This is important for understanding, because often, out of ignorance, parents and teachers attribute the difficulties with reading to the "laziness" or "inattention" of the child, only starting the situation. But with such a deviation, certain areas of the brain are less active, and also have a reduced density.

Additional causes of dyslexia (provoking factors) are:

disorders that affect the balance between the two hemispheres of the brain;
serious, severe infections affecting the brain - the most common example is meningitis;
traumatic brain injury;
complications during childbirth and pregnancy: from infections to fetal asphyxia. During pregnancy, the mother’s bad habits also worsen the situation: smoking, drinking alcohol, as well as drugs.

Social factors also have a serious influence on this deviation. Moreover, they can be absolutely opposite in their orientation. So, the symptoms of dyslexia can manifest themselves from too much study load, and from neglect - a complete disregard for the development of the child. With isolation, lack of communication, not a very good environment, the situation only worsens.

However, we recall that dyslexia is not necessarily a disease of children from dysfunctional families. Due to purely biological reasons, it can manifest itself in children who live in excellent conditions and receive enough attention from adults.

Types of dyslexia

Before describing the specific symptoms of the disease, let's talk about the types of dyslexia. There are currently six of them.

Phonemic (acoustic). According to the classification, dyslexia is the most common problem that often occurs in elementary school students. With such a problem, the guys rearrange the syllables, distort the structure of the word - for example, instead of “cat”, they read “current”.
Agrammatical. Assumes errors in the compilation of constructions, for example, a person may incorrectly use endings, cases, tenses (“white table”, “I'm hungry”).
Semantic. Every word that a person reads, he understands, but separately from the entire text. And he cannot assemble words into sentences or into other, even more complex constructions - therefore it is impossible to catch the meaning of what was read. For this reason, dyslexia in adults and children does not allow you to get enough information from books.
Mnestic. This is a problem at the level of individual letters and sounds that do not allow you to learn or understand the whole word.
Optical. Here deviations occur at the visual level. For example, a dyslexic sees a word backwards (mirror) or cannot keep his eyes on the line that he is reading - his eyes constantly slide over the page, not allowing him to adhere to the desired reading sequence.
Tactile. Specific dyslexia is characteristic of people who cannot see and use Braille to read. With this deviation, the letters, determined by touch, are either perceived incorrectly (they are confused with similar ones), or “escape” - a person cannot stay on the desired line.

With these types of dyslexia, the symptoms of the disease will be extremely diverse and ambiguous.

Symptoms by age

To detect dyslexia, it is necessary to know the full range of signs characteristic of this disease. And here there are difficulties, because there are a lot of manifestations - moreover, many of them differ in age. Let's start with the general points, and then talk about what to look for at different ages of the child.

Common symptoms of dyslexia:

problems with concentration, attention and memory;
difficulties with orientation in space - for example, when a child confuses right and left, up and down;
difficulties with simple and more complex tasks: from fulfilling an elementary request to learning the alphabet, multiplication tables;
changes in the sequence of letters, syllables, numbers when writing, reading information;
inability to handle pens, pencils, etc. well. If a child needs to write something, he clumsily uses a writing instrument;
unwillingness to read aloud, write, etc. Actions that are very difficult or in which many mistakes are later found cause psychological discomfort in children.

Even some of these signs are a reason to go to the doctor and start dealing with the situation. At the same time, it is very important for parents not to scold the child, not to put pressure on him, forcing him to do what he cannot do. A softer and more balanced approach is needed here.

They take into account not only the forms of dyslexia, but also how the problem manifests itself in dynamics, at different times.

At preschool age, the disease manifests itself as problems in speech, difficulties in learning, pronunciation of different words. The child is often confused, does not remember even a short set of phrases. It is difficult for him to master the basic skills of reading, writing, he confuses words and letters. All this can easily affect the quality of communication with classmates and peers - it gets worse.

At primary school age, problems manifest themselves not only at the level of words and syllables. It is already difficult for a child to memorize facts, he gets confused in arithmetic signs. The state is reflected in the development of new information. Problems of a different nature also continue: behavior becomes awkward, impulsive, coordination of movements is disturbed.

