CHARACTERISTICS OF DYSLEXIA, High School

The following signs may be associated with dyslexia if they are unexpected for the individual’s age, educational level, or cognitive abilities.

• Has a history of reading and spelling difficulties;
• Avoids reading aloud;
• Reads most materials slowly; oral reading is labored, not fluent;
• Avoids reading for pleasure;
• Lacks a strategy to read new words;
• Is better at reading words in context, rather than in isolation;
• May have inadequate vocabulary;
• Mispronunciation of the names of people and places, tripping over parts of words;
• Uses imprecise language, such as vague references to stuff or things instead of the proper name of an object;
• Not being able to find the exact word, such as confusing words that sound alike: saying tornado instead of volcano, substituting lotion for ocean or humanity for humidity;
• May be slow to discern and to learn prefixes, suffixes, root words and other reading and spelling strategies;
• Poorer performance on multiple choice tests than other types;
• Inability to finish tests on time;
• Has difficulty spelling phonetically;
• Has difficulty with word problems in math;
• Difficulty learning a foreign language;
• Strong thinking skills: conceptualization, reasoning, imagination, abstraction;
• Has the ability to get the “big picture”;
• Has a high level of understanding what is read to him;
• Has a surprisingly good listening vocabulary;
• Stronger ability in areas not dependent on reading, such as math, computers, art;
• A family history of reading problems in parents or siblings.