Jon Whittock

Pre-School

Sometimes it is possible to detect symptoms before a child starts school. These can include:

• Delayed speech development
• Speech problems – difficulties with pronunciation e.g.’ephilant’ instead of ‘elephant’
• Problems with expressing themselves and putting sentences together correctly
• Difficulty or showing little interest in learning the letters of the alphabet

School Children (5 to 12 years)

• Problems with learning the names and sounds of letters
• Spelling is inaccurate, inconsistent and illogical
• Putting numbers and letters the wrong way round
• Reading slowly or not at all
• Describing the fact that letters/words are moving on a page or are blurred
• Answering questions well but has difficulties too do the same in writing
• Slow writing speed
• Poor handwriting
• Not able to tell the time
• Problems with copying written words
• Poor phonological awareness and ‘word attack skills’ (ability to recognise that words are made up of smaller units of sound, phonemes, and cannot break down long words to make sense of them)
• Cannot learn or has difficulties with number tables

Teenagers

As well as the above difficulties, as a child gets older, more symptoms might be noticed:

• Poorly organised written work
• Difficulty in revising for exams
• Avoiding having to read and write whenever possible
• Difficulties in taking notes or copying
• Poor spelling
• Cannot remember number sequences ie telephone numbers, pass codes and pin numbers
• Poor time management
• Difficulties with social relationships