Parents of children with dyslexia are often confused by their child’s verbal cues because they do not know what to look for.

Because they are unable to identify verbal cues their children give, they often miss the signs that their child is struggling until it is later, and harder to correct the academic challenges that have developed.

Since it is difficult for unsuspecting parents to recognize what those cues are, I’d like to help you spot some signs your child is giving you that may signal he has dyslexia.

What are the verbal cues?

These are words in your spoken language. They include what your children say to you when sharing their thoughts or in response to a question or command you have given them.

5 Verbal cues your child may be dyslexic

1. Your preschooler struggles to name familiar objects.
   • Instead, he uses general words like thing and stuff
2. From preschool into grade school, when speaking, your child habitually mixes up the order of words.
   • For example, lawn mower becomes mower lawn
   • In grade school, when asked to read something you just read, he may transpose the words in sentences, e.g. “The dog ran to me” is read as “To me ran the dog.”
3. When given a reading assignment, your child may say things like, “Wow! There are a lot of big words here. I don’t want to read.”
   • Most parents default to thinking the child is lazy and trying to escape doing the assignment. That’s frequently not true.
4. When told he would have to read something the next day, he goes through it the night before and memorizes the entire thing.
   • How do you know he has memorized it? He can recite it without looking at the book.
   • This child has sacrificed several things to spend hours memorizing what he knew he would have to read to you, just so he wouldn’t be embarrassed when asked to read.
5. When your bubbly child is asked to read aloud, the smile immediately vanishes from his face, and he begins to sigh, slouch, and rub or scratch his head.

What can you do when you notice these verbal cues?

Keeping in mind that the only consistent thing about dyslexia is the inconsistency of symptoms demonstrated each day, look for patterns in how your child speaks and pay attention to what he doesn’t say.

1. Get a hearing test
   • It is important to first identify how well your child is hearing what is said to him.
2. Get a comprehensive vision test
   • Vision-related learning difficulties are similar to symptoms of dyslexia.
3. Get him tested for dyslexia
   • When there is a reason for your child’s challenges, the child is relieved that there is a reason for his trouble, and you can now focus on specific methods to help him.

Other adults who interact with your children with dyslexia may tell you that they are lying or acting out to get attention, or that they are lazy and trying to avoid doing assigned work or follow directions. If you listen to them, you will be sidetracked from identifying the true causes of your child’s problems.

Following their suggestions could lead you down the wrong path for years and affect your ability to understand why your child has certain challenges and struggles in school and everyday life.

When you can identify the source of their problems and take positive action toward a solution, you’ll be able to help your children learn how to better express their thoughts and work together on developing their deficient skills so they can experience learning success in school and life.

What verbal cues have you experienced when chatting with children?