The sensory processing disorder (SPD) checklist is a tool for parents and professionals to educate themselves about signs of sensory processing dysfunctions. However, it is not an alternative to a professional diagnosis. A professional has many other tools apart from a checklist to conclude if a child has a sensory dysfunction. 

If your child has signs of sensory integration dysfunctions, you could consult an occupational therapist or paediatrician and move on to the sensory processing treatment. All the resources should come together to form a sensory diet and treatment for your child. 

An SPD checklist is for your knowledge as a starting point, a guide to decide if your child needs assistance or not. That said, you could refer to this checklist as a parent or a teacher to identify your children’s sensory integration challenges. 

It’s crucial to have an insight into your child’s development. So first let’s find out how to use a sensory checklist. 

How to use a sensory processing disorder (SPD) checklist? 

Sensory checklists are just a starting point educational tool. But how do we go about using them?  Most importantly, what do they include? 

Sensory checklists include some of the most common sensory dysfunction characteristics in a household or classroom environment. As no one checklist is exhaustive, the ideal approach would be to refer to multiple high-quality checklists from reliable sources. 

Children may display some signs of the behaviour patterns in the given checklist. However, the problem only arises and becomes a concern when those patterns interrupt our quality of life.  

Carol Stock Kranowitz in her book The Out Of Sync Child gives reader’s concrete information on testing checklists and how to use them to evaluate whether a child has a sensory processing disorder or not. Parents and teachers who think they have children with behaviour difficulties must try to read the book. 

Here are the six guidelines from the book on how to approach the sensory processing disorder checklists: 

1. The child with sensory processing disorder may not exhibit all the characteristics in the checklist. There are several sensory disorders and no one child can have them all, but only a few. 
2. Usually, children with SPD struggle with more than one senses. However, they may exhibit a concentration of problems in one system. For example, a child with a dysfunctional tactile system may find touch intolerable but be a good listener. 
3. Depending on the time and context, a child may exhibit the signs of being overresponsive and under-responsive. Context makes a huge difference. For example, the same child may cope well with touch on a good day but may have a meltdown during a particularly difficult occasion. 
4. SPD disorder categories often overlap with each other and may merge with other types of developmental disorders. 
5. Sometimes a child may display a sign of one SPD, yet he may be struggling with a different disorder altogether. For example, a child who seems intolerant towards bright light may have a trauma related to bright lights. 
6. All of us struggle with sensory processing problems once in a while. None of us is well regulated 24*7. Stimuli overload could disrupt the functioning of the brain at any point it is exposed to too little or too much sensory stimuli.
   

Sensory processing disorder (SPD) checklist for teachers and parents

Characteristics of Tactile Dysfunction:

1. Negative or emotional response to touch sensations, displaying signs of anxiety or aggression. As a baby, the child may reject cuddling altogether.
2. Aversion to touch on the face. For example, a child may have a fight or flight response when you wash his face. 
3. Negative response when the hair on the child’s body is displaced. For example, a strong breeze puts him in a state of restlessness. 
4. Excessively ticklish to the touch. 
5. Avoids walking barefoot on the surface. For example, the child resists walking on sand on the beach or grass or wading in water. 
6. Withdrawing from certain activities solely to avoid being touched. 

Characteristics of Sight Dysfunction: 

1. Difficulty focusing on static targets. For example, the child may frequently lose his place in a book. He rereads words and lines and often requires their finger to keep their place on a page. 
2. Withdrawing from classroom participation. For example, being uncomfortable and overwhelmed when an object is thrown at them or when another child runs towards them. 
3. Difficulty with depth perception. Getting overwhelmed by objects in motions due to not being able to discriminate between what is in motion and what is motionless 
4. A poor attention span while copying information from the board or reading. For example, he may struggle with a poor visual memory of what he has read. 
5. Poor eye-hand coordination while playing or using tools, or dressing, or doing academic tasks. For example, he is unable to guide his hand movements required for drawing. Or his writing is poorly spaced or crooked.
6. Difficulty in maintaining eye-ear coordination. For example, he may mispronounce similar words. He may read out words silently before saying them out loud.  

