As a young child, my son was coordinated and athletic. He was small but could hold his own at sports with his older brother and older neighborhood boys. Despite having a late summer birthday, I believed he was ready for kindergarten. His preschool teacher suggested holding him back a year, but maturity-wise and athletically, I thought he was ready. The new school tested him, and he was admitted.
Looking back, I believe his preschool teacher saw signs that I didn’t realize could be related or connected to a reading disorder. She pointed out concerns with his writing and fine motor skills. She said my son struggled to hold scissors correctly and therefore couldn’t cut designs on paper very well. He had messy handwriting and colored outside the lines. I figured he was slower on developing fine motor skills because he insisted on using his left hand even though he did everything else (eating, sports, etc.) as a right-hander. I tried to get him to switch and hold a pen with his right hand, but he’d only get frustrated and revert to his left. I stopped pushing it. My oldest wrote with his left hand. And, I had heard stories about teachers in the “olden days” forcing left-handed kids to switch. I didn’t want to do that.
I assumed that my son’s fine motor skills would develop in time. Besides, he was already a good baseball, basketball, and soccer player. I later learned that while not a typical sign of dyslexia, issues with fine motor skills often occur together and may have a common underlying cause.
Early Signs
When my sons were younger, I thought dyslexia was only about mixing up letters or reading words backwards. I didn’t realize how many early signs that seemed unrelated to reading issues could appear before a child enters elementary school and be connected to dyslexia. Here are some of my son’s behaviors when he was younger:
- Spoke later than his older brother – he communicated but didn’t talk much until he was at least three years old. He was quieter at the time and let his brother do the talking for him. (By the way, he is very outgoing and talks plenty now!)
- Tying his shoes – it took him longer than usual to learn to tie his laces, and it took him a long time to tie them. And they didn’t stay tied for long. His laces were always filthy from dragging on the ground. For a while, Velcro sneakers were the answer. But at a certain age, they were not cool anymore and we returned to laces. My son was the kid in soccer who the referee paused play for so he could tie his soccer cleats. This would happen several times during the game. We ended up putting duct tape on his soccer laces … after we tightly tied them.
- Difficulty learning left from right – this didn’t come easy for him. He eventually figured out that left was the hand he wrote with, and right was the hand he used for eating.
- Struggled to remember sequencing, like the alphabet or months of the year. It took extra practice for my son to learn each letter of the alphabet versus memorizing the sounds from the song, especially in the back half of the alphabet following the letter “L”. He also had a hard time learning the months of the year. He’d have to go through every month starting with January in order to tell you which month followed the previous.
- Trouble with nursery rhymes – he loved listening to books like Mother Goose and Dr. Seuss but had issues reading them. Also, books that had broken English were nearly impossible for him.
- Reading below his age level – this impacted his confidence. He dreaded when the class had to take turns reading out loud in class. It was stressful for him, and he felt stupid.
- Reading and writing assignments took him a long time to complete … or he avoided them altogether. He’d frequently reverse numbers or letters. Small “b’s” and “d’s” were easily confused.
- Messy handwriting – he had to use lined paper to write a straight sentence. I remember in first grade how hard he worked to write neatly on an assignment. He had to copy a page in his own handwriting. He was so proud of his work, and I couldn’t believe what he produced. He wrote the entire page perfectly …if you held it up to a mirror. The words were completely backwards and went from right to left across the page. But his handwriting was good!
- Using made-up words that sounded close to the real ones – he was very creative and came up with some interesting words!
- Spelling difficulties – he would spell a word phonetically. For tests, we’d work with him for hours to memorize the words. Thank goodness for computers and spell-check today! Those tools helped him get through high school and college.
- Difficulty with reading comprehension – he loved stories but wanted me to read to him. If he had to read it himself, he’d work so hard to decode the words that he would miss what he had read.
- Big books like Harry Potter were daunting. While his friends in middle school devoured the series, he wouldn’t touch them. But smaller books were below his age level, and he didn’t want to be teased for reading a book for young kids. So, he didn’t read.
His challenges inspired me to write the Under the Couch book series for reluctant readers. I wanted the books to be easy to read, yet with interesting and enjoyable content for all ages.
Diagnosis and Support
As my son progressed in elementary school, his reading struggles became more apparent. We had his eyes checked and even tried eye-tracking therapy. But it wasn’t until eighth grade that we had him formally tested and learned he was among the 20% of people who struggle with dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a learning disorder, but it’s not about intelligence or vision. It’s about how the brain processes language, and it can affect reading, writing, math, and more. There’s no cure, but there is help. Tutoring made a big difference for my son. He did better in school the years we had a tutor work with him. She helped him stay organized and helped him understand the instructions so he could do the assignment correctly. He also qualified for accommodations in high school which helped.
When he was applying to colleges and preparing to take the ACT and SAT, he went to a special tutor who taught him strategies for reading comprehension and tackling math word problems. He was able to more confidently take the tests.
Final Thoughts
My son showed many early signs of a learning disorder that I didn’t realize were connected to dyslexia. The reading disorder affects around 1 in 5 children and can cause difficulties for kids in subjects that include a lot of reading and writing.
While there’s no cure for dyslexia, students today have more tools at their disposal. Audiobooks are widely available and writing support tools like Grammarly help catch spelling and grammar errors. These resources can make it easier for dyslexic people to perform better in school and careers that require a lot of reading and writing. The key is early detection to provide the support, resources, and understanding your child needs to address their challenges and reach their full potential.