Failing First Grade: Early Identification of Dyslexia

Did you know that one in five children are Dyslexic? Dyslexia is more than reversing letters. It is a learning difference where children have trouble with letters and sounds. It typically runs in families. The medical profession actually can see the differences in brain activity between non-dyslexic and dyslexic brains. Children experience letters jumping around the page when they read. However, it is considered an invisible disability. What children see comes out in other ways, such as hyperactivity, depression, or disruptive behavior. Parents and teachers want their children to succeed but are helpless when it comes to solutions.

Let's start with the early signs. In preschool, a child would have a hard time with rhymes. If you ask your child: mat, bat, cat, what word comes next? Our youngest dyslexic son responded with dog. Obviously, dog does not rhyme, but the last word he heard was cat, a house pet. His association was with other house pets, a dog. Our oldest son, who is also Dyslexic, did not have this issue but was challenged when you asked the question a different way: bat, change the "a" to a "u," and what would the word be? He wouldn't say anything. He was just confused. The word "but" had no meaning to him. It wasn't a picture he could see in his mind.

Another early sign is late speech development. Late speech could be a sign of many things but is very common with people with dyslexia. Our oldest son talked at the average rate, so we didn't have a concern. Our middle son was an early talker, so it was surprising when our youngest didn't speak until after his second birthday. He could tell you what he wanted with action, but not with words. His frustration came out with the terrible two tantrums when he couldn't be understood. Yes, terrible twos are challenging, but it is a red flag when they aren't speaking, only grunting.

Many dyslexic preschoolers call things by the wrong name or cannot come up with familiar names for objects. Our youngest son had many examples of naming errors. He once called kayaking “cadillacing" since his grandparents had both a kayak and a Cadillac. He also vividly remembers not being able to come up with the word basketball. He explained that he wanted the type of ball that you throw into a hoop.

A sure sign of dyslexia is trouble with spelling at any age. Our oldest could get 100% on a spelling test because he memorized the words in first grade. However, he could not spell the exact words in a sentence that same day. The spelling word list was just that, a list. The actual meaning of the word, a picture, was something more challenging. He had to visualize the image, decipher the sounds, form the letters, and physically write it down. It was too much for a little dyslexic first grader to handle. Our youngest son had weird concoctions for his spelling words. The more he studied, the worse his words would be spelled. I never did figure out his rationale, but I was told they see words as shapes. The picture of how the word looked made sense to him.

As school progressed, things became more difficult. I volunteered numerous times in the classroom when our children were young. An interesting challenge included copying anything from the board. The teacher would generally give up and give our son whatever she was putting on the projector. Assignments written on the board made it a double whammy since he never could write down his assignments, thus missing homework.

Sounding out words is difficult for people with dyslexia. I remember going on a college visit with our boys. Our oldest son came across a word he never saw before, armadillo. He tried hard to sound it out, arm-ad-illo, he said. I said, you mean ar-ma-dil-lo? Even though he butchered the word, his younger brother cheered. “Yay, you sounded it out.” Yes, our son was 18 years old at the time. Dyslexia is not something you outgrow.

When children are confused by books and their stories, it is a symptom of dyslexia. We had our son tested at the “All Kinds of Minds” institute (which has changed over the years). I was able to observe the testing remotely. I was fascinated when our son read a non-fiction book. His recall of the story was perfect. But when he read fiction, and the story implied various meanings, he was lost at recalling what he just read. Fascinating.

Confusing letters are typically what people think of with people with dyslexia. But transposing a "b" and a "d" is just the tip of the iceberg. I was always confused that our youngest son didn't see the correlation between an "E" and an "e." They look nothing alike, so having one capital letter and another small didn't mean anything to him. He is now 28 years old, and he still randomly will write a capital E in the middle of a word.

Early on, sight words were a challenge for our boys. Where and were, their and there were impossible to differentiate. They could not form a picture in their mind about what the words meant and why there were different spellings. A solution was a multi-sensory experience such as blowing on their arm. "Where" had a breath while "were" did not. For there, we would point to "there" as a place to go, and "their" we would point to a person.

Not understanding idioms is a less obvious sign since it is usually revealed by not understanding the conversation. We don't realize how often we use idioms in everyday conversation. “Don’t let the cat out of the bag.” “It’s a piece of cake.” “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” “Rain or Shine” These are all very common sayings, but it is common for a dyslexic child to be confused and not speak up. However, our son became very concerned when an invitation to a birthday party was on rain or shine. He adamantly wanted me to call the host to make sure the party was still on. I kept insisting it was on rain or shine. He finally said, "Mom, I get the rain part, but I don't understand the shine part."

Although none of our boys have dyscalculia, defined as a learning difficulty that affects an individual's ability to do basic arithmetic such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, we did have some math issues. In 5th grade, our youngest son came home saying he was confused in math class. He said the teacher kept asking what the "some" is of a particular math problem. I explained that she was referring to a different word, "sum," not some. When I said "sum" means to add, he felt relieved. Now, he understood the homework assignment.

If you see any of these signs in your young children, don't hesitate to see your school administrators to have your child tested. Knowledge is your child's superpower. For more information, come to our virtual discussion on Eventbrite, Failing First Grade: Smart Children Struggling with Learning Differences.