Characteristics of Hearing Dysfunction: 

1. Distressed reaction to sounds that do not bother others, like toilet flushing or school bell. Aversion to background music or high-pitched sound coming from whistles, violins or screeching chalk. 
2. Difficulty in differentiating between sounds. For example, he may find it hard to recognize the difference between the near sound and distant banging. Or between a pleasant noise and an angry rant.
3. Poor sense of rhythm and timing. For example, he may find it hard to sing or clap in sync with the other students in the class. He may also find it difficult to jump ropes or display similar signs while playing band instruments. 
4. Regularly asks to repeat the instructions. For example, he is more likely to ask for clarification for simple directions and descriptions.
5. Difficulty in finishing conversations with other people. For example, he may hesitate to respond to others’ questions and comments due to the lack of understanding of what they said.
6. Difficulty with speech articulation. For example, he may struggle to respond to receptive and expressive language. For example, he may not speak clearly enough to be understood. 

Characteristics of Vestibular Dysfunction: 

1. Uncomfortable behaviour in elevators or escalators. Perhaps, experiencing car sickness on regular basis. 
2. Avoids playground activities involving balance, such as sliding, spinning or swinging. 
3. Holds tightly to the railing of a staircase and be fearful to them in general. 
4. Displays signs of discomfort when his feet leave the ground. Or be fearful of heights in general.
5. Inefficient response to the objects coming at him. Unable to protect himself by extending his foot or hands to catch himself. 
6. Difficulties in making hands and feet work together. For example, during the play of catch or jumping.

Characteristics of Proprioception Dysfunction: 

1. Upsetting reactions to the passive motions of limbs. Aversion to stretching and contracting his muscles. 
2. Difficulties in standing due to low muscle tone. Compensating by putting knees tightly together.
3. Bumps and crashes deliberately into the different objects in the environment. For example, tackling people or jumping from high places. 
4. Engaging in overstimulating activities by himself. For example, headbanging or knuckle cracking or nail-biting. 
5. Poor coordination while planning and executing a movement. For example, putting an eyeglass could be particularly hard for a child with a poor discrimination sense. 
6. Picking up objects with less or more force than necessary. For example, he may complain about how a glass of milk is too heavy to lift. 

Conclusion

Carol Stock Kranowitz in her book says SPD is like indigestion, but for the brain. Similar to how an antacid corrects the PH level of an upset stomach, sensory diet and occupational therapy can soothe neural pathways. During the therapy, your Love as a teacher or a parent could give your child emotional security, especially when times are difficult. With enough support, your children could become in sync with the world.

Disclaimer: All articles on our website are for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice. Read our full disclaimer here.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) Checklist For Teachers and Parents; Understanding Signs And Symptoms appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

If people find it difficult to tell words that are not voiced out as they are spelled, it is the sign of surface dyslexia. For example, the words like island, honor, bought, Right, etc, are words that differ in grapheme and phoneme. Hence, this disorder is like the subliminal level of difficulty to read. A dyslexic person may have learned basic reading, but they are likely to get confused when the print and pronunciation of the words differ. It was recognized first by Marshall and Newcombe in 1973.

In this post, we intend to cover:

• Signs of Surface Dyslexia
• Surface Dyslexia Examples
• Management Strategies for Surface Dyslexia

So, let’s begin!

Signs of surface dyslexia

You must understand that surface dyslexia is not confined only to reading difficulty. It can gradually manifest into an inability to perform a correct move or perceive coordinates. Hence, surface dyslexia signs largely comprise:

1. Reading-related issues

You may spot a surface dyslexic person/child by these signs:

• Late speech: It is considered one of the results of surface dyslexia. The child is not able to form words because of a lack of ample reading or an inability to read words as a whole.
• Inability to read words by sight: You will find the person always breaking the word into letters first before voicing out; it causes interrupted reading.
• Spelling the same words wrong: You are looking into the copy of a surface dyslexic when the same words repeated in the paragraph are spelled incorrectly. You may find bad and dab as spellings for the word ‘Bad’, for instance.
• Inability to sound out words that differ in spelling and pronunciation: Surface Dyslexic readers may find it difficult to read words whose pronunciation differs from spelling. In the case of repeated words, the dyslexic cannot correctly pronounce those words that differ in spelling and sound.

