Hello, and welcome to the Blue Butterfly! If you’re reading this, chances are you’re watching your child struggle with reading and searching for answers. Perhaps you notice the way their face falls when it’s time to read aloud. Or you watch them spend an hour on homework that should take twenty minutes. Maybe you hear the frustration in their voice when they say, “I just can’t do it.”
You’re in the right place.
Dyslexia affects approximately 15% of the population, making it the most common of all learning differences. Here’s what I want you to know: when identified early and treated with evidence-based intervention, children with dyslexia can become proficient readers. Intensive, appropriate intervention in kindergarten and first grade can bring approximately 90% of at-risk children to grade-level reading. And while early intervention is ideal, it’s never too late. Dyslexia therapy helps readers of all ages make significant gains in literacy.
To help guide you, I’ve outlined five key characteristics of dyslexia to watch for, grounded in decades of research and observed firsthand in my work as a Certified Academic Language Practitioner.
Early Signs of Dyslexia: Preschool and Kindergarten
1. Difficulty with Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness—the ability to recognize and manipulate the sound structures of spoken language—is one of the strongest predictors of future reading success. This awareness develops before children even begin formal reading instruction, and ongoing struggles in this area often signal dyslexia risk.
What does this look like? A child with weak phonological awareness might struggle to recognize rhyming words even after repeated practice. They may have difficulty breaking words into syllables or segmenting words into individual sounds. Blending sounds together can also be challenging. For example, hearing /c/ /a/ /t/ spoken separately and recognizing it forms “cat” doesn’t click for them the way it does for other children.
When a preschool or kindergarten-aged child shows continued difficulty with sound manipulation despite appropriate exposure and practice, this issue deserves prompt attention. The good news is that phonological awareness can be taught. Targeted practice at this age can make a real difference in your child’s reading future.
Early Elementary: When Reading Instruction Begins
2. Slow Progress with Letter-Sound Connections
Once formal reading instruction begins, many children start connecting letters to their sounds relatively quickly. For children with dyslexia, however, these connections are difficult to establish and maintain. You might practice a letter sound one day and your child seems to understand it. The next day, it’s as if they’ve never seen that letter before.
Young learners with dyslexia often struggle with alphabet fluency, both recalling the names of letters and their corresponding sounds. Even after months of practice, children may hesitate or struggle when asked to quickly name letters or produce their sounds. The brain struggles to form stable connections between visual symbols (the letters) and their corresponding sounds.
You may also notice difficulty with rapid naming more familiar items such as numbers, colors, or objects. This processing speed challenge often persists even after decoding skills improve and can continue to impact reading fluency.
If your first or second grader is still struggling to master letter sounds despite adequate instruction and practice, this warrants an evaluation. Identifying this struggle early means you can get help now, while your child’s brain is most ready to respond to the right kind of instruction.
3. Reading Remains Slow and Laborious
All beginning readers work hard at decoding, but typically, with practice, reading becomes increasingly automatic and fluent. For children with dyslexia, reading remains laborious and slow. Your child might sound out the same word multiple times on the same page without retention. I’ve watched many children decode high frequency words (like ‘the’ or ‘said’) three times in one paragraph, each time like it’s completely new. They may rely heavily on context and guessing strategies, such as looking at the first letter and picture, rather than systematically decoding words.
As a result, comprehension suffers. By the time your child finishes decoding a sentence, they’ve forgotten how it began. This difficulty with accurate and fluent word recognition is a hallmark characteristic of dyslexia. Many children with dyslexia demonstrate strong understanding when material is read aloud to them. This specific challenge lies in the decoding process itself. With structured literacy intervention, the laborious decoding that exhausts your child now can transform into fluid and automatic reading.
A quick note: I know this list might feel overwhelming. You don’t need to see all five signs to take action. Even one or two persistent red flags are worth investigating.
