Dyslexia is not just a severe reading disorder. It is characterized by many reading and non-reading symptoms.
Reading
- Memory instability for letters, words, or numbers.
- A tendency to skip over or scramble letters, words, and sentences.
- A poor, slow, fatiguing reading ability prone to compensatory head tilting, near-far focusing, and finger pointing.
- Reversals of letters such as b and d, words such as saw and was, and numbers such as 6 and 9 or 16 and 61.
- Letter and word blurring, doubling, movement, scrambling, omission, insertion, size change, etc.
- Poor concentration, distractibility, light sensitivity (photophobia), tunnel vision, delayed visual and phonetic processing, etc.
Writing
- Messy, poorly angulated, or drifting handwriting prone to size, spacing, and letter-sequencing errors.
Spelling, Math, Memory, and Grammar
- Memory instability for spelling, grammar, math, names, dates, and lists, or sequences such as the alphabet, the days of the week and months of the year, and directions.
Speech
- Speech disorders such as slurring, stuttering, minor articulation errors, poor word recall, and auditory-input and motor-output speech lags.
Direction
- Right/left and related directional uncertainty.
Time
- Delay in learning to tell time.
Concentration and Activity
- Impaired concentration, distractibility, hyperactivity, or overactivity
Self-esteem
- Feeling stupid, ugly, incompetent, brainless
