Arriving at a diagnosis for a learning disability like dyslexia is never easy. There are many different problems that could be leading to the child’s underperforming at their grade level and rarely does a school, a teacher, or a parent want to hand a stigma like a learning disorder over to a child. Few people realize just how liberating being diagnosed with a disease that is every bit as treatable as a real virus can be. Once the child and its parents know what the problem is the long journey of treatment can begin. It is at this point that everyone involved will admit they can actually see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Diagnosing dyslexia in children from kindergarten until about fourth grade can actually be a fairly simply process of noticing when the child is having an especially hard time with one task or another. For the most part, younger children’s symptoms will actually pop up as a bit more obvious because everyone is just learning how to do, say, write and read new words. When one child is lagging behind all the others in the first couple of years of their education, it becomes a little clearer where the problem lies. For most kids in this age group, there are some specific symptoms to look out for. In the area of mathematics, one of the bigger signs that there may be a problem beyond lack of interest is when a child is constantly confusing the various symbols (+, -, =, x, /). In the area of reading and writing the problem will usually present itself as a juxtaposition of certain letters and words. The letter “m” might often be confused for “w” or the word “pot” might be used when the child meant to write “top.” Of course in order for any of these to count as symptoms there has to be a pattern emerging.