The signs and symptoms of dyslexia differ according to the theory one follows about what causes it.
According to the Mayo Clinic, which believes that brain dysfunction causes dyslexia, a child is at increased risk if s/he adds new words slowly and has difficulty rhyming. Signs and symptoms in a school age child include:
- The inability to recognize words and letters on a printed page.
- A reading ability level well below the expected level for the age of your child.
- Problems processing and understanding what they hear.
- Difficulty comprehending rapid instructions, following more than one command at a time, or remembering the sequence of things.
- Reversals of letters (b for d) and a reversal of words (saw for was) are typical among children who have dyslexia (reversals are common for children age 6 and younger who don't have dyslexia, but with dyslexia, the reversals persist).
- Attempts to read from right to left.
- Failure to see (and occasionally to hear) similarities and differences in letters and words.
- Inability to recognize the spacing that organizes letters into separate words.
- Inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word.
According to Dr. Harold Levinson, who proposes the inner ear (C-V) theory, signs and symptoms are much broader, taking in a variety of reading and non-reading activities. Apart from the reading symptoms noted above, Dr. Levinson also cites:
- Messy, poorly angulated, or drifting handwriting prone to size, spacing, and letter-sequencing errors
- Spelling, Math, Memory, and Grammar
- Memory instability for spelling, grammar, math, names, dates, and lists, or sequences such as the alphabet, the days of the week and months of the year, and directions.
- Speech disorders such as slurring, stuttering, minor articulation errors, poor word recall, and auditory-input and motor-output speech lags
- Right/left and related directional uncertainty
- Delay in learning to tell time
- Impaired concentration, distractibility, hyperactivity, or overactivity
- Behavior, Temper, or Impulse disturbances
- Difficulties with balance and coordination functions, i.e., walking, running, skipping, hopping, tying shoelaces, and buttoning buttons
- Difficulties with headaches, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, motion sickness, abdominal complaints, excessive sweating, and bed-wetting
- Feeling stupid, ugly, incompetent, brainless
- Phobias and Related Mood and Obsessive/Compulsive Disorders, such as:
- Fears of the dark, heights, getting lost, going to school
- Fear or the avoidance of various balance, coordination, sports, and motion-related activities
- Mood disturbances
- Obsessions and compulsions
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