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I think my 5 year old daughter has dyslexia

maxxiegirl76 profile image
11 Replies

I have noticed over the past year that my daughter does letters and numbers backwards and she gets her b and d wrong way round. At school she's on the lowest level for her reading and she doesn't get her spellings right. Her writing is very messy and cluttered. I have spoken to her teacher who says this is normal. Do I need to be worried x

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maxxiegirl76 profile image
maxxiegirl76
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FlemmingAst profile image
FlemmingAst

Pls. allow me: Dyslexic reading aid video by American Literary Council about  mobile112 t.co/42CdR4

Also the britt.dyslektiker.dk/?attac... EU Award'd color key's keyboard will help.

coke1 profile image
coke1

i think she may be a bit young to be too sure but it is always worth getting her checked. Does she get fed up reading very soon and shows very short concentration levels This was our first sign in our grand daughter at an early age when reading she would lose interest very quickly and refuse to read on although would love to listen to stories She is now 9 and has a very supportive school Stick with it and try and get as much support as you can

jeanie48 profile image
jeanie48

I had exactly the same thing with my 5 yr old son last year. Now he is coming on so well. One of the hardest things is parents compare their child's progress with others. Some parents love to tell you how well their child is doing and we think our child should be the same. Hope this has helped.

yeswecanread profile image
yeswecanread

Parents always know if their child is dyslexic. The signs you describe are classic. Try the aids that people will suggest. ( I am the creator of Yes we can read, which anyone who can read can pick up to teach someone from 8 to 80 to read, so I am not trying to sell or push anything. Your child is 5. ) Be absolutely clear in your mind that dyslexia is a visual distortion in the eye and brain. It has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with intelligence. Einstein was dyslexic, and you can look up all the all the other famous people on google. People with dyslexia rarely enjoy reading and remain poor spellers, particularly when they are stressed and tired, when their visual problems with print get worse. But, for instance, Norman Foster ( who is dyslexic) and other architects will only employ staff with dyslexia, because they usually see print three-dimensionally - one of the reasons they have dyslexia. Bill Gates is dyslexic, so he tends to prefer people with dyslexia in the photography arms of his world-wide companies......Welcome to the world of mumbo jumbo, myths and worst of all a lack of understanding from the teaching profession. Yes we can! Libby Coleman

RabbitRabbit profile image
RabbitRabbit

Ok, so she is five, no need to panic yet. All children develop differently, some people are good at literacy, some are good at maths.

However you know her best. Most schools will not test until she is seven and a half as they say up until the she is still developing. The behaviours you describe could be but they could just be her learning style.

Monitor her, keep a notebook or your observations and discuss it with the school.

For me, I knew when my son was four he was, but I have three brothers and two nephews who are dyslexic. It as not just the writing it was reading my son could not get the link between the phonic sound and the actual letter so the whole reading thing did not happen for him, he was almost eight before he could read and this was after a lot of private tuition.

Don't be fobbed off by the school if you think it is a problem raise it and keep raising it, ask them specifically what they are doing to help her?

If it is any comfort my son is now 10, we had to pay privately for an assessment as the last school said he was not dyslexic, but he is, he now loves reading, it is one of his favourite pastimes and his writing is getting better with the help of Irlens glasses we just need to crack spelling now. But he is highly intelligent, very funny and articulate and I have no doubt he will have the capabilities to do something amazing when he is older.

AmandaSLynn profile image
AmandaSLynn

5 is very young, I'm dyslexic and at 5 I was at speech therapy however everyone is different. Keep an eye on her but it isn't too alarming, I couldn't write at all at that age and wrote bs for ds up until my teenage years, but as I say her dyslexia may have different strengths and weaknesses to mine. Ignore anyone who tells you dyslexia is visual this is an absolute myth. It is an information processing problem entirely in the brain. Sometimes dyslexic people see words move or distorted but this is a separate condition that can occur with or without dyslexia. Your child could have either or both of these problems.

Keep an eye out for problems with telling the time, left and right or even up and down, remembering sequences and tying shoe laces. Look out for speech issues also and see if verbal commands confuse her. Dyslexics often forget what they are telling you half way through a discussion and *can* tend to (not always) lean towards more creative hobbies such as art, story telling or music. Because a lot of dyslexics have very strong imaginations.

