I saw an article last week, which flashed me back to November 2004 when my daughter was diagnosed with Dyslexia. Blogs on my flashback are found here and here.
I started looking for symptoms lists for Language Based Learning Disabilities. It impacts verbal communication more then most people realize. So I went back to my favorite book on the subject; Overcoming Dyslexia.
Clues to dyslexia from early childhood include items like:
- Delayed language
- Trouble learning common nursery rhymes such as “Jack and Jill” and “Humpty Dumpty”
- A lack of appreciation of rhymes
- Mispronounced words: persistent baby talk
- Difficulty in learning (and remembering) names of letters
- Failure to know the letters in his own name
My first clue to Nataha’s problem was her rhyme blindness. She and her cousin (similar age) reacted completely differently to books like Green Eggs and Ham.
Here are some clues for Kindergarten to First Grade:
- Failure to understand that words come apart; for example that batboy can be pulled apart into bat and boy
- Inability to learn to associated letters with sounds
- reading errors that show no connection to the sounds of the letters; for example the word big is read as goat
Then I found this page and wondered if someone had a camera in my house. It is from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. The Other Language Problems section really hit home.
The child who has dyslexia as part of a larger language learning disability has trouble with both the spoken and the written word. These problems may include:
- Expressing ideas coherently, as if the words needed are on the tip of the tongue but won’t come out Consequently, utterances can be vague and difficult to understand (e.g., using unspecific vocabulary, such as “thing” or “stuff” to replace words that cannot be remembered). Filler words like “um” may be used to take up time while a word is being retrieved from memory
- Learning new vocabulary that the child hears (e.g., taught in lectures/lessons) and/or sees (e.g., in books)
- Understanding questions and following directions that are heard and/or read
- Recalling numbers in sequence, e.g., telephone numbers and addresses
- Understanding and retaining the details of a story’s plot or a classroom lecture
- Slow reading and reduced comprehension of the material
- Learning words to songs and rhymes
- Telling left from right, making it hard to read and write since both skills require this directionality
- Letters and numbers
- Learning the alphabet
- Identifying the sounds that correspond to letters, making learning to read a formidable task
- While writing, mixing up the order of letters in words
- Mixing up the order of numbers that are a part of math calculations
- Poor spelling
- Memorizing the times tables
- Telling time
The first item on the list (expressing ideas coherently) is a constant issue. Actually most of the items on the list are constant issues. But Natasha has developed many coping mechanisms.
