Dyslexia Victoria Online

CHECK LISTS OF DYSLEXIC LEARNING PROBLEMS

You have just been told your child or student may be dyslexic. You are an adult who has been having reading and spelling problems your whole life and have been wondering if you are dyslexic. How can you know for sure? How can you help? Where do you start?

The word "dyslexia" is Latin for "trouble with reading" which is used as a general term to cover many different learning problems. If you or your student has been diagnosed as "dyslexic", it does not have to mean that you have a learning disability but rather a right-brained learning style that can be trained and used very effectively.

Start with the following Dyslexia Check List to discover which of the learning problems you, your child or your student has with the degree of severity of the symptoms. You and your student should work together to check off the learning problems.

Any section that you mark with 50% or more points indicates dyslexic learning weaknesses in that area. Also we have some guides for assessing at the end of the checklist. If you have any questions about the checklist or need further support please email us at khope@dyslexiavictoria.ca.

Students Under Twelve

Spelling

1. Cannot name the letters of the alphabet in sequence

2. Cannot count in sequence to twenty or higher

3. Mixes up letter order in words: pasghetti with spaghetti;
ciminon with cinnamon

4. Mispronounces sounds and words

5. Reverses letters, even whole words

6. Reverses the last letter of a word with the first letter

7. Cannot spell simple words correctly

8. Fails to recognize the same word twice or later on the same page

9. Spells a word several different ways

10. Cannot do a spelling test correctly if the words in the original list are dictated in a mixed order

Reading

1. Confuses verb tenses: see (present) saw (past) seeing (present participle)

2. Reads slowly and below grade level

3. Continues having many reading problems as he or she moves through the grades.

4. Does not seem to understand what he or she has read (comprehension)

5. Has difficulty hearing and repeating words of another language

6. Has problems understanding and spelling abstract words, especially those about time and place

7. Mispronounces or misreads many words

8. Decodes words too slowly while reading and loses comprehension

9. Has an inadequate reading vocabulary

10. Fears having to read aloud in class

11. Has difficulty remembering content just read such as in a story

12. Has difficulty remembering information just read in a list

13. Requires more time to read or answer questions than other students

14. Has difficulty tracking (reading) a printed line across the page

Mathematical Concepts

1. Does not understand the concept of time

2. May not be able to tell time correctly up to ten to twelve years of age

3. Cannot do simple mathematical word problems without referring to pictures, concrete objects or counting on their fingers

4. Does not understand simple fractions such as half a cup of sugar or three
quarters of an orange

5. Cannot understand money unless taught by holding the coins and bills
in their hands and actually buying something

6. Does not understand flat, two dimensional drawings as opposed to three dimensional views of actual objects

7. Cannot understand measurements: linear, weights, quantity or volume

8. Does not understand or has difficulty with multiplication tables or
long division

9. Is not able to memorize the multiplication tables

10. Does not understand fractions, percentages or decimals as
taught in school

General Problems

1. Has difficulty following spoken or written instructions

2. Does not know what is expected of them when given oral
instructions that are not complete (See Five Steps to Learning)

3. Has even more difficulty following written instructions on assignments, exercises or tests

4. Cannot copy notes from the board accurately

5. Has difficulty copying geometric designs

6. Cannot explain “cause and effect” in a picture of a scene or a story, or predict what may happen next

7. Can remember more information when hearing it read aloud or discussed
than when they read it silently to themselves

8. Can do a learning task better if they can see it and handle the parts first

9. Can answer questions orally, but poorly in writing

10. Freezes up when asked to give hand-written answers in sentences,
paragraphs or essays

11. Has difficulty understanding and spelling abstract ideas and concepts

12. Has great difficulty with spelling, punctuation, grammar and writing

13. Cannot focus on a few ideas at a time, so cannot stay on task

14. Lacks procedural systems such as how to use grammar to write
sentences correctly, how to set up a paragraph or an essay, and how to
punctuate these written forms

15. Has difficulty memorizing poems

16. Has difficulty learning a second language.

We recommend the following books for helping students who are having problems:

-Spelling: Dyslexia Spelling
-Reading or Mathematical Concepts: Dyslexia or Being Right-brained
-For a more complete manual that handles all problems we recommend:
How the Right Brain Learns (Book Three)

Ages Ten To Adult

General Problems

1. Is a poor speller.

2. Is still unable to use the abstract concepts of time, money, measurements, fractions, percentages and other mathematical concepts.

