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The symptoms of dyslexia, which is characterized as the difficulty in writing, speaking and spelling, are usually identified during the period of childhood literacy, when the child enters school and demonstrates greater difficulty in learning.
However, dyslexia can also end up only being diagnosed in adulthood, especially when the child has not attended school.
Although dyslexia has no cure, there is treatment to help the person with dyslexia overcome, as far as possible and within their abilities, the difficulty in reading, writing and spelling.
Main symptoms in the child
The first symptoms of dyslexia can appear in early childhood, including:
- Start speaking later;
- Delay in motor development such as crawling, sitting and walking;
- The child does not understand what he hears;
- Difficulty in learning to ride a tricycle;
- Difficulty adapting to school;
- Sleep problems;
- The child may be hyperactive or hypoactive;
- Crying and restlessness or agitation often.
From the age of 7, dyslexia symptoms can be:
- The child takes a long time to do the homework or can do it quickly but with many mistakes;
- Difficulty reading and writing, making up, adding or omitting words;
- Difficulty understanding texts;
- The child can omit, add, change or reverse the order and direction of letters and syllables;
- Difficulty concentrating;
- The child does not want to read, especially out loud;
- The child does not like going to school, having a stomachache when going to school or a fever on test days;
- Follow the line of the text with your fingers;
- The child easily forgets what he learns and gets lost in space and time;
- Confusion between left and right, up and down, front and back;
- The child has difficulty reading the hours, sequences and counting, needing fingers;
- The child does not like school, reading, mathematics and writing;
- Difficulty in spelling;
- Slow writing, with ugly and cluttered handwriting.
Dyslexic children also often have difficulty riding a bicycle, buttoning, tying their shoelaces, maintaining balance and exercising. In addition, speech problems like switching from R to L can also be caused by a disorder called Dyslalia. Better understand what dyslalia is and how it is treated.
Main symptoms in adults
The symptoms of dyslexia in adults, although they may not all be present, can be:
- Take a long time to read a book;
- When reading, skip the end of words;
- Difficulty thinking what to write;
- Difficulty making notes;
- Difficulty following what others say and with sequences;
- Difficulty in mental calculation and time management;
- Reluctance to write, for example, messages;
- Difficulty in properly understanding the meaning of a text;
- Need to reread the same text several times to understand it;
- Difficulty in writing, with mistakes in changing letters and forgetting or confusion in relation to punctuation and grammar;
- Confuse instructions or phone numbers, for example;
- Difficulty in planning, organizing and managing time or tasks.
However, generally, the individual with dyslexia is very sociable, communicates well and is affable, being very friendly.
Common word and letter substitutions
Many children with dyslexia confuse letters and words with similar ones, and it is common for letters to be reversed during writing, such as writing 'me' instead of 'em' or 'd' instead of 'b'. In the table below we provide more examples:
replace 'f' with 't' | replace 'w' with 'm' | replace 'sound' with 'mos' |
replace 'd' with 'b' | replace 'v' with 'f' | replace 'me' with 'in' |
replace 'm' with 'n' | replace 'sun' with 'los' | replace 'n' with 'u' |
Another factor that must be taken into account is that dyslexia has a family component, so suspicion increases when one of the parents or grandparents has been diagnosed with dyslexia before.
How to confirm the diagnosis
To confirm that the person has dyslexia, it is necessary to perform specific tests that must be answered by parents, teachers and people close to the child. The test consists of several questions about the child's behavior in the last 6 months and must be evaluated by a psychologist who will also give you instructions on how to monitor the child.
In addition to identifying whether the child has dyslexia, it may be necessary to answer other questionnaires to find out whether in addition to dyslexia the child has some other condition such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which is present in almost half of the cases of dyslexia.