Is Dyslexia the Culprit for Poor Learning Skills? Here’s How to Check

I’m noticing a trend among students. No, it isn’t a new kind of music, clothing or slang. It involves a learning disability called dyslexia.

More and more kids are claiming to have dyslexia, and more parents are offering it as an excuse for their children’s low grades or poor behavior.

Can it really be that so many school-aged children are dyslexic?

Not likely. But parents may be misled by some common confusion about what dyslexia is and how it shows up in kids’ learning and behavior.

Dyslexia is an impairment of the ability to perceive and process words, numbers and other symbols. It can be genetic in origin or caused by an injury to the brain.

There is no cure. Warning signs typically appear when a child starts learning to read. Bear in mind that dyslexic kids can be healthy and “normal” in every other way.

Specialists can diagnose it quite readily, however, and it is very rare for a child’s dyslexia to go undetected past the primary grades.

The percentage of dyslexic students is actually quite low. Out of more than 100 students I’m teaching this year, only about half a dozen receive any kind of specialized teaching for learning disabilities of any kind, and only two or three are dyslexic.

So how can you know whether your child is dyslexic or is just being placed in a catch-all category for disruptive or low-achieving students?

While only a psychologist, special-education teacher or other trained professional can tell for sure, there are some signs that may tip you off. A typical dyslexic child may display any number and combination of the following traits.

Perceiving a word’s letters in backward, upside-down, reversed or inverted order is probably the most common and obvious hint of dyslexia. It doesn’t just affect reading; a student may write words in this jumbled or backward fashion too.

Students who are truly dyslexic may have trouble sounding out new words as they read. Most of us learned to read by using phonics (the sound or sounds that each letter typically signifies), so we are able to sound out new words that way.

That often doesn’t work for dyslexic children. They may know the sound of the first letter in a word (“c” in “cat,” for example), but are lost from then on. They’re simply unable to string letter-sounds together to sound out a printed word.

Poor memory of printed words is another sign of dyslexia. Dyslexic students have to spend more time than most of their peers to learn and remember new words. That can mean a comparatively limited vocabulary if not compensated for.

Weak spelling skills among dyslexic students shouldn’t surprise anyone; it’s a natural outgrowth of poor word memory and phonics skills.

Dyslexic students are either unable to remember how a certain word is spelled, or they try to write it as it sounds, and thus produce the right sounds with the wrong letters (“fli” instead of “fly,” or “strem” instead of “stream”).

Poor reading comprehension is also common, even if the student is able to work through the reading of a story.

They may, for example, mix up the sequence of events in the story, forget or confuse characters, neglect important details or wholly miss the story’s point.

This comprehension problem may exist because the dyslexic student is so busy dealing with the story’s surface--the very words that tell it.

You can check for reading comprehension by reading a story with your child, then asking him or her some questions about the events and characters.

Difficulty in expressing one’s ideas in speech or writing is also a problem for some dyslexic students.

The ideas, events and characters in their letters, stories, essays, speeches, monologues or other projects may be confused and disorganized. These problems can also show up when a child just tries to narrate a vacation or day at school.

Hand-eye coordination may also be lacking in a dyslexic child. This one is easy to spot: extra sloppy handwriting or drawing, or coloring way beyond the lines are signals. Remember, however, that plenty of us “normal” learners have poor handwriting or simply refuse to stay within the lines. This by itself is not cause for alarm.

If your son or daughter is exhibiting some of these signs, check it out officially, just to be sure. Your first step is telephoning or visiting the child’s teacher, counselor or school psychologist.

California public schools employ a number of strategies for helping dyslexic students cope and succeed, and state law guarantees your child a personalized program toward that end.