Upper Elementary and Beyond
4. The Unexpected Discrepancy
Perhaps the most confusing aspect of dyslexia for parents is the huge gap between their child’s obvious capabilities and their reading performance. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a parent say, “My child is so smart in everything else. Why can’t they just read?”
Your child might have an extensive vocabulary and excel at math, demonstrate creative problem-solving, or show remarkable spatial reasoning. When you read chapter books aloud together, they understand complex plots and discuss themes well above their independent reading level. Yet when they need to read independently, everything falls apart.
This isn’t about trying harder—it reflects a specific neurological difference in how the brain processes written language. Understanding this pattern confirms that your observations are accurate and that your child’s reading difficulties don’t reflect their intelligence or potential. This gap between what your child can do and how they read isn’t a limit. It’s proof of potential just waiting for the right teaching approach.
5. Avoidance and Anxiety
As reading demands increase, many children with dyslexia begin showing emotional responses to reading tasks. Common patterns include avoidant behavior when it’s time to read or showing visible anxiety about reading aloud. The suddenly urgent need for a bathroom break. The pencil that needs sharpening right now. The stomach that didn’t hurt five minutes ago. This behavior can manifest both at school and at home. Without remediation, a confident kindergartener can evolve into a third grader with poor self-esteem and confidence.
These behaviors are symptoms of the emotional impact of unaddressed dyslexia. As an educator, I see this psychological toll on children far too often. This part always gets to me. I wish every parent could see what I see: the magical moment when a child’s face lights up when reading finally starts to click. When something that appears effortless for their peers feels impossible to them, it affects not just academic performance but their developing identity. The anxiety and avoidance you’re seeing aren’t permanent. They fade when your child discovers their ability to succeed.
You May Also Notice…
Children with dyslexia almost always show persistent, sometimes severe, spelling difficulties.
Many also struggle with rote memorization tasks like multiplication tables. Despite repeated practice, these facts simply don’t stick. This reflects the same memory and retrieval difficulties that affect reading.
If dyslexia runs in your family, these signs become even more significant. Dyslexia has a strong genetic component, with heritability rates ranging from 40-60%. If you or your partner struggled with reading as a child, your child’s risk for dyslexia increases substantially.
Taking Action: What Parents Need to Know
If you recognize your child in these descriptions, here’s what matters most:
Trust your gut. If something feels off about your child’s reading development, that intuition deserves attention, even if teachers suggest waiting. You know your child best.
Seek a comprehensive literacy evaluation. Effective screening should evaluate phonological awareness, phonics knowledge, decoding skills, reading fluency, comprehension, rapid automatic naming, and spelling. These results will be the foundation for your child’s next steps.
Insist on evidence-based intervention. Children with dyslexia require structured literacy instruction: explicit, systematic, cumulative, and multisensory teaching based on Orton-Gillingham principles. Programs developed by Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, such as Take Flight, represent this evidence-based approach. Look for practitioners certified by organizations like ALTA (Academic Language Therapy Association) or holding CALP/CALT credentials.
Start now. Don’t wait for your child to fall further behind. Every year without support widens the gap between your child’s potential and their performance, but with the right help, that gap can close.
The path forward may feel uncertain right now, but children with dyslexia can become confident, successful readers. With the right support, your child will not only learn to read, but they will also discover strengths you haven’t even seen yet. The creativity, resilience, and problem-solving skills that children with dyslexia develop often become some of their greatest assets.
You’re not alone in this. I’m here to help. Please reach out to Samantha@bluebutterflydyslexia.com to discuss a path forward for your child.
Sincerely,
Samantha
Research Foundation
This article draws on research and guidance from:
- International Dyslexia Association (IDA) – dyslexia definition, characteristics, and intervention standards
- Dr. Louisa Moats – phonological awareness research and structured literacy approaches
- Scottish Rite Hospital for Children – structured literacy programs and dyslexia intervention research
- Academic Language Therapy Association (ALTA) – evidence-based practice standards
- Peer-reviewed research on dyslexia heritability and genetic factors
- The Simple View of Reading framework