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While most of us think that the signs of dyslexia appear in preschool when a learner starts to reverse letters (confuse b/d , p/q, m/w, h/y) or have difficulties learning the alphabet sequence we are mistaken. The are some early signs that had we been aware of them, we could have got expert help sooner rather than later.
Many parents feel that the kindergartens are equipped with the expertise to deal with specific learning difficulties. Many do claim to but wait a minute. Not all kindergartens even have trained teachers. At best a third of their teachers have early childhood teaching diplomas. What more training in specific learning difficulties? Experience is not expertise. But never mind that. That is a topic for another blog entry.
Some early signs include a very short crawling stage. Many children who are predisposed to dyslexia go thru a rather short crawling stage and go straight into walking. Typically, by age 1, these lil champs have started walking. However, while the walking occurs quickly, there is a clear delay in speech development. That means the first words appear later than other kids their age. Sentence formation is also delayed. Sometimes, the quality of sound is muffled or unclear. Stop listening to the grandmother tales about how boys are slower and that the child's great uncle twice removed had a similar problem and out grew it!. We live in the 21st century,folks!
Then, there is another little sign - poor ability to stay focused on any task - be it watching TV, or playing with a specific toy. Generally, these children prefer to play with multiple toys in a short span of time. Any distraction will get them moving on to something else.
One more little early sign is clumsiness. The child predispose to dyslexia often bumps into things or trips on their own legs and falls down. They seem to also have a poor sense of balance in these early years compared to their peers. They may learn to jump at a later stage too. However, pls do not think that these problems with coordination stay forever. They tend to out grow it with additional physical activities like playing in the park and being encouraged to try to learn to jump. These are just markers to watch out for in the early stages before the age of 3 years.
Can anything be done? Of course... if you notice it.. we can start reducing issues from early on. Start with early intervention for their cognitive abilities - send them to provisions that can explicitly teach skills that are lacking. Obviously you need to go to places can actually identify weaknesses at that young age to begin with.
BEWARE of the many gimmick programmes out there and the many many quack interventionists as well. I am tired of unqualified people trying to mess up the field of special education in Malaysia.
Many parents feel that the kindergartens are equipped with the expertise to deal with specific learning difficulties. Many do claim to but wait a minute. Not all kindergartens even have trained teachers. At best a third of their teachers have early childhood teaching diplomas. What more training in specific learning difficulties? Experience is not expertise. But never mind that. That is a topic for another blog entry.
Some early signs include a very short crawling stage. Many children who are predisposed to dyslexia go thru a rather short crawling stage and go straight into walking. Typically, by age 1, these lil champs have started walking. However, while the walking occurs quickly, there is a clear delay in speech development. That means the first words appear later than other kids their age. Sentence formation is also delayed. Sometimes, the quality of sound is muffled or unclear. Stop listening to the grandmother tales about how boys are slower and that the child's great uncle twice removed had a similar problem and out grew it!. We live in the 21st century,folks!
Then, there is another little sign - poor ability to stay focused on any task - be it watching TV, or playing with a specific toy. Generally, these children prefer to play with multiple toys in a short span of time. Any distraction will get them moving on to something else.
One more little early sign is clumsiness. The child predispose to dyslexia often bumps into things or trips on their own legs and falls down. They seem to also have a poor sense of balance in these early years compared to their peers. They may learn to jump at a later stage too. However, pls do not think that these problems with coordination stay forever. They tend to out grow it with additional physical activities like playing in the park and being encouraged to try to learn to jump. These are just markers to watch out for in the early stages before the age of 3 years.
Can anything be done? Of course... if you notice it.. we can start reducing issues from early on. Start with early intervention for their cognitive abilities - send them to provisions that can explicitly teach skills that are lacking. Obviously you need to go to places can actually identify weaknesses at that young age to begin with.
BEWARE of the many gimmick programmes out there and the many many quack interventionists as well. I am tired of unqualified people trying to mess up the field of special education in Malaysia.
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