Signs of dyslexia in children

The early signs worth knowing, the ones that are not signs at all, and what to do if you are worried — including how to ask your child's school for a free evaluation.

For parents · ages 4 to 9 · not a diagnostic tool

The most common signs of dyslexia in children are trouble with the sounds inside words, trouble linking letters to those sounds, and reading and spelling that stay slow and effortful even with good teaching. In kindergarten that might look like a child who cannot hear that "cat" and "hat" rhyme, or who still struggles with letter sounds long after classmates have learned them. In first grade and beyond it often looks like guessing at words instead of sounding them out, very slow reading, and spelling that is hard to decipher. A family history of reading difficulty makes all of these more worth noticing.

No list of signs can tell you whether your child has dyslexia. Only a qualified professional can diagnose it, after a proper evaluation. In the US, you can ask your child's public school to evaluate them for free, in writing. This page explains how.

What dyslexia is

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) adopted a new definition on 22 October 2025. It begins:

It goes on to say that the causes combine genetic, neurobiological and environmental influences, that early spoken-language weaknesses often come first, and that support in the early years of school is particularly effective.

Three things follow from that:

• It is about words: reading and spelling them accurately and quickly. Understanding and ideas can be strong.
• It is a range, not a yes-or-no. Some children are mildly affected, some severely.
• It is not about intelligence or effort. In the IDA's words, dyslexia "is not due to either lack of intelligence or desire to learn."

Early signs of dyslexia: preschool and kindergarten

Before a child is reading, the signs are mostly in spoken language and learning the alphabet. The IDA's handbook Dyslexia in the Classroom lists signs including:

• Difficulty with rhyme, such as knowing that fat rhymes with cat
• Trouble recognizing words that begin with the same sound, such as bird, baby and big
• Difficulty remembering simple sequences: counting to 20, the days of the week, the alphabet
• Pronunciation difficulties, or a history of being slow to start talking
• Difficulty finding words, often saying "stuff" or "that thing" instead of the name
• Trouble remembering names of people and places, or spoken instructions
• Difficulty learning letters and the sounds they make

Every four- and five-year-old does some of these sometimes. What matters is a cluster that persists, especially letter sounds that will not stick, and especially with a family history. See how to teach a kindergartner to read and reading milestones by age for what is typical.

Signs of dyslexia in first grade and beyond

Once reading instruction is under way, the signs show up in reading and spelling themselves:

• Cannot reliably sound out simple words, like hat or sip, by the middle of first grade
• Guesses from the first letter or the picture: "horse" for house, "pony" for horse
• Reads a word correctly on one page and cannot read it on the next
• Reading is slow and effortful, and stays that way, even on text they have practiced
• Spelling is very hard, often in ways that do not match the sounds of the word
• Understands a story read aloud much better than one they read themselves
• Avoids reading aloud, gets upset, or is exhausted by short reading tasks
• In second and third grade, struggles with longer words and falls further behind as text gets harder

School screeners such as DIBELS look for exactly these weaknesses. If your child's report says "well below benchmark", see DIBELS scores explained.

What is not a sign on its own

• Reversing letters. Mixing up b and d is very common in young children learning to read and write. Dyslexia is not seeing letters backwards.
• Being younger in the class, or learning to read a little later than a sibling.
• Disliking reading. It can be a sign that reading is hard, but there are many other reasons; see when a child hates reading.
• Reading word by word in first grade. That is a normal stage; see why a child reads word by word.

Is my child dyslexic or just behind?

You cannot tell from home, and neither can an app. But one question helps more than any checklist: what happens when your child gets good, explicit teaching?

A child who is behind because they missed teaching (a move, a disrupted year, a program that never taught phonics systematically) usually starts to catch up fairly quickly once they get it. A child with dyslexia usually makes slower progress than their classmates even with teaching that works for those classmates. That is the phrase in the IDA definition.

Two cautions. First, do not wait months to find out: under US federal guidance, a school cannot make you wait through an intervention program before evaluating (more below). Second, the help is the same either way. Explicit, systematic teaching of sounds and letters benefits a child who is behind and a child with dyslexia, so start it now rather than after a label. The IDA notes that children with dyslexia who get effective phonological awareness and phonics teaching in kindergarten and first grade have significantly fewer problems learning to read than those who are not helped until third grade.

How dyslexia is diagnosed

According to the IDA, a comprehensive evaluation typically includes:

• Testing of general ability and of academic skills
• Spoken language: understanding and expressing language
• Phonological skills, including the ability to hear and work with the sounds in words
• Rapid naming of familiar things like letters
• Reading words in a list, and in sentences
• Writing

It can be done by a trained school team or a qualified professional outside school, such as a licensed psychologist. Schools often record the result as a specific learning disability rather than using the word "dyslexia". That is allowed, but so is the word: US federal law names dyslexia within its definition of specific learning disability, and the Department of Education told schools in 2015 that nothing in the law prohibits using the term in evaluations and education plans.

It is also worth checking hearing and vision with your doctor, because both can look like reading difficulty.

How to request a free school evaluation

In the US, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) gives parents the right to ask their public school to evaluate a child for a disability, at no cost to you.

1. Put it in writing. Email or a letter to the principal, copied to the district's special education office. Say you are requesting a full and individual evaluation under IDEA because you suspect a learning disability affecting reading, and describe what you have seen. Keep a dated copy.
2. The school must respond. It will either ask for your written consent to evaluate, or tell you in writing why it is refusing. That written notice must explain its reasons.
3. The clock starts at consent. Under federal rules the evaluation must be completed within 60 days of your consent, or within your state's own timeline if it sets one.
4. An intervention program is not a reason to wait. The Department of Education has told schools that a response-to-intervention process cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation.
5. If you disagree with the result, you can ask for an independent evaluation at the school's expense; the school must either pay for it or defend its own evaluation at a hearing.

This applies to children in private school too; contact the public school district where the school is. If your child does not qualify for special education, ask whether they qualify for accommodations under Section 504.

What helps, starting now

• Explicit, systematic phonics, one sound-spelling pattern at a time, with plenty of practice. The IDA calls this approach Structured Literacy. See how to teach phonics at home.
• Decodable books that use only the patterns your child has learned, so practice is reading, not guessing.
• Short, frequent practice. Ten minutes a day beats an hour on Saturday.
• Keep reading to them, so their vocabulary and understanding keep growing while their own reading catches up.
• Protect their confidence. Tell them reading is hard for them in a particular way, it is not their fault, and it gets better with the right practice.

What an app can and cannot do

No app can tell you whether your child has dyslexia, including ours. Our reading fluency app for kids listens to a child read aloud and tracks accuracy, words correct per minute and expression. That is not a diagnosis, but a few weeks of recordings and a list of the words that keep tripping them up can be useful to bring to a teacher or evaluator.

If you are worried, talk to the teacher and put your request in writing. Acting early is never the wrong call. See also reading help for kids, choosing a reading tutor, and the first grade, second grade and third grade guides.

Sources

• International Dyslexia Association, Definition of Dyslexia, adopted by the IDA Board of Directors on 22 October 2025.
• International Dyslexia Association, Dyslexia in the Classroom: What Every Teacher Needs to Know (2017), and the IDA's Frequently Asked Questions.
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.8 (definition of specific learning disability), 300.301 (initial evaluations), 300.502 (independent evaluations) and 300.503 (prior written notice).
• US Department of Education, OSEP Memo 11-07 (2011), on response to intervention and evaluations; OSERS guidance on dyslexia (23 October 2015).

Free chart from myfluentreader.com — reading fluency benchmarks, a words-per-minute calculator and the full sight-word lists, free and without signing up.