A dyslexia friendly school, Bredon School understands the importance of celebrating and nurturing the gift of dyslexia rather than seeing it as a barrier to a child’s educational journey.
If you are reading this, you may already have had thoughts about your own child but perhaps aren’t clear on what the key indicators may be. You may be concerned about labelling your child as ‘dyslexic’. You may see dyslexia as a negative. But reassured that with the right support, a dyslexic child can thrive and achieve to their full potential. Dyslexic children are often incredibly bright, be highly creative or possess skills of improve pattern recognition and that is why we believe that dyslexia is a gift.
At Bredon School, recognising the signs of dyslexia comes second nature however, as parents some key signs can be easier to spot than others and not all dyslexic children will display the same abilities and weaknesses. Some general signs to be aware of include speed of processing: slow spoken and/or written language; poor concentration; difficulty following instructions or forgetting words. But as a child goes on their learning journey the key indicators we recommend you look out for are as follows:
1) Reading
Whilst reading, your child may find it difficult to know where the beginnings and ends of words are, they may be fairly slow to process the words and they may have little or no expression in reading alongside a poor understanding of the words. Reading aloud can be particularly difficult and may be more hesitant and laboured for them. Ask your child to read aloud a story and see if they can then tell you what the most important points in the story were. This will test their understanding of what they have read. If your child often misses out words when reading aloud, or frequently adds other words in, this could also be a sign of dyslexia.
2) Writing
A key indicator of dyslexia is a child who has a very good oral ability, but struggles to put their ideas down onto paper. Other signs include messy written work with many attempts at words which have been crossed out when spelled incorrectly, poor handwriting with badly formed letters and possibly letters reversed. An unusual sequencing of letters or words, oranagrams such as ‘tired’ instead of ‘tried’ can also be signs. Often children with dyslexia may struggle with letters that look similar, particularly b/d, p/g, n/u and m/w.
3) Numeracy
Dyslexia can cause confusion with mathematical symbols such as + and x signs, as well as with the place value of numbers eg. tens, hundreds, thousands. Your child may find it difficult to remember sequences such as days of the week, the alphabet, or their times tables.
4) Time
Does your child have difficulty learning to tell the time? Do they have poor personal organisation and time keeping or difficulty remembering what day of the week it is? If your child struggles with concepts such as yesterday, today and tomorrow, this could be a sign of dyslexia.
5) Skills and Behaviour
Does your child have poor control and accuracy whilst holding a pen or pencil, as well as an indeterminate hand preference are signs to watch for in your child. If your child can often be confused by left and right, up and down, or east or west, this is also an indicator. A child with dyslexia can often be easily distracted, ‘in a world of their own’, or doesn’t seem to listen. They may be disruptive in class or withdrawn, or seem excessively tired after a day at school due to the effort and concentration required.
For further advice and support, or to discuss how Bredon School can help, please feel free to get in touch with our Admissions team at any time at admissions@bredonschool.co.uk.