In middle school age, the diagnosis of dyslexia shows poor reading quality, poor memory. The child also reads poorly, pronounces words. Difficulties cause rebellion, so the student refuses to read and write, he has difficulty with gestures, facial expressions, and problems in communicating with peers increase.

At senior school age, there are problems with writing, reading, memorizing, and reproducing information. A slow speed of work is formed, which makes it seem that the teenager is “lazy”. Moreover, the problem extends further - often dyslexics find it difficult to adapt to any changes in life.

Symptoms of dyslexia in adults suggest problems with writing and reading, while distraction and inattention are added. An adult with such a disease often does not know how to plan his time - the quality of life is reduced.

Diagnosis

To diagnose dyslexia, a child is tested with various exercises. The specialist checks the features of long-term and short-term memory, the ability to analyze, the level of concentration, attention, logic, intelligence, etc. An important part of the work is a psychological examination - the symptoms of dyslexia are very diverse and require a personal approach.

Treatment, correction of dyslexia in Moscow

Defectologists, psychoneurologists can make a diagnosis of "dyslexia". A speech therapist can also refer for an additional examination, to whom parents often turn if they notice problems with speech or reading in a child.

Experts say that no two dyslexics are the same - therefore, the treatment of dyslexia is individual. Often, difficulties remain with a person for life - and then it is important to understand how to improve its quality, how to help a child cope with the main life tasks. In other situations, a fairly high-quality correction is possible. For these purposes, a special speech therapy program is selected. It is based on the type of dyslexia, the age of the person, as well as his personal characteristics.

Medical treatment of dyslexia remains at the moment in question.

Preventive measures

As soon as a child has problems with reading, writing, memorizing and other important functions, you should immediately contact a speech therapist, as well as provide him with a comfortable environment for learning, start using the exercises recommended by the speech therapist.

Educational games, emphasis on visual information in childhood, comprehensive (but not exhausting) attention from adults - all this will be a good prevention of the disease.

Common questions and answers

Is it possible to cure dyslexia completely?

It all depends on the specific situation. Sometimes it is possible to correct the problem to such an extent that it does not affect later life. But it is important to start work on time.

Who treats dyslexia?

We have already partially answered this question about dyslexia, what it is and how to treat it. After the diagnosis and exclusion of other pathologies, the main treatment is carried out by a speech therapist according to a special program.

Is dyslexia always an intellectual problem?

In no case. A child with dyslexia, with the right approach, can not only get a good profession, but also become very successful in it. Suffice it to say that famous people such as Steve Jobs, John Lennon or billionaire Richard Branson were dyslexic.

Dyslexia is by no means a sentence, but a problem that requires careful attention from adults. If they make an effort and devote time to her, the child will have a chance for a good education and a great future.

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How to identify dyslexia in a child, where to go and examples of famous dyslexics

“In the third grade, the teacher advised my parents to transfer me to a special school. She said I have retarded development syndrome, ”Maria Parfyonova informs me, as soon as we sit down at a table on the roof of the Bardeli bar, in which the daughter of journalist Leonid Parfyonov and culinary specialist Elena Chekalova successfully works as a manager. Parfyonova Jr. has been developing public relations without any delay in the trendy 15 Kitchen+Bar, and she is also trilingual and easily conducts secular discussions about history. But Maria is dyslexic. Like every tenth person in the world.

“Even today, few people know about dyslexia, and in my childhood, they didn't hear about it at all,” says Maria. “At school, they didn’t consider me a person: “Twenty-two mistakes in dictation! Well, what can we take from her?” Only one teacher ventured to suggest that Masha was not just lazy or lagging behind in development, and advised changing the public school to a private one. Her parents transferred her to the Golden Section. And then the girl was diagnosed with dyslexia. This is the name of the violation of the ability to master reading and writing while maintaining the ability to learn.