2. Behavioral difficulties

Surface dyslexia is one of the possible reasons for semantic dementia. Surface dyslexia is not limited to reading disorders only. Going forth, the person may show an inability to do the following activities as well:

• Remembering dates: A person suffering from surface dyslexia may tend to forget dates. So, be ready to tackle situations where the person has forgotten anniversaries birthdays, or bills’ due dates.
• Daily schedule: Surface dyslexia may interfere with the ability to stick to a daily schedule. The dyslexics may tend to forget to-dos from the list of actionable.
• Inability to associate pictures with words and vice versa: When suffering from surface dyslexia, the person may not be able to recall a picture corresponding to a word, or tell the word by looking at the picture, some researchers suggest.

3. Other affected skills

Communication skills get the hit when surface dyslexia shows its impact. One can observe the impacts in the following activities:

• Words’ arrangement in a given order
• Word recall
• Information retrieval
• Word pronunciation
• Homophenes differentiation
• Vocabulary build-up

In a typical WIAT test for checking basic proficiencies, the examiners assess the students on all the above parameters before suggesting the relevant IEP course.

Surface dyslexia examples

If we take a look at all examples of surface dyslexia, we will find that there is a distinct loss of perceptual wisdom. The subjects cannot read by sight, or perform organization activities, to begin with. Other examples that show how surface or orthographic dyslexia manifests are:

• Omission of letters in spellings where similarly structured phonemes appear. For example, you will find mostly ‘e’ omitted in spellings where it comes along with cursive ‘l’.
• Confusing between letters like small-case qs and ps, or b and d, m and w, and cursive h and p, and other similar ones.
• Tendency to incorrectly sound out all letters; low to nil understanding of the concept of silent letters in the English language
• Loss of speaking and reading skills due to a brain injury. Sometimes, due to brain injury, a person loses the ability to read and write like a normal person. It is called orthographic dyslexia. Such patients need to re-learn these skills from scratch.
• Showing average proficiency in some of the reading skills, but failing when the discrimination part is to be employed.

Management strategies for surface dyslexia

Surface dyslexics require the support of therapies and various types of practices to reduce the impact of this disorder. The most effective key lies in practice and imparting the correct remediation activities. Some of the effective activities worth doing with a surface dyslexic are:

• Repeat writing tasks: You can ask the surface dyslexic subject to increase the number of repetitions of practicing the words that prove confusing.
• Play word recall games more often: Once the child or a developmental dyslexic recalls the word from the given picture, you can repeat the process using flashcards. The idea is to work up memory retention and recall by practice and mitigate the impact of neurological complexity.
• Give repeated reading sessions: Helpers or remediators can introduce reading apps, sight word books, or dyslexia-friendly reading books to the surface dyslexics and ask them to read them often and at regular intervals. Thus, the activity helps train the brain to recognize the sentence and develop reading ease.
• Complete the sentence activity: When the reading session interventions are done amply, the practitioners may take the task of completing the sentence activity. They can write the missing tail of a sentence and repeat the activity to build the skill through neuroplasticity. It helps the most when the disorder results from a traumatic injury.

Summing up,

Surface dyslexia is not an in-borne problem always. It may also occur due to an unaddressed reading disorder, or sometimes due to traumatic brain injury.

The problem is manageable up to a great extent if the counselors intervene in correct remediations. It is rather easy to recognize this disorder if involved agencies pay timely attention.

Hence, keep giving your children reading tests to ensure that no aspect of reading inefficiency is ever missed. Though might not be completely curable, it is certainly possible to manage effectively.

Shradha Kalyani Kabra

Armed with a degree in Psychotherapy, CBT and Happiness coaching I have been a counselor for troubled children and their parents for over 4 years. Having a dyslexic child at home made the journey more personal. I have worked at Manovikas kendra for a year as a part time volunteer. In the process I have helped many children overcome learning disabilities and other psychological constraints to lead a fulfilling life! My most tangible victory is my dyslexic child has completed her plus two with over 80% marks and now has trained as a chef from the best college in Asia.