3. Continues to have problems following verbal and written directions.

4. Has difficulty making notes, copying notes or taking them down from the black board

5. Lacks logical sequence of thoughts when discussing or writing essays

6. Does not stay on task well and gives up easily.

7. Has difficulty picking out the main points in a paragraph or essay.

8. Tends to go off on tangents when discussing or writing about a topic.

9. Cannot focus or present thoughts in a logical order such as when trying to write a paragraph.

10. Must be given full, exact instructions that explain the entire concept of an assignment.

11. Tends to have hand printing that is disjointed.

12. Mixes capitals with lower case letters.

13. Uses both printing and cursive script in the same word or sentence.

14. Thinks and communicates best when moving about or handling objects.

Spelling

1. Confuses sounds, vowels, and consonants.

2. Confuses shapes of letters.

3. Experiences letter and word reversals.

4. Changes the spelling of words with each use.

5. Spells phonetically as they hear the words pronounced.

6. Omits or adds consonants and vowels to words.

7. Spells orally but not be able to pick out the written word in context.

Reading

1. Reads slowly, reducing comprehension

2. Lacks a sufficient vocabulary of memorized words.

3. Lacks decoding skills

4. May be unable to read if they are too tired because words actually appear to be “falling off the page” or they see the letters as a jumble of black markings on white paper.

5. Understands what is read to them orally more easily than what they read for themselves

6. Has difficulty with spelling so guesses at the meaning of words in context, causing a misunderstanding of the content

7 . Memorizes the overall appearance and sound of the words, but cannot see the individual letters within the words, which causes them to mix up letters or losing the meanings of the words

We recommend these books for helping students and adults having problems with:

-Spelling: Dyslexia Spelling
-Reading or Mathematical Concepts: Dyslexia or Being Right-brained
-For a more complete manual that handles all problems we recommend:
How the Right Brain Learns (Book Three)

Some other thoughts:

The Check List may also suggest some difficulties related to other learning or neurological disabilities or it may indicate nothing at all.

-Recognize the learning problems by the number of them spread across the spectrum of problems in the Check List or realize that only one or two problem areas stand out and require assistance.

- Determine the strongest learning sense which the student uses: auditory (listening and discussing), visual (seeing) or kinaesthetic (learning by handling objects).

- Discover the coping skills your student is using to function in a classroom such as memorizing words without knowing their meaning, and reading only concrete nouns and active verbs while skipping any abstract words.

Keep this Check List handy as a guide to the skills your student must be taught.

REMEMBER: The right brain thinks in whole pictures; the left brain thinks in printed letters, words and numbers. This means the dyslexic student sees the world in whole complete images and the left brain understands the world through what it reads in letters, words and numbers.

This learning difference described in the box leads to learning problems with hand printing, spelling, reading, sentence construction (grammar, spelling and punctuation), composition (paragraphs and essays) and arithmetic and mathematics as well as general problems in following written or oral instructions, focusing on the task at hand, and having the correct procedures for writing paragraphs and essays.

Now that you have identified your student´s learning difficulties, the next step is to learn how to teach the student the necessary skills that work with their learning differences.

REMEMBER: Some right-brained students can do mathematics very well, yet are unable to read at grade level; others may read quite well, but do poorly in spelling and so on. Several of these learning difficulties are eliminated with age, brain maturity and the degree of learning and skills they attain.