A Lichfield dyslexia expert is reminding parents that they can play an important part in identifying literacy problems.
Dr Neville Brown has highlighted five easy-to-spot traits which could lead to an early diagnosis.
He highlighted the following signs of possible dyslexia:
- Difficulty in learning letter sounds and poor response to phonics teaching.
- An inability to easily ‘sound out’ syllables in long words or blend separate sounds into a word.
- Slow and hesitant reading, often sounding out each letter of a word.
- Mostly incorrect spelling, but can sometimes make a fair ‘phonic’ guess.
- Early hearing problems and left-right confusion.
Dr Brown believes that early detection of dyslexia significantly improves the child’s future educational development.
“This brief and simple checklist could be the difference between your child battling through their whole school life undiagnosed and under performing, or developing into a confident, capable young adult undeterred by their learning difficulty,” he said.
“It is vital that such problems are flagged up as early as possible so that teachers can employ effective and specialised teaching methods to give youngsters with Special Educational Needs a better chance of achieving a reasonable standard of literacy.”
Dr Brown has devoted his life to researching dyslexia and helps youngsters overcome their learning difficulties using his own non-phonic and meaning-based ‘icon’ system at the Maple Hayes Dyslexia School, enabling children with literacy problems to read and spell.
He said: “The help, support and tailored education is out there – but that means nothing if your child’s learning difficulties remain undetected.”
