Young Children :
- Delayed speech and other speech and language difficulties: This is a strong predictor of risk for subsequent reading problems and should alert all parents, health and education professionals that without careful and appropriate teaching a young child may have difficulty becoming literate.'In fact, studies show that between 75 and 100 percent of children with pre-school language delays have trouble with reading.(Hall/Moats p140) This disquieting news needs to be tempered by the fact that 'dyslexia' doesn't exist in several European countries and, 'If language development really played a causal role in learning to read one would expect to find the same incidence of reading problems everywhere, because human language is a biological trait'. (McGuinness LDLR p206) 'Overall, a broad range of studies from a variety of disciplines show that no child, short of being deaf, mute, or grossly mentally disabled, is prevented by a language delay or deficit from learning 'reading mechanics' (D.McGuinness LDLR p12)

- 'Glue ear' or intermittent hearing loss: Being unable to hear clearly for long periods of time in early childhood places many children in double danger (triple if they are boys!) of failing to learn to read; their classroom being, typically, noisy and the literacy teaching not optimal. “To understand almost all speech that is intended for us, say the experts, the speech must be at least 15 decibels louder than other interfering sounds. Most classrooms exceed this level by 10 times' (www.cllrnet.ca)

- Has a close relative with dyslexia or reading difficulties: As literacy is not a biological trait it cannot be transmitted genetically, but a familial trait can be transmitted culturally. 'Thus, contrary to what practitioners may sometimes suppose, family relationship (familiality) alone is not a reliable indicator of genetic heritability' (Rice/Brooks p32)(Muter p3) The main cultural factors related to literacy acquisition are the transparency of the spelling code and the method used to teach reading. In English-speaking countries where, every year, at least 20% of children leave school functionally illiterate, nearly everyone has a relative (or several) who failed to learn to read.

- Lack of rhyming ability: This is not a good predictor of reading test scores amongst children or adults.

- Poor short-term memory: *Soft sign. 'In a highly regarded study conducted by Joseph Torgesen, a psychologist at the University of Florida, out of 60 children with severe reading difficulties, only eight had poor short-term memories, while almost as many – seven – had very good short-term memories' (Mills)

- Allergies and auto-immune disorders: *Soft sign

- Missing out the crawling stage of learning to walk: *Soft sign

- Left-handed and/or confusion between left and right: *Soft sign

Older Children:
- Usually, slow, inaccurate reading and poor spelling. N.B. decoding /spelling difficulties are rarely seen in countries with transparent alphabets e.g. Spain, Germany and Finland (RRF49 p19) Some children with excellent, visual memories and good vocabulary skills may appear to be able to read competently throughout their primary years, but, if they are relying on whole-word memorisation and guessing, this ability will break-down at some point - see 'Teenagers'.

- Unable to remember common word sequences such as the months of the year and days of the week. *Soft sign

- Problems with 'naming' and word finding. *Soft sign. 'The fact that RAN (rapid automatic naming tasks) using digits and letters predict reading so much better than RAN colours and objects do, means that naming speed per se is not a factor in learning to read.' (D.McGuinness LDLR p388) 'Naming objects and colours is a truer reflection of natural or biological based ability' (D. McGuinness WCCR p131) 'Rapid naming, phonological awareness, and reading. A meta-analysis of the correlational evidence. The results suggested that the importance of RAN and PA measures in accounting for reading performance has been overstated' (Swanson/Trainin/Necoechea/Hammill. Review of Educational Research.73. 2003)

- Organisational difficulties. *Soft sign

- Sight problems *Soft sign. ''There are a lot of abnormalities of the eyes that normal readers have as well, so tinted lenses and overlays have no foundation as a bona fide treatment for reading problems in any research that I'm aware of'' (Vellutino.The Dyslexia Myth. ITV CH4 08/09/05)

- Immature social skills. *Soft sign

- Difficulties with arithmetic -see 'Mathematics'.

- Their teacher may suggest that they have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), BUT frustration, stress and boredom can also cause or increase an inability to attend. 'When children are highly distractible, overly disruptive and unable to stay 'on task', this usually means they can't do the task' (McGuinness WCCR. p188) "Hospitals are complaining that their clinics are being filled with kids who are being referred for things like Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder," said Dr Rowe, who was last week appointed by the federal Education Minister to run the inquiry. "But once the pediatricians sort out the children's literacy problems, the behaviour problems disappear. What is essentially an education issue has become a health issue.” (Milburn.Children in crisis:The real diagnosis) In her chapter in Fisher and Greenberg's The Limits of Biological Treatments for Psychological Distress, Prof. Diane McGuinness refers to ADHD as "the emperor's new clothes." She observes, "It is currently fashionable to treat approximately one third of all elementary school boys as an abnormal population because they are fidgety, inattentive, and unamenable to adult control." She concludes that, "(T)wo decades of research have not provided any support for the validity of ADD" or hyperactivity. Neither clinical studies nor psychological testing has been able to identify such a group''. The problem, according to McGuinness, is how to get professionals to give up such a vested interest in the use of this powerful label''.

- May have dyspraxia (clumsy-child syndrome): problems with gross and fine motor skills such as handwriting or learning to ride a bicycle (see 'Exercises for Dyslexics' page) but, ''There's really no evidence that improving co-ordination is going to make it easier for you to learn to read. (Prof. Bishop.The Dyslexia Myth ITV CH4 08/09/05)

- Reluctance to attend school.

* All descriptions of dyslexia include many 'soft' signs ie. they are not based on data that is readily quantifiable or amenable to experimental verification. Some of the commonest ones are included in the descriptions above. Soft signs 'are found in some people without learning problems and absent in others who experience learning difficulties (Rice/Brooks p22)

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/coping.pdf Coping with language delay

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/prescription.pdf ADD or can't read?

www.theness.com/articles.asp?id=36 Why is someone called ADHD?

www.talkingpoint.org.uk/ Speech, language and communication difficulties in children.

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/listen.pdf Why Johnny won't pay attention.

www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/archives/boys.pdf Boys' hearing.

www.cuedspeech.co.uk/ Literacy is possible for even the profoundly deaf by making the sounds of speech visible

In all cases, vision and hearing must be thoroughly checked. It is possible that an auditory or visual weakness may be causing the problems or be adding to them. Many children have mild visual impairments or unstable eye control.

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