Common Traits and Behaviors of Dyslexics

If a few or more of these symptoms are consistently experienced, dyslexia is the likely cause. These areas are addressed within the procedures of the Davis Dyslexia Correction® Program which I tailor to the individual.

Self-esteem

  • Feels dumb, has poor self-esteem; hides or covers up weaknesses with coping mechanisms.
  • Has a high IQ  yet does not score high on school tests.
  • Easily frustrated and emotional about school, reading or testing.

Balance and Movement

  • Clumsy, uncoordinated or poor at ball or team sports; difficulty with motor skills and tasks; motion-sickness.
  • Complains of dizziness, nausea, headaches, or stomach aches while reading or studying.
  • Poor sense of direction.
  • Inability to sit still.
  • Difficulty with handwriting.
  • Often confuses left/right and over/under.

Time

  • ADD/ADHD
  • Inability to sit still or maintain attention for long (ADD).
  • Has difficulty telling time, being on time, or managing time.
  • Inability to learn math.
  • Distracted easily.
  • Trouble with sequencing (getting things in order) or setting priorities.

Vision

  • Reads or writes with additions, omissions, substitutions, repetition, reversals or transpositions of letters, numbers or words.
  • Changing or reversing shapes and sequences of letters or numbers.
  • Incorrect/inconsistent spelling.
  • Omitting or ignoring punctuation and capitalization.
  • Seeing letters and numbers move, disappear, grow or shrink.
  • Omitting or altering letters, words and lines while reading or writing.
  • Learns best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation and visual aids.

Hearing

  • Difficulty putting thoughts into words.
  • Speaks in halting phrases.
  • Leaves sentences incomplete.
  • Stutters under stress.
  • Mispronounces long words.
  • Transposes phrases, words and syllables when speaking.
  • Accused of not listening or being inattentive.
  • Hearing sounds louder, softer, nearer or further away than they actually are.

Related Posts:

2 Responses to “Common Traits and Behaviors of Dyslexics”

  1. Kim September 17, 2011 at 6:13 pm #

    I have had dyslexia all my life. My only symptoms are:
    • Leaving out punctuation and letters (ed, ly, s)
    • Difficulty remembering sequences of letters in words, which make spelling a challenge
    • Slow reading speed.
    But NLP has really helped.

    Everyone in my family are smart, athletic, mathematical, and inventive. My father, brother, niece, and I all have similar dyslexic symptoms. I think that you are making many generalizations that have more to do with ADD than dyslexia.

    • Doug January 16, 2012 at 3:32 pm #

      The symptoms that resemble ADD and the actual visuo-spatial attention ability of the dyslexic are related in behavior, but not in their core issue. The Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience in 2009 compared multi-sensory spatial attention deficits to phonological coding skills and found that efficient orienting of visual spatial attention was necessary for speed and success. They studied both English speaking and Italian speaking dyslexics.

      On page 1021, para. 1 of their research, they state that attention orienting deficits are causally linked to reading disorders. Further, multi-sensory processing windows in which noise interferes with the signal is broader in dyslexics in comparison to normally reading children. Of key note was p.1020, “Moreover, the orienting deficit was not present in any of the dyslexic children who were accurate decoders.” In summary, those dyslexics who approach learning with proper visuo-spatial orientation are able to decode accurately, and those who are disoriented will have trouble filtering out everything, thereby exhibiting ADHD hyperactive or inattentive type behaviors.
      The generalizations that resemble ADD are rooted in dyslexic disorientation, which David is so good at reorienting and getting to the bottom of through his multi-sensory approach.

      Facoetti, A., Trussardi, A., Ruffino, M., Lorusso, M., Cattaneo, C., Galli, R., & … Zorzi, M. (2010). Multisensory Spatial Attention Deficits Are Predictive of Phonological Decoding Skills in Developmental Dyslexia. Journal Of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(5), 1011-1025.

Leave a Reply to Doug

Gravatar Image