The post What is Surface Dyslexia: Its Signs, Examples, and Management Strategies appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Dyscalculia is the difficulty of learning mathematics. It is not something that you can cure. This learning disorder is a part of the personality of a person. The only way to beat this disorder is to learn the ways to live with it. About 5% of students in the primary school stage suffer from Dyscalculia; the number in later stages becomes questionable due to dropping out of school, which affects data quite considerably.

Dyscalculia types

Some researchers classify dyscalculia as quantitative and qualitative dyscalculia; the latter covers disorders that pertain more to the inability to perform math reasoning. The quantitative type mostly covers difficulty in the identification and computation of numbers.

Dyscalculia checklist – an informal exercise

The signature symptom of dyscalculia manifests in the form of poor performance of a student in math subjects. By digging deeper into the database of children with poor math skills, one can arrive at a set of symptoms. A Dyscalculia checklist is what you need to screen early-stage signs and symptoms of a child having dyscalculia. Keep a regular check on your child’s learning patterns and correlate them with the given dyscalculia checklist below :

1. Always counting and adding numbers using fingers
2. Inability to count backward
3. Difficulty in differentiating objects size-wise
4. Inability to calculate change while shopping
5. Inability to identify currency bill values
6. Poor estimation of approximate quantities
7. Tendency to reverse the order of two digits in a number
8. Inability to perform mathematical operations and comparison of equations
9. Tendency to forget the learned math concepts overnight
10. Mostly ‘adding only’ no matter what the mathematical sign says
11. Inability to find the place value of the digit in any number
12. Very slow in performing mathematical operations, still doing those erroneously
13. Avoiding math at any cost
14. Absence of abstract reasoning pertaining to time and orientation

Use of Dyscalculia checklist

The Dyscalculia checklist is an important activity that allows teachers to make an informal assessment of a child suffering from this disorder. It is made with the aim to tabulate the most common attributes of dyscalculic behavior in a child.

In some assessment procedures, the items in the dyscalculia checklist are given a corresponding weight ranging from  0 to 5. All the items on the dyscalculia checklist are ranked on this scale. Though there are no such terms as less dyscalculic or more dyscalculic, the higher score tells about the severity of the disorder the child is facing. According to the results of this assessment, the teaching procedure or plan is chalked out.

Dyscalculia is a permanent learning deficiency caused by to defective neurological structure of the number learning part of the brain. To help the student cope with this, it is better to teach alternative ways to compute and perform mathematical operations. The Dyscalculia checklist offers a reliable source for ascertaining the kind of activity plan that will benefit the students in the best possible manner.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post Dyscalculia Checklist: Signs to look for appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Dyslexia is a condition that affects the ability to process language. This condition involves both the spoken and written language, and the affected person may have difficulty in expressing themselves through linguistic mediums. Some children are diagnosed in the early school years, but sometimes it may present in a way that is difficult to diagnose.

Afflicted children may be deemed as lazy, stupid or troublemakers. To cover embarrassing situations where they are unable to keep up with the class, dyslexic children often disrupt and disturb the class. It requires active participation and awareness from the parents and educators to understand when the child has difficulty in learning and is not being naughty.

Some common symptoms of dyslexia in teenage

It is commonly seen that children with Dyslexia learn to work around the disability in ingenious ways. They may seem unruly and lazy or even stupid to some, but there are some characteristics that may help screen for Dyslexia. The symptoms are similar as in childhood, but may be more pronounced.

