Red Flags for Dyslexia

Warning signs can appear before formal schooling begins and evolve with age. No single sign is diagnostic, but clusters of these difficulties warrant evaluation.

Preschool / before kindergarten:

• Delayed speech or late talking

• Trouble learning and remembering the names and sounds of letters

• Difficulty recognizing or producing rhyming words

• Trouble repeating nonsense/made-up words

• Family history of reading or spelling difficulty (a strong risk factor)

Early elementary (kindergarten–2nd grade):

• Difficulty matching letters to their sounds (letter-sound correspondence)

• Slow, effortful sounding out of words

• Guessing at words based on the first letter or a picture

• Trouble with rhyming and breaking words into sounds (phonemic awareness)

• Slow rapid naming of familiar objects, colors, letters, or numbers

• Spelling that does not match the sounds in words

Older children, teens, and adults:

• Slow, laborious reading and avoidance of reading aloud

• Persistent spelling difficulties

• Trouble with reading fluency and, as a result, comprehension

• Difficulty learning a foreign language

• Reading well below what would be expected given ability and effort

The strongest evidence supports structured, explicit, systematic instruction in the building blocks of reading. Effective programs directly teach (Peterson and Pennington, Lancet, 2012):

• Phonological and phonemic awareness – hearing and manipulating sounds in words

• Phonics and the alphabetic principle – linking letters to sounds

• Word analysis and decoding

• Reading fluency – accurate, smooth, appropriately paced reading

• Reading comprehension strategies

• Spelling and written expression

Key principles of effective treatment:

• Earlier is better. Intervention should begin as soon as difficulty is identified — professionals should not wait for repeated failure or a formal diagnosis, because early intervention is more effective than later remediation (Peterson and Pennington, Lancet, 2012).

• Intensity matters. Instruction delivered one-to-one or in small groups produces the best results.

• Multisensory, structured language approaches — which engage sight, sound, and movement together while teaching language in a logical, cumulative sequence — are a well-established, evidence-based framework for literacy intervention (Bowers and Ramsdell, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 2023).

• Consistency and practice are essential, and gains are strongest with sustained instruction.

Because dyslexia is fundamentally a language-based disorder, speech-language pathologists (SLPs) bring directly relevant expertise. SLPs are specialists in the sound structure of language — including phonological and phonemic awareness, the very skills at the heart of dyslexia — and identification, assessment, prevention, and intervention for reading and written-language disorders fall within the SLP scope of practice (Loveall et al., Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 2022).

SLPs are trained to:

• Assess the underlying spoken- and written-language skills that support reading

• Connect deficits in phonological processing to reading and spelling difficulty

• Deliver explicit, structured, multisensory language intervention (Bowers and Ramsdell, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 2023)

• Address co-occurring spoken-language, vocabulary, and comprehension needs

• Collaborate with teachers, psychologists, and families as part of a team

This combination of deep knowledge of language sound systems and training in evidence-based intervention makes the SLP a natural fit for the evaluation and treatment of dyslexia.

Myth: Dyslexia is a visual problem — people "see letters backwards."

Fact: Dyslexia is a language-based disorder rooted in phonological processing, not a problem with the eyes or vision. Letter reversals (such as b/d) are common in many young children and are not the defining feature of dyslexia (Peterson and Pennington, Lancet, 2012).

Myth: Dyslexia is a sign of low intelligence.

Fact: Dyslexia occurs across the full range of intelligence and is unrelated to IQ. The old idea that dyslexia requires a gap between IQ and reading has been disproven (Sanfilippo et al., American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, 2020).

Myth: Children will simply "grow out of it."

Fact: Dyslexia is lifelong. Without targeted instruction, reading difficulties tend to persist — but appropriate intervention leads to meaningful, lasting improvement (Peterson and Pennington, Lancet, 2012).

Myth: You must wait for a child to fall behind before doing anything.

Fact: Early warning signs are visible before school entry, and early screening and intervention improve outcomes (Sanfilippo et al., American Academy of Pediatrics, Pediatrics, 2020).

Myth: More reading exposure alone will fix dyslexia.

Fact: Children with dyslexia need explicit, systematic instruction in sounds, letter-sound links, and decoding — not just more time with books.

This page is for general educational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized evaluation. If you have concerns about dyslexia for yourself or your child, please schedule a consultation.