I now have a degree and used minimal spell check for this comment, so if she has dyslexia remember that she can still do well! Dyslexia to me is just a different way of thinking. Good luck!

austinsmrs profile image
austinsmrs in reply toAmandaSLynn

Good advice Amanda and well done to you for your success

UaLiathain profile image
UaLiathain

According to Dr. Eide in "Dyslexia Advantage", dyslexia is caused by a dominant right brain. We read with our left brain which is the part that deals with words. However all children start out reading with both sides of their brain which means even though they might be left brain dominant, they read like a dyslexic. About 4th grade or so the left brain takes over. Since dyslexics are right brain dominant, the right brain insists on sticking around and getting in the way. The teacher may well be right and your daughter is normal. I would keep an eye on her, though.

I'm from the undiagnosed generation so don't know anything about testing that is available. Worse case scenario and she is dyslexic, she may be only mild or moderate. Or she might be severe and you have another Anne Rice or Steven Spielberg on your hands. :-)

austinsmrs profile image
austinsmrs

Hi welcome to the site. My Son is 9 and dyslexic, dyscalculia and has severe dysgraphia. He is my oldest child. Dyslexia is not in our family and I did not know until he was about 7 that he was dyslexic. He displayed same symptoms as your daughter, b and d's round the wrong way, 2 5 and 7 back to front handwriting was a scrawl and often just a stream of letters all on a line. He couldnt spell he didnt want to read and if he tried to read we would spell out a word together phonectically and then he would come to the same word further down the page and it was like he never saw the word before. It was extremely frustrating and resulted in him having very low self esteem. When he was 8 we had him tested by an Ed Psych and he was found to be on the floor of the centile scale and to cut a long story short he is now statemented and the Local Education Authority pay for him to attend a specialist dyslexic school who do not teach phonetics full time. He is coming on in leaps and bounds now. A very happy ending. 5 is very early to diagnose dyslexia and typically Ed Psychs do not like to diagnose till the child is around 8 yrs old. All the things you mention your daughter does are fairly typical and it is good advice to keep a log and photocopy of her work and to speak with the SENCO at school stating you are concerned. They can put things into place that can help her ie smaller intervention groups in reading and writing and you must read with her as much as possible even is she reads a line and then you read a line etc to build up her sight vocabulary. Dyslexics have very limited working memory ie if you gave your daughter a sequence of numbers etc could she repeat it back to you? Often they just get the first and last number right. I totally disagree with yeswecanread saying you always know as a parent if your child is dyslexic what rubbish I didnt know and now after my journey of fighting to get help for my child for a year and a half I have met many people along the road. Children with dyslexia are clever they can cover it up and learn coping mechanisms hence why alot of girls are not diagnosed until typicall 10 -12 because they hide it so well and also if your child is a compliant child like mine is, ie not kicking off in the classroom they often get overlooked by the teacher. So now you have reason to suspect your daughter may be dyslexic get in touch with the school and see what they can offer to help her. Good luck

Choc22 profile image
Choc22

How are her organisational skills? Also, does she have a 'satellite delay' when you talk to her as if she's not taking something in or she's not heard you. These can also be part of dyslexia.

rosannalenci profile image
rosannalenci

IMPORTANT: the right brain learns to understand 3D before than 2D! which means that the latest part is reading! the left brain learns 2D then 3D so it means that they read first

according to studies kids shouldn´t be forced to read, since some start at 8 or 9... (rightbrained) (can you imagien if the school programs were designed by rightbrained? ehehehhe all buolding blocks and science... and 3D geometry- they rest would be called dysthreedic!)

find out if she has problems with: gross motory movements, coordination, jumping in one foot, making difference between left and right, make her do exrecises related to the position of things in space and copying images with an item located in one side..

if you are worried fix it now!!! I suspected when mien was 4! and infact she is!!!!

pay attention to pdbq ... and exercise with a 3D p and make it turn in space!

check if she confuses u/n (it is all about dyslexics seeing things in 3D and being able to turn them around in their immagination- the gift)

do some vestibular exercises: slackline, capoeira...

find out what is her prominent hand... she could have been "forced" to be a righty and she could be a lefty!

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