• The first issue that leaps out is a problem in reading aloud. The dyslexic teenager cannot comprehend the phonetic connections between words and that makes reading difficult.
• Both reading and writing can be slow and laborious. The handwriting will not be neat and work tends to be untidy.
• Spellings can be a major issue with dyslexic teenagers who have somehow learnt to read and write. They can end up spelling the same word in different ways on the same page.
• Dyslexic teenagers can have problems in pronouncing words, names and other words at times. They might also have difficulty in retrieving words from memory. This is a common phenomenon as the connection between words and the object is not established properly.
• Reading a map or distinguishing the ‘right’ from ‘left’ is hard for these children. They often have a problem in giving or receiving directions.
• Abstract expressions such as idioms or metaphors seem unintelligible to dyslexics. They are not able to understand the expressions that denote a feeling.
• Most dyslexic teenagers will shy away from any activities that require reading or writing. It may be taken as being under average in academics, but is the result of a learning disability.
• Subjects requiring rote memory are difficult for such children.
• Languages per se are an issue. Not only the mother tongue, but learning a foreign language is also difficult.
• Some dyslexics could also have the phobia of learning numbers or Dyscalculia.
• Finishing tasks and tests on time can be an issue.
• They also have trouble reading a clock with hands. Children who are dyslexic prefer numeric clocks.

There are many teenagers who display one of these symptoms. That is not necessarily a sign of Dyslexia. If there are more than three or four of these signs in a child, it is a good idea to get them tested for Dyslexia. There are standardized tests available with psychologists that can establish whether a teenager is dyslexic or not. Dealing with Dyslexia is not easy and involves a lot of patience from all stakeholders, namely, the teenager, parents and teachers. But, these children are often above average in intelligence and can definitely be helped in leading a normal school life.

Shradha Kalyani Kabra

Armed with a degree in Psychotherapy, CBT and Happiness coaching I have been a counselor for troubled children and their parents for over 4 years. Having a dyslexic child at home made the journey more personal. I have worked at Manovikas kendra for a year as a part time volunteer. In the process I have helped many children overcome learning disabilities and other psychological constraints to lead a fulfilling life! My most tangible victory is my dyslexic child has completed her plus two with over 80% marks and now has trained as a chef from the best college in Asia.

The post Signs & Symptoms of dyslexia in teenagers appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Math can be hard…like really, really hard sometimes. Certain questions are so tough to solve that you end up leaving the whole chapter thinking you didn’t understand the basic concept. You may experience panic due to fear of losing marks in the exam due to it. But, these are limited and even if you’re unable to solve them doesn’t necessarily mean you are weak in mathematics. Even A graders sometimes surrender against the professor’s tricky math questions.

But, What if it happens with every other math related exercises?

Think for a moment, Why negative emotions surround you whenever you try to solve any mathematical task? Why you just hate dealing with numbers and statistics? You feel inferior when the whole class answers the simple fraction correctly, while you still figuring out the question. In that case, it’s pretty much possible that you have ‘math anxiety’.

Dealing with math anxiety can be a daunting experience as numbers are widely used in our day-to-day lives. Both dyscalculia and math anxiety affects a kid’s performance in mathematics. But dyscalculia is a learning issue whereas math anxiety is related to the psychology of an individual opposed to maths. Math anxiety doesn’t necessarily point out a weak understanding of numbers but it can certainly get in the way of the learning process.

Take note that Math Anxiety, just like Dyscalculia, is not a disease. There is no medication for it. We always tell our dear readers that early adaptation is the only cure for a learning disorder.

It’s important for parents and teachers to evaluate any signs and symptoms of math anxiety in the kid as early as possible. It gives ample time to re-structure and adapt a new learning process to overcome the fear of mathematics. Special accommodations may be provided to students with math anxiety temporarily to build their confidence in the subject.

Signs and Symptoms of Math Anxiety

We gathered some important early signs and symptoms of math anxiety to look for in a child. Let’s take a look at them.

Two major aspects need to be considered in order to better understand the symptoms of a child suffering from math anxiety. The first one is associated with how the body deals with when the subject solves a math problem. Second, observes the behavioral changes.

1. Physical Symptoms

Physically, a student with math anxiety may experience similar symptoms to ones with general anxiety. The only difference is the frequency and environment in which it happens. Our focus here is how the body of the child reacts when given a math problem. Some of the signs to look for:

• Excessive Worrying : You can see the expression of the child changes while giving a math test. The student may seem unnecessarily worried. The worrying can be severe and intrusive, making it difficult to concentrate on the task given.

