Dyslexia. Have you ever thought your child had dyslexia but weren’t sure how to help? Have you ever thought you had dyslexia but aren’t sure what that means? Here are some signs of dyslexia, what it means, and what to do. At Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD), we want all students to learn to succeed, and knowing the signs of dyslexia will greatly impact our ability to achieve that goal.

According to Decoding Dyslexia Iowa, dyslexia is a distinctive neurological characteristic that presents challenges in acquiring reading, writing, and spelling skills. Dyslexia is recognized as a learning disability that affects a significant portion of the population.

As stated by the American Academy of Pediatrics, an astounding 80% of individuals with learning disabilities also experience dyslexia. Notably, dyslexia impacts between 5-20% of individuals across diverse backgrounds and age groups.

The Decoding Dyslexia Iowa website provides a range of signs to look out for in preschool and kindergarten children. Some of these signs include delayed speech and/or speech articulation problems, mixing up sounds and syllables in long words (such as saying “aminal” instead of “animal” or “bisghetti” instead of “spaghetti”) confusion between left and right, late establishment of a dominant hand, and difficulty learning to tie shoes. These signs can help parents and educators identify potential dyslexia-related challenges in young children.

In elementary school, some students may still struggle with letter and/or number reversals even after the first grade. Their reading may be slow, choppy, and inaccurate, and they may regularly skip or misread prepositions such as “at,” “to,” and “of.” They may also overlook the suffixes of words, leading to difficulties in understanding word endings. Remembering sight words or distinguishing between homonyms, such as “there,” “their,” and “they’re,” can be particularly challenging. Furthermore, students may struggle with spelling, often making frequent errors. In spoken language, they may experience difficulty finding the right words, often substituting common words and phrases incorrectly.

In high school, limited vocabulary and very poor written expression could be signs of dyslexia. Higher school students with dyslexia might also have a large difference between verbal skills and written work as well as difficulty mastering a foreign language. Some signs for adults include being a slow reader, reading a page 2 or 3 times to understand it, being a poor speller, and difficulty putting thoughts into words.

If you are curious about dyslexia or want to know more, check out the Decoding Dyslexia Iowa facebook page or website (www.decodingdyslexiaiowa.org). Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to your child’s teacher and start a conversation. At MCSD, our students’ ability to read is important. Knowing these signs, plus early intervention, can greatly enhance our ability to create appropriate accommodations and possible assistive technology to support learning. Our administration is always working closely with the Iowa Department of Education to ensure that our students have the best instruction possible using the most up to date curriculum.

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Lisa Pageler is a special education instructional coach for the Marshalltown Community School District. She can be reached at lpageler@marshalltown.k12.ia.us. The district educates over 5,000 students to have the skills for a rapidly changing world. Learn more by visiting

www.marshalltown.k12.ia.us.