• Trouble learning common nursery rhymes, such as “Jack and Jill”
• Difficulty learning (and remembering) the names of letters in the alphabet
• Seems unable to recognize letters in his/her own name
• Mispronounces familiar words; persistent “baby talk”
• Doesn’t recognize rhyming patterns like cat, bat, rat
• A family history of reading and/or spelling difficulties (dyslexia often runs in families)

Difficulties

• Reading errors that show no connection to the sounds of the letters on the page—will say “puppy” instead of the written word “dog” on an illustrated page with a picture of a dog
• Does not understand that words come apart
• Complains about how hard reading is; “disappears” when it is time to read
• A history of reading problems in parents or siblings
• Cannot sound out even simple words like cat, map, nap
• Does not associate letters with sounds, such as the letter b with the “b” sound

Strengths

• Curiosity
• Great imagination
• Ability to figure things out; gets the gist of things
• Eager embrace of new ideas
• A good understanding of new concepts
• Surprising maturity
• A larger vocabulary than typical for age group
• Enjoys solving puzzles
• Talent for building models
• Excellent comprehension of stories read or told to him

Reading

• Very slow in acquiring reading skills. Reading is slow and awkward
• Trouble reading unfamiliar words, often making wild guesses because he cannot sound out the word
• Doesn’t seem to have a strategy for reading new words
• Avoids reading out loud

Speaking

• Searches for a specific word and ends up using vague language, such as “stuff” or “thing,” without naming the object
• Pauses, hesitates, and/or uses lots of “um’s” when speaking
• Confuses words that sound alike, such as saying “tornado” for “volcano,” substituting “lotion” for “ocean”
• Mispronunciation of long, unfamiliar or complicated words
• Seems to need extra time to respond to questions

School and Life

• Trouble remembering dates, names, telephone numbers, random lists
• Struggles to finish tests on time
• Extreme difficulty learning a foreign language
• Poor spelling
• Messy handwriting
• Low self-esteem that may not be immediately visible

Strengths

• Excellent thinking skills: conceptualization, reasoning, imagination, abstraction
• Learning that is accomplished best through meaning rather than rote memorization
• Ability to get the “big picture”
• A high level of understanding of what is read to him
• The ability to read and to understand at a high level over learned (or highly practiced) words in a special area of interest; for example, if he or she loves cooking they may be able to read food magazines and cookbooks
• Improvement as an area of interest becomes more specialized and focused—and a miniature vocabulary is developed that allows for reading in that subject area
• A surprisingly sophisticated listening vocabulary
• Excels in areas not dependent on reading, such as math, computers and visual arts, or in more conceptual (versus fact-driven) subjects, including philosophy, biology, social studies, neuroscience and creative writing

Reading

• A childhood history of reading and spelling difficulties
• While reading skills have developed over time, reading still requires great effort and is done at a slow pace
• Rarely reads for pleasure
• Slow reading of most materials—books, manuals, subtitles in films
• Avoids reading aloud

Speaking

• Earlier oral language difficulties persist, including a lack of fluency and glibness; frequent use of “um’s” and imprecise language; and general anxiety when speaking
• Often pronounces the names of people and places incorrectly; trips over parts of words
• Difficulty remembering names of people and places; confuses names that sound alike
• Struggles to retrieve words; frequently has “It was on the tip of my tongue” moments
• Rarely has a fast response in conversations; struggles when put on the spot
• Spoken vocabulary is smaller than listening vocabulary
• Avoids saying words that might be mispronounced

School & Life

• Despite good grades, often says he’s dumb or is concerned that peers think he’s dumb
• Penalized by multiple-choice tests
• Frequently sacrifices social life for studying
• Suffers extreme fatigue when reading
• Performs rote clerical tasks poorly

Strengths

• Maintains strengths noted during the school-age years
• Has a high capacity to learn
• Shows noticeable improvement when given additional time on multiple-choice examinations
• Demonstrates excellence when focused on a highly specialized area, such as medicine, law, public policy, finance, architecture or basic science
• Excellent writing skills if the focus is on content, not spelling
• Highly articulate when expressing ideas and feelings
• Exceptional empathy and warmth
• Successful in areas not dependent on rote memory
• A talent for high-level conceptualization and the ability to come up with original insights
• Inclination to think outside of the box and see the big picture
• Noticeably resilient and able to adapt