It is important to find dyslexia early in a child’s life so that she can get intervention as early as possible. In Sally Shaywitz’s book Overcoming Dyslexia, she writes:
- Observe your child’s language development. Be on the alert for problems in rhyming, pronunciation, and word finding.
- Observe your child’s ability to connect print to language. Notice if he is beginning to name individual letters.
- Know your family history. Be alert to problems in speaking, reading, writing, spelling, or learning foreign languages. Some families with more than average complement of dyslexics seem to have abundance of photographers, artists, engineers, architects, scientists, and radiologists. Somewhat less frequent, but still impressive, are the large number of families sprinkled with great writers, entrepreneurs, and jurists who are dyslexic.
- If there are clues to problems with spoken language, learning letters, and especially if there is a family history, have your child assessed.