5 Surprising Signs that your Child Might have Learning Difficulties
As a parent, you have become an expert at seeing signs of discomfort and knowing when to call the pediatrician. But, do you know signs of discomfort when it comes to learning?
Recently, there has been more information readily available to parents (and teachers!) helping them look for some of the more obvious ‘red flags’ of a learning disability.
These are usually reading-specific and include a child struggling to:
Say the alphabet
Name letters
Say the sounds of letters
Read quickly
Spell
Form letters correctly (flipping b for d or p for q)
Confidence around school or homework
While this is wonderful news that these symptoms of reading or learning problems are becoming more well-known, here are a few surprising signs that continue to fly under the radar, but could indicate a learning disability like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, or Dyscalculia:
Surprising Sign # 1 Watch your child write. You should look for:
Awkward hand or body movements
Strange-looking letters or letters that would be hard to discern out of context
Slow writing or writing fatigue
Excessive cross-outs or erasures
Ignoring lines and margins
Writing avoidance (can they tell you more than they can write?)
Surprising Sign # 2 Watch your child spell. Look for:
Incorrect word or spelling usage (a real word, spelled the right way, used the wrong way)
A quick note about spelling and word usage from Thoughtco.com: “Homonyms are two or more words that have the same sound or spelling but differ in meaning. Homophones—which means "same sounds" in Latin—are two or more words, such as knew and new or meat and meet, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and often spelling. Homographs, meanwhile, are words that have the same spelling but differ in origin, meaning, and sometimes pronunciation, such as the verb bear (to carry or endure) and the noun bear (the animal with a shaggy coat)” (Nordquist, 2019).
Incorrect spelling that seems erratic (same word spelled incorrectly several different ways on the same page)
Incorrect spelling even when the word is there to copy
Surprising Sign #3: Watch your child craft. Pay attention to:
Jagged strokes when cutting or awkward scissor positioning
Avoidance of crossing the midline (think of the spine) while throwing, painting, writing, cutting
Coloring outside the lines — even when they are trying their best
Forgotten, incomplete projects
Surprising Sign #4: Listen to your child say things in order - also known as sequencing. You might hear:
Unusual ordering of the alphabet
Difficulty remembering days of the week or months in order
Remembering what they did this morning, what they will do tomorrow, what happened yesterday
Confusion around the words: before, after, yesterday, tomorrow, behind, in front*
And, finally, Surprising Sign #5: Look at your medical records. Make note of:
Someone in your family has a history of learning dislikes or difficulties
With older family members — those who may have attended school before 1960 — it may be unlikely that they were fully aware of a disability, but they can tell you if they struggled in certain areas of school or work
Your child experienced tubes or repeating ear infections, sleep apnea, or extreme colicky symptoms
Therapy needs: speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy
Milestones such as crawling, walking, talking, etc. were met later than expected
Premature birth or struggles during pregnancy and/or delivery
If any of these signs look or sound familiar, you should schedule a screener to look for signs of difficulties with reading, writing, or math that could indicate a learning disability. Examples may include dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, expressive language disorder, or receptive language disorder.
