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Characteristics of Dyslexia

Characteristics of Dyslexia:

Students identified as having dyslexia typically experience primary difficulties in phonological awareness, including phonemic awareness and manipulation, single-word reading, reading fluency, and spelling.  Consequences may include difficulties in reading comprehension and/or written expression.  These difficulties in phonological awareness are unexpected for the student’s age and educational level and are not primarily the result of language difference factors.  Additional, there is often a family history of similar difficulties.


 

If the following behaviors (Risk Factors Associated with Dyslexia) are unexpected for an individual's age, educational level, or cognitive abilities, they may be risk factors associated with dyslexia.  A student with dyslexia usually exhibits several of these behaviors that persist over time and interfere with his/her learning.  

 


 

 

Primary reading/spelling characteristics of dyslexia:

  • Difficulty reading words in isolation
  • Difficulty accurately decoding unfamiliar words
  • Difficulty with oral reading (slow, inaccurate, or labored)
  • Difficulty spelling

 

The reading/spelling characteristics are most often associated with the following:

  • Segmenting, blending, and manipulating sounds in words (phonemic awareness)
  • Learning the names of letters and their associated sounds
  • Holding information about sounds and words in memory (phonological memory)
  • Rapidly recalling the names of familiar objects, colors, or letters of the alphabet (rapid naming)

 

Consequences of characteristics and consequences of dyslexia:

  • Variable difficulty with aspects of reading comprehension
  • Variable difficulty with aspects of written language
  • Limited vocabulary growth due to reduced reading experiences

 

(The Dyslexia Handbook, Revised 2014)