As young as preschool, parents, teachers, etc. should develop an awareness, ideally beginning with a child’s reading readiness profile. The earlier the intervention, the better! Things to look for…
In Young Children difficulty with:
- Recognizing letters, matching letters to sounds, and blending sounds into speech
- Pronouncing words, for example saying ”mawn lower” instead of “lawn mower”
- Learning and correctly using new vocabulary words
- Learning the alphabet, numbers, and days of the week or similar common word sequences
- Rhyming
In School-age Children difficulty with:
- Mastering the rules of spelling
- Remembering facts and numbers
- Handwriting or gripping a pencil
- Learning and understanding new skills; instead, relying heavily on memorization
- Reading and spelling, such as reversing letters (d,b) or moving letters around (left, felt)
- Following a sequence of directions
- Understanding word problems in math
In Teenagers and Young Adults difficulty with:
- Reading at the expected level
- Understanding non-literal language, such as idioms, jokes, or proverb
- Reading aloud with fluency
- Organizing and managing time
- Summarizing a story
- Learning a foreign language
- Memorizing