Instructional Support

Coordinator of Dyslexia/504
Greg Vidal
1401 West Pecan Street
Pflugerville, Texas 78660
512.594.0184

Dyslexia Specialist

Kathleen Galbraith

512.594.0159

Symptoms of Dyslexia by Grade Levels
Adapted by Greg Vidal

from Louisa Moats, CIRI, COE. May 2005. and Susan Barton. Bright Solutions for Dyslexia. 2002.

Kindergarten-Grade 2

• delayed speech
• mixing up the sounds and syllables in long words
• trouble producing rhyming words
• doesn’t know letter names and sounds
• doesn’t learn phonics readily
• trouble memorizing their address, phone number, or the alphabet
• inconsistent memory for words
• can’t remember lists (days, months)
• mispronounces words
• distracted by background noise
• can’t retrieve names for colors or objects
• can’t spell phonetically
• exhibits frustration
• avoidance of work
• constant confusion of left versus right
• late establishing a dominant hand
• difficulty learning to tie shoes
• chronic ear infections
• severe reactions to childhood illnesses

Grades 3-4

• phonic decoding is a struggle
• inconsistent word recognition
• over reliance on context and guessing
• slow, choppy, inaccurate reading:

           -guesses based on shape or context

           -skips or misreads prepositions (at, to, of)

           -ignores suffixes

           -can’t sound out unknown words

• trouble learning new vocabulary
• often can’t remember sight words (they, were, does) or homonyms (their, they’re, and there)
• avoids reading
• dislikes reading aloud
• difficulty with math

          -memorizing multiplication tables

          -memorizing a sequence of steps

          -directionality

• extreme difficulty learning cursive
• letter or number reversals
• poor spelling, immature for grade level
• poor punctuation and/or capitalization
• dislikes writing
• when speaking, difficulty finding the correct word

          -lots of “whatyamacallits” and “thingies”

          -common sayings come out slightly twisted

• extremely messy bedroom, backpack, and desk
• dreads going to school

          -may be having nightmares about school

Grades 5-6

• poor spelling, symbolic errors
• poor punctuation and/or capitalization
• trouble learning cursive
• over reliance on context to read; poor decoding
• slow, choppy reading rate
• dislikes reading aloud
• avoids reading
• dislikes writing

Grades 7-8

• slow, choppy reading rate
• inability to decode new vocabulary or multi-syllabic words
• poor spelling
• inability to organize written compositions
• word confusions

Grades 9+

• extremely poor written expression
  • large discrepancy between verbal skills and written composition
• slow, minimal, or disorganized writing
• writing is of lesser quality than reading comprehension
• limited vocabulary
• poor spelling and “mechanics”
• difficulty learning a foreign language
• difficulty reading printed music
• poor grades in many classes
• may drop out of high school