• Rapid Heartbeat : Our body responds with a ‘fight or flight‘ system whenever we are nervous. This system sends a rush of energy hormones into the body that trigger an increase in heart rate and blood flow.

• Sweating : Sweat is incredibly common in anxiety. While in panic mode, our sympathetic nervous system sends red flags to the body to alert it about the possible overheating. In response, it starts producing extra sweat to stay cool.

• Dry Mouth : Feeling anxious reduces the flow of saliva in the mouth. The mouth then feels sticky and unclear. Further, you may find it difficult to chew and swallow with a dry mouth.

• Restlessness : Restlessness is another common symptom of anxiety, especially in children and teens. However, Restlessness alone is not enough to diagnose math anxiety. In a study of 128 children diagnosed with anxiety disorder, 74% reported restlessness as one of the main symptoms.
  

2. Behavioral Symptoms

Keeping track of any observable physical signs of math anxiety can be difficult, owing to the fact that many students get nervous during exam hours. It’s a common scenario. While the teacher can put effort to observe any identifiable signs of math anxiety during a test, the parent needs to analyze the child’s behavioral patterns regularly. Look for any changes in the response when you are having a talk with the child.

Certain behavioral symptoms that are common in children with math anxiety:

• Inferiority Complex

It’s common for a student with math anxiety to feel inferior among peers. He/She never expected to know the answer to the math question. Have to be dependent on others, especially parents to solve the question or assist them in completing homework. The student may feel embarrassed when confronted with a math task in class and will hesitate to ever ask doubt to the teacher.

• Good at home, bad at tests

Performing under a time frame lead students to feel anxious during test hours, especially the ones with math anxiety. A major part of brainpower is being used to keep the track of the clock, rest to solve the task. This leads them to forget the concepts which they had no issue remembering at home. The fear of failure then further impacts the concentration power of the kid. In short, the test goes horrible.

• Attempts to avoid maths

A student can develop such a negative perception of mathematics that he/she finds any excuse to avoid it. The fear of making a mistake further puts off any willingness to try. Repetitive recall of any embarrassing experience in the past may develop such notions.

• Difficulty Concentrating

Even the thought of math is enough to stress a child with math anxiety. The negative impact of stress can be observed while doing math exercises. Just about the time the anxiety ensues, the brain starts messing up the concepts. A student is unable to put his/her concentration on the task efficiently. Thoughts oscillate around concepts but can’t seem to focus.

• Negative Self-Talk

Individuals with math anxiety generally make unrealistic, over critical statements about themselves whenever they feel anxious. They demoralizing themselves for not putting enough effort. Eventually, they surrender to the topic and believe they are incapable of doing it. Repeatedly making a mistake, they may develop a notion that they are naturally bad at this. Hence, they don’t even try to improve.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post Early Signs and Symptoms of Math Anxiety appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Today, we are going to talk about the symptoms of Dyslexia. How to identify the early signs of dyslexia?

But first, we must know what exactly Dyslexia is?

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in reading. Kids with dyslexia have trouble connecting the letters they see to the sounds those letters make. Dyslexia affects the part of the brain involves in processing language and graphic symbols.

What are we gonna do about it?

Don’t worry. Just being a little cautious towards child behavior can help a long way in his/her future. Early you identify the signs, faster the child will be able to adapt to a new learning process and overcome the struggle. It’s important to keep a daily check of the child’s learning pattern. Lookup for his/her stuff such as homework, class test sheets, etc. to investigate any possible signs of dyslexia. If found, don’t panic. Consult a qualified school psychologist or special education worker right away.

What signs we should look for?

Dyslexia is still an under-researched and understudied subject. Thus, there is no definite list of symptoms. The symptoms may vary from person to person. Severity may alter as the child grows. Please note that not all children may show all symptoms, and kids might occasionally have trouble with reading. But children with dyslexia will struggle a lot more than other kids who are the same age.

Below given checklist can give you a better idea of dyslexia signs at different age timelines.

