• Difficulty learning nursery rhymes

• Delayed speech sound production and / or language development

• Difficulty learning early concepts such as colours and numbers

• Difficulty learning the letters in their own name

• Difficulty recognising rhyming words

• Difficulty matching words that begin with the same sound

• A family history of learning difficulties

• Poor understanding of letter sound links

• Slow and inaccurate word recognition

• Difficulty decoding unfamiliar words

• Struggles to read, write and spell

• Sometimes struggles to find the right word (when speaking)

• Avoids or hates reading

• Gets frustrated when reading

• Difficulty following instructions

• Struggles to remember names, dates, months or sequences

• Family members with a diagnosis of dyslexia or other learning difficulties like ADHDn text goes here

• Slow and laboured reading 

• Struggles to comprehend written information 

• Suffers from anxiety related to school or schoolwork 

• Takes much more time to complete assignments or exams than others 

• Struggles to remember names, dates, months or sequences 

• Chooses not to read for pleasure 

• Has a history of literacy difficulties in school 

• Struggles to fill out forms or applications

• Disorganisation and difficulties with planning

• Family members with a diagnosis of dyslexia or other learning difficulties like ADHD

As young as 6 years in some cases. The myth that we need to wait until a child is 7 or 8 before a diagnosis can be made still prevails. Nadine Gaab, Ph.D. states “While a diagnosis of dyslexia currently requires repeated failure learning to read, this does not mean that early signs of dyslexia cannot be observed in preschool (or possibly earlier). Deficits in phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, verbal working memory, and letter knowledge have been shown to be robust precursors of dyslexia in children as young as age three (Puolakanaho et al., 2007).”

“Repeated failure in learning to read” means that a child must have had sufficient opportunities to be able to learn to read, using an explicit and structured approach to teaching. If a child has had 6 months of teaching using such an approach, and they’re not making expected progress, this is a good time to do a screening assessment. The ‘wait to fail’ approach doesn’t work. The earlier these children can be identified, the better their outcomes, and the likelihood of any mental health impact is far less.

While diagnosis of dyslexia has historically been an area for educational psychologists, speech pathologists with appropriate qualifications and experience can also diagnose. See more about that in my blog post: Can a Speech Pathologist diagnose dyslexia?.

NO! A diagnosis of dyslexia is not required in order for a child to receive support at school. In Victoria, there have been a number of changes over the past couple of years, with the introduction of the Disability Inclusion program and the online Diverse Learners Hub. The Victorian Department of Education and Training have some great documents that support schools and teachers to better understand dyslexia, and how to better support students in the classroom. See more here. https://www.vic.gov.au/learning-difficulties