The Preschool Years
- trouble learning nursery rhymes
- difficulty learning and remembering letter names
- cannot recognize letters in their own name
- persistent mispronunciation or “baby talk”
- does not notice rhyming patterns (cat, bat, rat)
For Parents
Understanding Dyslexia and Literacy
If your child is struggling to read, you are not alone, and it is not a reflection of how smart or hard-working they are. Dyslexia is common, and with the right kind of instruction, children can and do thrive. This page is here to help you understand what you are seeing and what actually helps.
What Is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a language-based learning difference that primarily affects reading and spelling. It is neurobiological, meaning it relates to differences in how the brain processes language and learns to read.
At its core, dyslexia often involves difficulty recognizing and working with the individual sounds in spoken words. For example, a child may have difficulty recognizing that cat is made up of three sounds: /k/ /ă/ /t/. Because learning to read depends on connecting sounds to letters, children with dyslexia may struggle with decoding, reading fluency, and spelling. Some may also have difficulty with word retrieval or reading longer words.
Dyslexia is not a reflection of intelligence, motivation, or effort. Children with dyslexia can be bright, creative, and capable while still finding reading unusually difficult.
Dyslexia is common and lifelong, but children can make significant progress with the right instruction. Explicit, systematic, structured literacy instruction helps students build the connections between sounds, letters, words, and written language.
Early support can make a difference, but it is never too late to help. Even as reading skills improve, some students may continue to read more slowly or with greater effort and may benefit from appropriate accommodations.
Common Myths
- “Dyslexia is rare.”
- Dyslexia is one of the most common learning differences. Dr. Sally Shaywitz of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity estimates that dyslexia affects as many as 1 in 5 people.Source: Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity (opens in a new tab)
- “They will grow out of it.”
- Reading difficulty does not resolve on its own, and waiting often means falling further behind.
- “Dyslexia means low intelligence.”
- It is unrelated to intelligence. Many bright, capable children have dyslexia.
- “More reading practice at home is enough.”
- Children with dyslexia need explicit, structured instruction in the sounds and patterns of language, not just more exposure.
Signs and Symptoms by Age and Stage
Kindergarten and First Grade
- reading errors unconnected to letter sounds
- does not grasp that words break into sounds
- complains reading is hard and avoids it
- cannot sound out simple words (cat, map, nap)
- does not link letters to sounds
- family history of reading or spelling difficulty
Second Grade Through High School
- slow, effortful reading and guessing at words
- no strategy for sounding out new words
- avoids reading aloud
- vague word-finding (“stuff,” “thing”)
- trouble with dates, names, and sequences
- struggles with timed tests, foreign language, spelling, and handwriting
Young Adults and Adults
- a childhood history of reading and spelling difficulty with reading still slow
- rarely reads for pleasure
- word-retrieval struggles
- penalized by timed or multiple-choice tests
- may feel “dumb” despite good grades
Every child is different. It is a cluster of signs, persisting over time and across settings, that is worth a conversation.
A few of these signs does not necessarily mean dyslexia.
Signs and symptoms adapted from Sally Shaywitz, M.D. and Jonathan Shaywitz, M.D., Overcoming Dyslexia, 2nd ed. (Knopf, 2020), as reprinted by the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity (opens in a new tab).
How Structured Literacy Helps
The Orton-Gillingham approach (through IMSE) teaches reading and spelling skills explicitly and in a careful sequence, so each concept builds on the last. Lessons are multisensory, engaging sight, sound, and movement together, which helps skills take hold and last.
When to Seek Help
If you are seeing several of these signs, and they persist over time and across home and school, it is worth a conversation. A short, free discovery call is an easy way to talk through what you are noticing and whether structured literacy could help.