Signs and symptoms of Dyslexia in Children

Preschool or Kindergarten

• Kids with dyslexia will be slower in learning new words. He/she will struggle to distinguish similar-looking simple words such as cat, mat, sat, etc.
• Preschoolers with dyslexia lag behind their peers in language skills. They take a longer time to write, speak, and read than their friends.

• As it takes longer for them to process words correctly, the response is generally late.
• One can’t expect strong word processing skills at this age but a kid with dyslexia will find trouble in recognizing letters even in his/her own name.
• Unable to follow directions when lengthy commands threw to them.

School age

As the child reaches the school, the signs dyslexia may become prominent. At this age, he/she may :

• Difficulty reading text aloud. They will often have trouble sounding out words while they read.
• trouble in writing even simple words, like dogs, ships, class, etc. They misspell these repeatedly. Notebooks filled with teacher’s corrections. They generally have very messy handwriting.
• take long pauses while reading. Dyslexics may hesitate and use a lot of “um’s” when speaking.

• mess up similar-looking words, such as our and hour, year and ear, etc.
• trouble in differentiating speech sounds. They may find it difficult to connect letters with the sounds they make — “duh” for “d” or “en” for “n”
• skip words and letters while reading comprehension.
• have a hard time following a series of instructions. They may mess up sequence and hesitate to start over.

Signs and symptoms of dyslexia in adults

As well as the problems mentioned above, the symptoms of dyslexia in older children and adults can include:

• While reading skills have developed over time, dyslexics still require effort in reading lengthy comprehension and are generally slower than their peers.
• Adults with dyslexia will try to avoid reading and writing whenever possible.
• Poor essay writing skills. They are unable to express their thoughts in the writing even though they are knowledgeable about the subject.
• They try to avoid difficult words or words that can be mispronounced.
• They use a lot of “um’s” as they can’t remember the words or have trouble coming up with the exact word.
• In general, dyslexic individuals suffer extreme fatigue when reading

Other symptoms

Other than mentioned above, some symptoms are related to the behavioral and personality aspects of the child. Some traits shown by dyslexics are turned out to be a blessing in disguise. At one, the child may struggle to remember even simple words, but on the other, he/she may show excellent long term memory abilities for experiences, locations, and faces.

• A person with dyslexia has a strong strive for perfection. They notice even minute details of the project and would put effort to make it as balanced as possible.
• They produced very high quality written content in which they are knowledgable if spelling mistakes are ignored.
• Dyslexics are out of the box thinkers. Their point of perspective can’t really be judged by academic scores.
• They demonstrate excellence when focused on a highly specialized area, such as medicine, law, public policy, finance, architecture or basic science
• They really enjoy solving puzzles and have a high curiosity about new things.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post Signs and symptoms of Dyslexia appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Today, we are going to talk about the symptoms of Dyscalculia. How can the signs of dyscalculia be identified early?

But first, we must know what exactly dyscalculia is?

Dyscalculia is a life long learning disability affecting a person’s ability to understand numbers and learn math facts. It is seen as the mathematical equivalent to dyslexia and hence, the name – Number Dyslexia. It severely affects the life of a dyscalculic (commonly referred to a person suffering from dyscalculia). Individuals may lose the ability to visually interpret data. In severe cases, Number dyslexia may develop into math phobia.

What are we gonna do about it?

Don’t worry. Just being a little cautious towards child behavior can help a long way in his/her future. Early you identify the signs, earlier the child will be able to adapt to a new learning process and overcome the struggle. It’s important to keep a daily check of the child’s learning pattern. Look up to his/her stuff such as homework, class test sheets, etc. to investigate any possible signs of dyscalculia. If found, don’t panic. Consult a qualified school psychologist or special education worker right away.

What signs we should look for?

Dyscalculia is still an under-researched and understudied subject. Thus, there is no definite list of symptoms. The symptoms may change person to person. Severity may alter as the child grows. Please note that not all children may show all symptoms, and kids might occasionally have trouble with math. But children with dyscalculia will struggle a lot more than other kids who are the same age.

Below given checklist can give you a better idea of dyscalculia signs at different age timeline.

