The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity reveals the following markers that suggest that dyslexia might be troubling a child:

In the Preschool Years

If the child has/is ...

º  trouble learning nursery rhymes such as "Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill ..."

º  difficulty learning and remembering names, letters, and numbers

º  mispronouncing familiar words, and or exhibits persistent "baby talk"

º  difficulty recognizing rhyming patterns

º  a family history of reading and or spelling difficulties

Kingergarten and First Grade

º  reading errors that show no connection to the sounds of letters on a page; if he/she says "puppy" instead of the written word "dog" on a page with a picture of a dog

º  does not understand that words come apart

º  complains about how hard reading is

º  cannot sound out even simple words such as cat, rat, map, nap

º  does not associate letters with sounds, such as the letter "b" with "b" sounds

Second Grade and Beyond

º  very slow in acquiring reading skills; reading is slow, awkward

º  trouble reading unfamiliar words, often making wild guesses

º  avoids reading out loud

º  pauses, hesitates and or uses "um" a lot when speaking

º  confuses words that sound alike, such as "tornado" or "Volcano"

º  mispronounces unfamiliar, complicated words

º  seems to need extra time to respond to questions

º  trouble with remembering dates, names, telephone numbers, and random lists

º  trouble finishing tests on time

º  extreme difficulty learning a foreign language

º  messy handwriting