I hope I'm just paranoid, but a friend of ours has dyslexia and it made school very difficult for her. My almost 5-year-old son is just starting to read. (In my opinion, he's doing fantastic, but I'm clearly biased.) He only has a handful of sight-recognition words and uses the pictures to help him sound out the words. However, he keeps switching words "no" and "on" or "of" and "for" and so on. If I ask him for the first letter, he will tell me the correct letter.
Is this normal for a beginning reader?
Thanks!
As a reading specialist, know that this is a common error and in most children it will self correct before January of 2nd grade. Some children sooner, some later of course. Dsylexia can't truly be diagnosed until after at least 9 years of age.
Have no fear, and just keep showing your pride in his reading ability! =)
This is very typical behavior for the age. My son is 6 and does this. I had him reviewed and tested and the psychologist said everything was normal for his age. Good Luck and just keep working with him!
My daughter does this she is 6 and in K and very bright, she's done exceptional on her report cards, however, I was really worried about this too as she'd write letters backwards and even her name starting with yhtaC. They said it was completley normal. And she still reads just fine and is now writing correctly.
P.,
Is your son in pre-k? They should have a speech teacher there that can pick up on these things very early. If not, I would call my Pediatrician and ask for a name for a child s speech therapist.
My reason for not waiting is that I have dealt with two situations concerning speech (both boys). The first boy you couldn't understand his words. He was 3 and at the age of 5 he finally got better. But, I got his parents to take him in and get him evaluated at 3, and he did need intervention, and now he is doing great! He's about 9yrs. old.
Secondly, and I'm positive it's not your sons problem, is that my friend has a son that would not speak a word! The doctors all told my friend, don't worry, he's a boy, they take longer. Well, at 3 years,I finally talked her into taking him to a specialist. He ended up being severely autistic. Still not speaking at the age of 6. But, he has had some awesome early intervention and is learning other ways to communicate.
I myself would ease my mind and take him to a speech therapist...
Best of luck to you..............
Rhond
P.,
It could be normal, but kids with reading difficulties look this way too. He is still 4, which is not even kindergarten. What you should be woried about is a real problem decoding and manipulating the phonemes (the actual sounds) If in the next two years he seems clueless about what letters make what sounds, and is not making what his teachers say is adequate progress, then have it checked out sooner rather than later, and well before age 8, because that is when the window for the greatest reading development starts to close. Reversals are perfectly normal, especially at age 4.5, only worry about this if it continues on a regular basis into or beyond 2nd grade.
You just can't tell if it is a problem like dyslexia until they are old enough to perform anyway. You can identify developmental issues earlier than 4.5, so don't confuse the two. Every parent should keep a close watch for signs that their child needs help, so you are doing the right thing by asking. Early intervention is always the easiest, most cost effective, and hands down, brings the most progress, so I applaud you for checking on him, just give him more time!
Good luck
M.
When my son was in kindergarten he not only transposed letters and numbers but he wrote his entire name backwords- with the letters backwords.. the good news is that he's in 4th grade and a straight A student!! Dont worry unless it continues until hes 8 or so.
My 6 year old's kindy teacher said that that is completely normal. My son at first was saying that of was off and some others so its a completely normal thing for a beginning reader. Congrats on him wanting to read - my 6 year old not so much!!
I didn't read all the other posts, but i had the same concern as you and the teachers here all told me that untill second or third grade they did not diagnose dyslexia. i'm sure there are exceptions but basically before that it is jsut normal for kids to write things and read things backwards, they see an o and an n and sonce they know the word no it's what comes out regardless of the order of the letters. my first grader just yesterday told me 08 was the number 80. it's ntohing to worry about. good job on your son reading at all, btw. my 5 year old won't start kindergarten till this coing fall and she's a reader already too, so good job, your son will go far in school with that kind of help at home.
