Signs Of Dyslexia In Teens: A High School Checklist

Checklist: Signs Of Dyslexia In High School Students

No single sign means dyslexia. Look for several signs together, in a student who has been taught well and is trying. Each sign below comes with the reason it happens.

Reading

• Stalls on subject words, or skips them. Words such as “photosynthesis” or “parliamentary” have to be sounded out, and sounding out is the weak point.
• Understands far more when the text is read to them. Listening is not the problem. Getting the words off the page is.
• Needs two or three passes to get through a chapter. Working out the words takes so much effort that little attention is left for the meaning.
• Avoids reading aloud, or trips on short common words as well as long new ones. Reading aloud cannot be hidden. Words that are not yet automatic have to be worked out on the spot.
• Rarely reads by choice. Reading has always cost more effort than it gives back.

Spelling And Writing

• Notes from class are thin or unfinished. Listening, deciding what matters and spelling it, all at once, is too much to do at speed.
• A timed in-class essay reads far below their homework. Under time pressure there is no room to check each word, so spelling and sentences both slip.
• Writes much less than they know. Spelling and getting sentences down use up the effort that planning an essay needs.
• Swaps the word they meant for one they can spell. A student who says “inevitable” in class discussion will write “sure to happen” in the essay.
• “Photosynthesis” in the question, a different spelling in the answer. Even with the word printed on the test paper, the spelling was never stored firmly, so it is rebuilt from its sounds.

Speaking And Remembering

• Mispronounces long words or mixes up words that sound alike. The sound pattern of a new word is stored loosely.
• Loses track of a string of instructions. Many students with dyslexia also have a weaker working memory, and healthdirect notes this can show more as school asks more.
• Finds a second language unusually hard. A new language means learning a new set of sounds and spellings, which is the same skill that makes English reading hard.

Time And Effort

• Homework takes far longer than it does for classmates. Reading and writing are slower at every step.
• Runs out of time in tests. Reading the questions uses up the minutes.
• Marks do not match the effort or the understanding shown in class. School reports say things like “capable, needs to try harder”.
• Tired, flat or anxious about school, or avoiding certain subjects. Years of working harder for less wear a student down.

If You Are The Teenager: Does This Sound Like You?

• I read the same page several times before it goes in.
• I know what I want to say, but it comes out shorter and simpler when I write it.
• I pick a different word because I cannot spell the one I mean.
• I dread being asked to read aloud.
• I run out of time in tests even when I know the work.
• If there is a video or a podcast on it, I go to that first.
• I spend longer on homework than my friends and get lower marks.
• Some days school makes me feel slower than everyone else.

If most of these sound like you, it is worth showing this page to a parent or a teacher you trust. Dyslexia has nothing to do with how smart a person is.

How To Read The Checklist

A checklist cannot tell you whether a teenager has dyslexia. It can tell you whether an assessment is worth arranging. Three things make the signs more likely to matter:

• There is a cluster. Several signs across reading, spelling and writing, not one or two.
• They are not new. Looking back, reading and spelling were hard work in primary school too, even if the marks were fine.
• They have lasted. The difficulty is still there after good teaching or extra help.

A family history adds weight: dyslexia tends to run in families, so a parent, brother or sister with reading or spelling difficulties makes the signs more likely to matter. Poor attention, missed schooling, hearing or vision problems and anxiety can produce some of the same signs, which is why a list is a starting point and not an answer. Attention is the most common look-alike, covered in ADHD and dyslexia. The signs at every stage are on the signs of dyslexia page.

From dyslexiaassessment.com.au. A checklist is not a diagnosis.