Signs and symptoms of dyscalculia in children

1. Preschool or Kindergarten

• Dyscalculic children have trouble in counting. They miss numbers while counting. They have difficulty operating addition sequences in mind. Dyscalculics, at this age, can’t relate arithmetic with real-life concepts. For instance, asking to hand over two apples will generally end up him/her bringing the whole pack of it.
• Troubles in recognizing, forming patterns and distinguishing by size, shape, or color. Dyscalculics generally have a low ability to do comparisons at this age.
• Dyscalculics will find it difficult to relate words to numerals – could not tell 8 or ‘Eight’ are the same. Their power of processing of written numbers is relatively less than a non-dyscalculic. They can’t quantify numbers as we can when a number comes up in our minds. For them, 7 maybe just one shorter and another long line connected at an angle.
• Have trouble remembering numbers and other fundamentals arithmetic facts. They are generally slower in oral tests and need more effort to memorize stuff

2. Grade School or Middle School

• Children with dyscalculia or number dyslexia at this age will have difficulty remembering fundamental facts of mathematics such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. For us, 2+ 8 = 10, but for dyscalculics, they have to put much effort to process their memory power to know what’s 2 and 8 and what are we doing with it.
• Dyscalculics are usually less capable to do mental math and have to rely on fingers to count.
• Students with dyscalculia will have trouble in understanding arithmetic symbols and often mess up equations like using ÷ in place of +, doing subtraction even though the question asked to do addition.
• Comparison symbols, like < or >, and terms like greater than or smaller than are a nightmare for them.
• Often times, they forget to apply the BODMAS rule to solve math questions.
• Individuals suffering from number-dyslexia at this age will have trouble relating math to real-world concepts. They will find it difficult to keep up with the scorecard in sports, calculating the price of items, pocket money, show timings, countdown, and stopwatch.
• Try to avoid situations involving mathematics such as board games, puzzles, studying, revisions and etc.

3. High School

• Students with dyscalculia may lack the ability to fully understand diagrams, analyze charts and decipher graphs.
• The ability to relate the real world with maths may lack. Dyscalculics will find trouble in calculations relating to money. Difficulty in keeping up with the records of expenditure and savings.
• They lack the sense of measurability like filling beaker up to the mark, using a measuring tape to measure distances, Distance = speed * time related calculations.
• They can get confused while explaining or receiving directions.
• Has trouble finding different approaches to the same math problem, such as simplifying 4x +24y = 100 as x + 6y = 25.
• Struggles to learn and understand reasoning methods and multi-step calculation procedures
• Negative attitude towards mathematics. In severe cases, developing a sense of phobia for math affecting other subjects as well.

Signs and symptoms of dyscalculia in adults

Typical symptoms include:

• They may still lack to fundamentals of mathematics
• They need the effort to perform calculations and usually take a longer time than others.
• Dyscalculics are usually less capable to do mental math and have to rely on fingers to count
• Dyscalculics may still lack number sense and poor ability to make estimates.
• Difficulty in understanding place value
• Messing up math equations and using addition often than any other operations.
• Negative attitude towards mathematics. In severe cases, developing a sense of phobia for math affecting other activities as well.

Other symptoms

Some of the signs and symptoms other than the mentioned above are given below. It’s because they really didn’t fit any particular age group. The occurrence of these symptoms may not be directly related to age or mathematics.

1. Having difficulty in reading. Either read slow or need full effort to manipulate words and make sentences.

2. Lack of focus. Dyscalculics will often struggle to put all their attention towards one thing at a time.

3. Spatial difficulties (not good at drawing, visualization, remembering arrangements of objects, understanding time/direction)

4. Short term memory difficulties (the literature on the relation between these and dyscalculia is very controversial)

5. Dyscalculics may have poor coordination of movement. It is referred to as dyspraxia.

6. Trouble analyzing trajectory. Our mind works in a way that when a ball is thrown to us, our brain starts processing parameters like speed, angle of projection, acceleration, wind, and gravity. On the basis of these parameters, the brain prepare calculations that derive our possibility of catching the ball or not. This brain’s ability to crack the code of the trajectory may lack in the dyscalculics.

7. Difficulty telling time, especially from an analog clock.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

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