A Mother Asks, 'What Is Dyslexia?'

“What is dyslexia?” That’s what I asked myself thirteen years ago, when I hadn’t even heard the word but was searching for a reason my daughter presented so many “quirks.” Here’s the definition from the International Dyslexia Association:

“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.”

Knowing something was different

I knew early on my daughter was going to have trouble in school. She didn’t start talking until she was three, and even then her vocabulary was limited to about fifteen words. The children at daycare somehow understood her and would tell the teacher what she wanted, which I found amazing and sweet, but it also worried me. I sent her to daycare just three days a week for socialization, hoping a school-like environment might help her speech along. It didn’t.

Everyone around me said, “Don’t worry about it, she’s just maturing slower.” I knew in my gut that wasn’t the whole story, and I set out on a discovery of my own. We lived in a rural community with no preschool nearby, so I enrolled in a Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters. My instructor noticed my daughter was behind her peers, tested her, and found she was behind in almost every subject, except building and shapes, where she scored the highest in the county. No one told me that language delay is itself a symptom of dyslexia.

Preschool warning signs

According to Decoding Dyslexia Arkansas, the National Health Service, and Dr. Sally Shaywitz, here is a comprehensive list of preschool warning signs:

• delayed speech
• mixing up sounds and syllables in long words
• constant confusion of left versus right
• late establishing a dominant hand
• difficulty learning to tie shoes
• trouble memorizing an address, phone number, or the alphabet
• a close relative with dyslexia
• trouble learning common nursery rhymes, such as “Jack and Jill”
• difficulty learning and remembering the alphabet
• seeming unable to recognize letters in their own name
• mispronouncing familiar words, or persistent “baby talk”
• not recognizing rhyming patterns, such as cat, bat, rat

Shaywitz, Sally. Overcoming Dyslexia. New York: Knopf, 2003. p. 122.

A child of contrasts

My daughter was also a mechanical genius. At age three, she knew every tool my husband needed to work on the car. Our neighbor was astounded when she handed him the exact right size bolt out of a whole tray of choices. Her photographs were published in the local newspaper, and her art was exceptional for her age. She later became a very talented artist. She had real deficits, but also real, unmistakable gifts.

Finding the real diagnosis

After a year of delay in “the system,” I had her tested, and the diagnosis was expressive and receptive language disorder. I still knew something more was going on, so I took her to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Her IQ was in the normal range for verbal communication, but in the superior range for nonverbal ability. They diagnosed expressive language disorder and recommended speech therapy, and my preschool instructor helped me learn that the state of Arkansas would help pay for it.

By then my daughter was four, and I’d been searching for answers for a year. If I’m honest, I’d known she was different since she was 18 months old and still silent, not even babbling. I became her translator, and it created a bond between us that holds to this day. I was her voice.

The turnaround

We discovered Online Reading Tutor when my daughter was in grade 6. After eight months of tutoring, she was reading at grade level. She’s now in grade 10, on the honour roll.

If you recognize any of these signs in your own child, you don’t have to spend thirteen years searching for answers the way I did. Take our free 10-minute screener to get a clearer picture of where they stand.