While the causes of dyslexia are primarily genetic, the symptoms are very easy to spot when you know what you are looking for.
Getting a child to cope properly with the condition is a lifetime of work but actually recognizing it can take just a few simple steps.
If you notice your child displaying any of these symptoms as a result of basic activities involved in learning speech and reading, you might want to consider getting them a special tutor.
Delayed learning of speech Often times a child who suffers from dyslexia does not learn to speak at the same rate as the rest of us.
While a normal child will speak his or her first words by the age of 1, a dyslexic child might take another year or two to begin speaking.
This is often times a big warning sign of dyslexia.
Mixing up syllables in speech Certain multi-syllabic words in the English dictionary are extremely difficult for a dyslexic person to pronounce and understand.
These include words like helicopter, hamburger, or animal.
Words like these often have their syllables confused by a dyslexic child who will pronounce aminal instead of animal or some other variation thereof.
Difficulty understanding rhymes A dyslexic child sometimes cannot tell what words rhyme with what other words simply because of a dysfunctional ability to interpret words and letters.
A dyslexic child at the age of four might not be able to say what rhymes with cat or seat even though these are simple words to remember.
Difficulty reading words and pronouncing them When a child is dyslexic, reading is often a labored task even at the age of 7 or 8 when a child should be able to read a good number of books without any problems.
They may pronounce similar words in the place of a word they don't know or not be able to recognize words consistently.
When reading out loud, words don't sound natural.
They read slowly, pause often, and will ignore a lot of grammatical elements on the page while trying to move through the words.
Spelling is almost impossible One of the most common dyslexia symptoms is to witness a child or even an adult that cannot spell a word no matter what.
These children might be taught the spelling of a word numerous times but simply not understand anything about the word or its spelling despite knowing all the phonetic meanings of each letter.
Children with dyslexia symptoms immediately stand out from a crowd when trying to spell a word.
The words are tough to spell even when a child is copying it down from a book or from something a teacher wrote down on the board.
Often times spelling is inventive and seemingly random with improper use of letters and punctuation despite being taught correct grammar and spelling.
If your child exhibits one or more of these symptoms, the best thing you can do is take them to a tutor or a special education school to help work on these issues.
Without special teaching, they may never be able to read or write normally, but with proper counseling and instruction, there is a good chance they will be able to live a normal life and overcome their condition as many others have.