Red Flags for Reading Difficulties

Excerpts from, “The Dyslexia Puzzle”… (Kaufman and Hook, 1998)
“Characteristics of students with dyslexia change over time, depending on the grade level and/or stage of reading that the individual has reached. The following are some signs of dyslexia at different grade levels:”

Pre K & Kindergarten

• Delay in Talking
• Difficulty recognizing and producing rhymes
• Difficulty remembering rote information, such as letter names
• Difficulty remembering or following directions

Grades 1-3

• Difficulty with sound/symbol correspondence (/a/, as in apple)
• Confusion with letters that look alike ( b/d/p, w/m, h/n, f/t)
• Confusion with letters that have similar sounds ( d/t, b/p, f/v)
• Difficulty remembering common sight words (was, the, and, she)
• Problems segmenting words into sounds (cat – /k/ /a/ /t/)
• Difficulty blending individual sounds to make words
• Reading and spelling errors that indicate difficulty sequencing sounds ( blast -> blats)
• Omission of grammatical endings when reading and writing ( -s, -ed, -ing)
• Difficulty remembering spelling of words over time

Grades 4-8

• Significant difficulty reading and spelling multisyllabic/longer words (Ex. Omits whole syllables)
• Reduced awareness of word structure (prefix, roots, and suffixes)
• Frequent misreading of common sight words
• Difficulty learning new information from text because of word reading errors
• Difficulty understanding text because of underlying oral language problems with vocabulary and/or grammar
• Significant difficulty writing, due to spelling and organization problems
• Slow rate of reading

HS, College, Adult

• Continued difficulty with word recognition that significantly affects acquisition of knowledge and ability to analyze written material
• Slow rate of reading
• Continued difficulty with spelling and written composition
• Difficulty taking notes in class
• Trouble learning a foreign language