A dyslexic perceives text as images, in other words, sees pictures instead of words. Words that do not cause him visual associations, he simply skips when reading. Often, by the end of a sentence that other children can read with ease, the dyslexic is exhausted from nervous tension. It is almost impossible for him to retell what he read. Also, dyslexics do not see errors in the spelling of words and numbers. Often such a child swaps letters or numbers: for example, when solving a problem in arithmetic, he writes “5 +5 = 01” or draws “E” in writing in reverse. It is especially difficult for millennial children: in the era of social networks, Grammar Nazis lie in wait for dyslexics not only in Russian lessons, but also on Facebook. Maria Parfyonova, for example, stopped writing posts with adverbial phrases. “I don’t know how to coordinate them,” she says. “And people comment: “Nature has rested on you!” Such oddities infuriate unprepared teachers and overly ambitious parents. “My acquaintances with dyslexia - now successful adults - told how their fathers in anger kicked out the doors of children's rooms, broke desks. They thought the child was just being lazy,” says Maria Piotrovskaya, founder of the Moscow Association of Parents and Children with Dyslexia. Naturally, they fell into a deep depression. Teachers are no better: trying to make the student catch up with the rest in terms of performance, they forced him to read aloud under a stopwatch. It's a huge stress for a child."

Maria Piotrovskaya herself, former head of the board of directors at Renaissance Credit Bank, left the world of finance and audit when her daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. Maria tried to figure out what it was. It turned out to be easier to reduce the debit to the credit. In Russia, only speech therapists and neuropsychologists can tell about dyslexia with knowledge of the matter - narrow specialists, to whom they go in the direction. In the system of education and social support, dyslexia was also not heard; at the legislative level, the rights of dyslexics are not protected in any way. Maria opened her association in October with the support of Ruben Vardanyan and his charity project Philin. The initiative was supported by GITIS, since dyslexia is a common diagnosis in people of creative professions. And the State Hermitage, which is headed by Maria's father Mikhail Piotrovsky. Now the museum is preparing a program for schoolchildren, built not on memorizing texts, but on visual images.

Every tenth person in the world suffers from dyslexia. But there are no official statistics and schools for such children in Russia.

“Our main task now is to explain to teachers and parents that if a child receives low grades, this does not mean that he is lazy or does not want to study,” says Maria. - The next task is to help change the legislative framework. To be sure that tests for dyslexia are carried out before entering elementary school and moving to middle school. We are also working to ensure that the school has teachers who are certified to work with such children in the lower grades - for starters. At least one per school. Diagnosis is usually made between the ages of five and nine (in England, diagnosis is made at age four). So the sooner teachers start working with such a child according to a special scheme, the more likely it is that he will graduate from school perfectly, he will be able to realize himself in any profession, avoiding psychological problems.

“Dyslexia is considered to be inherited. But our experience shows that this is not necessary,” explains Inessa Khvostova, Managing Director of Lucullus Educational Consultants. - By the way, it is more difficult to identify dyslexia in girls than in boys: apparently, because they are more successful at hiding problems with their studies. That is why it was previously believed that the risk group was mostly boys.

To demand changes in Russian laws, we need statistics. She, of course, is not. “We go to schools ourselves,” says Maria Piotrovskaya. - Not only in Moscow, but also, for example, in Chechnya and Ingushetia. In these regions, there are also many schoolchildren with dyslexia, in addition, education is bilingual, and this is an additional burden for children.” The association is developing teaching methods for children with different perceptions, which are going to be transferred to the Ministry of Education. The luminaries of science are working on it: psycholinguist Tatyana Chernigovskaya, neuropsychologist Tatyana Akhutina, vice-president of the Association of Speech Pathologists of St. Petersburg Alexander Kornev. And Piotrovskaya and her colleagues conducted free master classes called “Underachievement is curable” in five secondary schools in Moscow. The teachers came and honestly admitted that in every class there are underachieving students with characteristic features.

Parents come to the association's small office on Gogolevsky Boulevard. The center “Club Intellect 135” operates there, where a neurologist of the highest category, Gullzhan Sakbayeva, works with children. She still has few wards: most mothers, having learned about the diagnosis, pretend that everything is in order, they just need to hire tutors. Or they disown dyslexia as a deadly disease.

“I stopped posting adverbs on Facebook. And people comment: “Nature has rested on you!”

Alexandra Shishmareva, a student of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University, also has dyslexia. At the master classes of the association, Alexandra acts as a speaker. “As a child, I truly hated school,” she says now. - It got to the point that she began to get sick with everything that was possible, just not to go to class. The godmother sent me to St. Petersburg to the candidate of psychological sciences Elena Nikolaevna Chesnokova. For ten days, from morning until late at night, she worked with me according to the adapted American Orton-Gillingham system. For example, we sculpted the letters of the alphabet from plasticine - first from A to Z, then from Z to A. When I returned to school, my literacy gradually improved. Last year, Shishmareva received high scores at the Unified State Examination in Russian and Literature and eventually entered the history department of Moscow State University without exams.

