October is here bringing with it cooler weather, changing leaves, and your children's progress reports. October is also Dyslexia Awareness Month, and with the school year still young but well under way, it is the perfect time to draw attention to and to clarify some of the underlying myths surrounding a syndrome which affects thousands of students.

Many people, including experts, erroneously diagnose dyslexia as a reading disorder characterized by letter scrambling and word reversal. However, dyslexia is a syndrome of many reading and non-reading symptoms of varying degrees. Some children may not even scramble letters when reading but have trouble with spelling and writing. Others may have difficulty keeping their place while reading or experience blurring, word movement, or fatigue. In other words, dyslexia is a complex combination of symptoms well beyond the typical “has trouble reading” tag-line.

Follow up:

If one or more of the following symptoms are evident, dyslexia may be present:

Reading

• Tendency to skip over or scramble letters, words, and sentences
• Memory instability with letters, words, or numbers
• Poor or slow reading ability which may include physical compensation including head tilting, near-far focusing, and finger pointing
• Word blurring, movement, or double imaging
• Headaches, fatigue, vertigo, or nausea brought on from reading

Writing

• Messy, poorly angulated, or drifting handwriting
• Size, spacing, or letter-sequencing errors when writing
• Trouble with cursive i.e. struggling to make the letters connect smoothly
• Spelling, Memory, and Grammar
• Poor spelling, grammar skills
• Memory instability with names, dates, and lists
• Trouble with sequences such as the alphabet, days of the weeks, and months of the year

Direction

• Delay in learning or difficulty telling time
• Time-related symptoms such as compulsive lateness, time management, or procrastination
• Directional uncertainty, such as remembering right/left, north/south and east/west.

Dyslexia can manifest itself in many forms. In fact, some dyslexics have learned to compensate or overcompensate for the traditional signs of reading impairment but still suffer due to a lack of understanding surrounding the syndrome. If you suspect your child may have dyslexia or other learning differences, take advantage of Dyslexia Awareness Month and have your child tested by a professional.