If dyslexia affects your child(ren) you may find this interview on Breakfast today of interest.  You can also go here to learn more about  4D - a new dyslexia programme for NZ schools.  The Breakfast programme reported that dyslexia affects one in ten of us so it is fairly common.  In my teaching experience, I would estimate one child per class I taught was diagnosed with dyslexia - although in saying 'diagnosed' it makes it sound like some sort of disorder when current thinking views dyslexia as more of an alternative learning preference.  Schools have certainly come a long way in how they cater for dyslexic students and if you suspect your child may be dyslexic it is well worth investigating it further.   In my experience, sometimes students are tested and found to be dyslexic for the first time when they hit college.  Recognizing dyslexia late is unfortunate because it means there are many frustrations that child has suffered with their learning which could have been addressed earlier.   They may well have been incorrectly labelled as 'slow' or 'struggling.'

So how do you spot dyslexia in your child?  I have taken the following from the NZ Dyslexia Foundation's website which you can visit for loads of great information.  Note too that this list is not some sort of definitive checklist - some kids without dyslexia will exhibit some of these and some are stronger indicators than others.   However ff you do suspect your child has dyslexia have a talk to their classroom teacher and/or you can get a proper assessment done by any of these providers.

• Problems with labels, rhymes, sequences
  
  
• Letters or numbers reversed or confused b/d/p/q, n/u, 13/31
  
  
• Being slower to process and needing repeated exposures to retain learning
  
  
• Retrieval issues – learns something one moment, gone the next
  
  
• Large gap between oral and written capabilities
  
  
• Poor sense of direction – difficulty telling left from right
  
  
• Reluctance, embarrassment or avoidance around reading out loud
  
  
• A preference for face-to-face meetings/phone calls rather than email correspondence, and for charts/graphs over text
  
  
• Frequent misspelling of words and mixing up words which sound similar (recession/reception), in speech or written work
  
  
• Poor handwriting, punctuation and grammar
  
  
• Misunderstanding or misinterpretation of managers’ instructions
  
  
• Problems meeting deadlines, despite working hard
  
  
• Fine motor coordination may be problematic, eg. tying laces, doing up buttons