Despite the best efforts of volunteers and philanthropists, there are no schools in Russia that specialize in teaching dyslexics. Even in the advanced Golden Section, where they took on the daughter of Leonid Parfenov, there is no individual approach to such students, says Maria. “Nobody gives you extra time on tests,” she says. - Because then the parents will come and ask: "Why is Masha allowed more than my Vita?" Although in the "Golden Section" there were still many advantages compared to a regular school. For example, I studied Russian not with the class, but with a speech therapist, three times a week. With the teacher of the European Gymnasium, Maria Markovna Kazbek-Kazieva, Parfenova developed literacy: “She has her own methods for memorizing spelling rules. Maria Markovna pulled from a deuce to a four in a year. Two more years and I would start to write normally in Russian.” And the stories of Sergei Dovlatov helped the girl learn to read: “He writes the way people say. Also, reading his prose aloud, you can practice intonation - there are no long sentences, like, for example, Tolstoy's.

In the United States, dyslexia is considered a "special feature". This is the definition given by the National Institutes of Health and the International Development Association. Dyslexia is included in the Education with Disabilities Act, which is in force in thirty-seven states.

In the UK, dyslexia was introduced into the Chronically Ill and Incapacitated Persons Act in 1970. In 1987, the European Dyslexia Association was founded in Brussels, representing the interests of dyslexics in the European Parliament and UNESCO. “When I left to study in Europe, I was in shock,” recalls Maria Parfenova. - At the City University of London there is a disability center where they work with you. For the UK, this is an absolutely normal story. By the way, I must say thanks to the Golden Section school: in a letter of recommendation from there, they wrote to me that “due to the imperfection of the Russian education system, Maria’s grades are lower than they could be. ”

Secondary education in the UK is based on either the A Level system or the IB program. The latter is better adapted for teaching children with special needs and more suitable for dyslexics. In Moscow, for example, the European Gymnasium, the MES, the Anglo-American Gymnasium and the President School work according to the IB system. “In history lessons in an ordinary Russian school, events are told according to the textbook, concisely,” explains Maria Parfenova. - And in the IB system (I studied it at school in Italy), students are recommended to use visual materials as much as possible. For example, while studying the history of the Cold War, children watch a real American propaganda newsreel. Then a visual comparative analysis of events is made. I can now draw this sign from memory.

The sooner a child is diagnosed with dyslexia, the more likely it is that they will not have problems with learning and socialization in the future. “A child with dyslexia is extremely difficult to learn if the education system is built around reading, writing and remembering large amounts of information,” says Leslie Shaw-Wall, director of Foremarke Hall Repton Preparatory School in Derbyshire. “In Britain, various programs have been developed to educate such children.”

Angered dads knock down the doors of children's rooms, break desks. Teachers force the child to read under the stopwatch.

First, the degree of dyslexia is determined: minor (several characteristic features), mild, moderate, severe. Children with a severe form are usually sent to private schools that specialize in working with dyslexics. “But in fact, there is no need to apply to special schools,” says the director of Foremarke. “Most dyslexics study in regular schools – in the UK there are regulations that require an individual approach to the education of children with disabilities and special needs.” Dyslexics are given twenty percent more time on tests, and they take exams in a separate class.

It is important to know the main thing about dyslexia - it is not a disease, it cannot be cured. It is called "the gift that is always with you" - so poetically Ronald Davis, founder of the Center for the Study of Reading Problems in Burlingame, once called dyslexia. Often dyslexia is indeed a gift. Children who read and write with difficulty often have well-developed non-verbal thinking. They master many skills much faster than their peers and show creative abilities, such as an exceptional ear for music. They differ in sociability, often succeed in painting.

