Dyslexia Symptoms Checklist for Parents

By Laura Lurns · Reviewed by Philip Weaver · Last reviewed 2026-10-01

How to use this checklist

No sign on this page is a finding about your child. In our experience, these are signs worth watching. A child who does four of them may have had thin teaching and nothing else going on. A child who does one of them, hard, for two years, may have a lot going on. A pattern over time tells you something. One sign on its own tells you little.

A list like this gives you words. Those words make a talk with a teacher more useful.

This checklist is not a test. It gives no score. By Catts and colleagues' account (2026), nothing beyond the reading and spelling trouble reliably identifies dyslexia in one child. No scan or gene test does.

Dyslexia is a name for a pattern of trouble reading words, spelling, or both. In our view, signs show where to start, not what to call it. Our rule is to describe patterns on these pages. We do not put a name on a child.

Sounds in spoken words

• Rhyming does not come. Or it comes and does not carry over. The child can say a rhyme they know and cannot make a new one.
• Nursery rhymes and song words are hard to hold on to, even ones heard many times.
• Words come out with the pieces in the wrong order, like aminal or pasghetti.
• Clapping the beats in a name does not click as a game.

Letters, sounds and words

• The letters in their own name are learned, forgotten and learned again.
• Letter sounds are taught and do not stick. Not just one or two. Many of them keep slipping.
• Blending will not come together. The child says m, a, t correctly. Then they cannot hear that the three make a word.
• Sight words are practiced, tested and known. A week later they are gone.
• The child reads the first letter and says a word that starts the same way. It means something else, like house for horse or when for where.
• The pictures carry a lot of the reading. Cover them and the reading changes.

Reading speed and effort

• Reading is slow and often one word at a time.
• The reading is correct and slow.
• Twenty minutes of reading leaves the child worn out.
• Homework takes a long time. In our experience, much of that time goes to the words, not the thinking.

Understanding what was read

• The child reads a page, and nothing comes back. Read the same page to them, and they can tell you all of it.

Spelling and writing

• Spelling is worse than the reading, often much worse.
• One word is spelled three different ways in one paragraph.
• They use plainer words in writing than when they talk.
• Their written work is much thinner than what they can say out loud.
• Taking notes while listening is very hard.

Our experience is that spelling stays visible longest. The studies we have do not answer how long spelling trouble lasts.

Reading time and avoidance

• Reading time brings more resistance than almost anything else. There is bargaining, tears, and a sudden need for water.
• They read what they must, and never for fun.

In our experience, resistance at reading time often gets written off as behavior. To us, the avoiding shows you how hard reading is for your child.

What about letter reversals?

On their own, letter reversals neither point to dyslexia nor rule it out. Note them, and watch the reading and the spelling too.

Signs that are not about reading

• Stomach aches or headaches on school mornings that are gone by Saturday.
• The child calls themselves stupid, flatly, as if it were settled. Notice whether it is about one subject.
• They compare themselves to a brother, sister or friend, often and without being asked.
• A child who was happy about school is not anymore, and nothing else has changed.

None of these, on its own, points to a reading difficulty. To us, they often mean school is harder for this child than it looks. To us, a child who calls themselves stupid is telling you how hard school has been. In our view, it says nothing about how smart they are. These signs are worth acting on, whatever the cause turns out to be.

What to do with this list

If several signs here sound familiar, the next step is not a verdict. It is to find out which job of reading is going wrong. Is it hearing the sounds inside words? Matching sounds to letters? Reading smoothly? Or understanding what was read? You can start on that question this week. A teacher can act on the answer.

The exception is a skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

Have hearing and vision checked too. A child who cannot hear well needs that found. So does a child who cannot see the print clearly.

You may be told to wait and see. Our position is to put support in place now, not to wait and see. No study we have tests wait-and-see as a plan for a learning difficulty. So we would not tell you to wait.

When to ask for help

Each of these is a reason to ask for help on its own.

• Little change, even with steady practice and good teaching.
• Reading well below what school expects.
• A teacher who raises a concern about reading.
• Extreme upset about reading.
• Complete avoidance of reading.
• Hopelessness about learning.
• Sadness or worry that lasts.
• Significant delays in speech, language or motor development.
• A skill that was there and has gone. Our position is that a lost skill goes to a doctor first, not a tutor.

Start with the teacher. Say what you are seeing at home, and what you have tried. Beyond the teacher, the right person depends on what it turns out to be about. If the work is too hard, someone who works on that school skill. If worry or mood is the thing, someone who works with children's mental health. In our view, delays in speech, language or movement are worth raising with your child's doctor. In our view, if you are worried enough to ask, a professional evaluation is worth asking about.

Any talk of hurting themselves is a same-day call to your doctor or a crisis line.