“According to Fernett and Brock Eide, authors of The Benefits of Dyslexia: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain, people who can’t focus on the little things tend to see the situation in a complex way, to imagine how processes will develop over time,” says the head of the London office of the educational agency Connexus Academic Advisors Vlad Konyashkin. Seeing relationships that elude others is another virtue of dyslexics. Pay attention to how your child draws conclusions. Dyslexics are distinguished by the ability to reason when the facts are not enough or they often change. Adding three-dimensional spatial perspectives is easier for dyslexics. In the future, they can work in the field of design, architecture, be engineers, builders, inventors, organic chemists. ”

But even if the child is still out of tune, playing the twenty-fourth capriccio of Paganini, it is definitely not necessary to give up and take him out of school. After all, Steve Jobs was also diagnosed with dyslexia. And mathematician Alan Turing, who deciphered the supercomplex German code during the war. And even the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Winston Churchill.

8 signs your child may have dyslexia

“Most people think that dyslexia comes down to the inability to read and write,” explains Vlada Konyashkina, head of the London office of the educational agency Connexus Academic Advisors. - It's a delusion. These children face other challenges as well.”

A dyslexic differs from a child with low IQ in that:

1. He lacks organizational skills.

2. He has trouble doing things sequentially (for example, a child has trouble doing a math problem because they confuse the order of steps in a solution).

3. There are difficulties with the perception of time.

4. The child is constantly distracted.

5. He often has mood swings.

6. When reading, it seems to him that the letters are moving, and he confuses their sequence.

7. There are problems with the speed of information processing and memorization.

8. It is difficult for a child to build complex sentences with a complete thought.

Dyslexics remember information better if it is presented in the form of concrete examples or stories from life, rather than abstract reasoning. For example, your child is likely to remember perfectly well who and what gave his sister for her birthday two years ago, but not his class schedule.

Where to run

How dyslexia is diagnosed and where special children are taught, says Inessa Khvostova, Managing Director of Lucullus Educational Consultants. To diagnose or rule out dyslexia, a child is asked to listen, read, and remember sequences of words, numbers, or colors. Thus, short-term and long-term memory, the ability to analyze information, the level of attention and concentration are checked. They will also offer tests for logic, for reading comprehension, for verbal and non-verbal thinking, as well as tests for intelligence.

However, dyslexia does not imply a lack of intelligence and does not put an end to education and career. For example, my dyslexic husband is an architect. He can only draw if he listens to an audiobook. And I, for example, can’t listen to audiobooks at all: attention is scattered.

No two dyslexics are the same. Dyslexia manifests itself differently for each person: one with dyspraxia, the other with attention deficit disorder.

Recommendations are based on test results in each individual case. The school is chosen the same way. For example, the More House school in Surrey, England is suitable for children with a complex form of dyslexia: there they study a maximum of five subjects instead of the generally accepted twelve, and besides, teachers teach them overtime.

Seaford School in Sussex and Bryanston School in Dorset work well with medium uniforms. Almost thirty percent of the students in these schools are dyslexic.

Even Eton and Winchester Colleges will accept students with a mild form of dyslexia (there are eight percent of such special students). Children are engaged with the teacher individually or in mini-groups.

Famous dyslexics

You don't have to have an A in penmanship to go down in history.

Richard Branson

Founder of the Virgin Group and top business role model in the 2000s, he left school at sixteen but has written nine motivational books. Everywhere there is at least a line about dyslexia. Knowing his peculiarity, Sir Richard surrounded himself with professionals who excelled him in academic excellence, and delegated most of his authority to them. And he began to come up with new projects. Branson has neither a certificate nor a diploma so far. But there is a fortune of almost five billion dollars.

Michael Phelps

The number one swimmer has the most Olympic medals. And in the children's medical record - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyspraxia (disorder of the motor apparatus, in which there are problems with coordination).

Steve Jobs

Dropped out of school several times and only lasted one semester in college. I never really learned how to write and read. And, probably, that is why he gave humanity a phone that can independently select words in messages.

John Lennon

Entered teachers into a stupor by not being able to spell a single word, confusing consonant words and writing, changing letters in places. Now these texts are sung all over the world.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

The irony of fate: the poet, whose poetry is torture for dyslexics, himself suffered from a text perception disorder. Hence the stanzas "ladder", and ignoring punctuation marks. Reading to Vladimir Vladimirovich never came to fruition: materials for his poems were collected by Lilya Brik.

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