Unlocking the Traits of Dyslexia
Understanding dyslexia is crucial for proper support and intervention. This section explores the various characteristics and traits associated with dyslexia, enabling educators and parents to recognise the signs early on. Enhanced awareness can lead to prompt assistance and improved outcomes for individuals with dyslexia.
Common characteristics of dyslexia include difficulties with phonological processing, challenges in spelling, and issues with decoding words. Individuals may also demonstrate inconsistent performance, where their ability can vary significantly from day to day. By acknowledging these traits, parents and educators can foster an environment conducive to learning, creating strategies tailored to support the specific needs of those with dyslexia.
Adults
Adults with SpLD dyslexia may experience ongoing challenges with reading, writing, and organisation, often alongside strengths in creativity, problem-solving, and holistic thinking.
Children
Children with SpLD dyslexia often exhibit a range of characteristics that can affect their reading, writing, spelling, and overall learning, which may vary in severity and presentation from one child to another.
The next section covers common dyslexic style difficulties in children.
Understanding the Importance of Dyslexia Screening
Identifying Needs Early for Effective Support
Dyslexia screening plays a crucial role in the educational landscape, serving as the first step in identifying individuals who may require additional assessment and specialised support.
Dyslexia indicators in adults
Dyslexia is typically diagnosed when a child first goes to school and experiences difficulties with these skills. But as a lifelong condition, symptoms can and do persist into adulthood.
Dyslexia in adults, much as is the case in children, can manifest in different and unexpected ways. The symptoms of dyslexia in adults can make managing areas like careers and relationships difficult and lead to low self-esteem, especially if diagnosis and/or treatment was not pursued earlier on as a child.
What are the Signs of Dyslexia in Adults?
- Difficulty recalling past conversations; often accused of “not listening”
- Trouble remembering names
- Mispronouncing words when speaking, or misspelling words when writing, without realizing
- Confusing visually similar words like “can” and “cab”
- Avoiding reading whenever possible, or preferring short articles or essays over long novels
- Struggling to pronounce unknown words when reading out loud
- Reliant on spouse, children, or family members to help with written correspondence
- Getting lost easily, particularly with written directions
- Becoming self-conscious when speaking to a group; using filler words or starting and stopping sentences repeatedly
If now is the time to grasp the nettle and achieve your goals in work or life, then you may be considering understanding yourself better, making the most from your talents and develop areas that have prevented you from reaching your ambitions.
Adults seeking independent dyslexia assessments for adults can request a dyslexia diagnostics assessment from us.
Dyslexia and work
If you believe you have Dyslexia, and it is impacting your work you should speak to your employer as soon as possible. In accordance with the Equality Act 2010, An employer is legally obliged and has a duty of care to ensure employees with dyslexia are not treated unfavourably because of their dyslexia.
The employer is not obliged to provide support for a dyslexia assessment, although some may contribute to the cost of having an assessment for their employees, typically this is an individual’s responsibility. Employees are typically supported through reasonable adjustments provided by or supported by the employer. A formal assessment, although not necessary can help with getting the appropriate reasonable adjustments in place. The support provided by an employer is discretionary and depends on the resources available to them. If an employee requires a dyslexia assessment, then contact us to discuss your requirements.
Dyslexia Symptoms in the Workplace
Often, adults with dyslexia (diagnosed or undiagnosed) may find that they gravitate toward jobs that require as little reading as possible. Other possible indicators of dyslexia in the workplace can include:
- Resisting reading out loud during meetings
- Avoiding public speaking whenever possible
- Often has to read emails or memos several times before comprehending
- Disliking unfamiliar fonts or handwritten materials
- Randomly placing capital letters in words when writing by hand
- Relying too much on spell-check and other computer-based writing tools
- Becoming bored or distracted easily when reading long documents
- Shying away from planning meetings, events, or other projects that rely on time management
- Disliking administrative work like repetitive forms
- Creating complex coping mechanisms to hide difficulties from coworkers
Support for dyslexic adults typically focuses on workplace accommodations.
Some interventions can include:
- Using assistive technologies, like dictation software
- Keeping written communications brief
- Using specific fonts in written documents
Alternatively, a workplace assessment can be provided by several private organisations and the governments’ Access to the Work grant scheme.This ensures the appropriate reasonable adjustments are put in place to meet the individual’s needs and maintain a fair working environment.
Dyslexia and University
Dyslexia is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010, which means that education providers are legally obliged to make reasonable adjustments such that a person is not unfavourably disadvantaged because of their dyslexia. Adult further education students, apprentices and higher education learners at college or university are all eligible to additional support to minimise the negative impact of dyslexia on their education.
To make the most of the available support, students should discuss their needs with the education provider at the earliest opportunity. Further education students and apprentices will receive Special Educational Needs (SEN) support without requiring a formal diagnosis of dyslexia. Higher education learners should contact the university or college Learning Support Officer, who will explain the available support and how to apply for a Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA). The DSA is a grant that can help pay the extra costs that the student may incur. A formal diagnosis and a Needs Assessment are required to obtain a DSA.
Support from the education provider will assist adult students, but it is essential to have other strategies to help with studying, such as organising limited time effectively.
We offer both short dyslexia tendencies report and full diagnostic assessments.
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E-mail: definingdyslexia@outlook.com
We operate virtually across the UK, providing accessible support wherever you are. For in-person appointments, we serve Sheffield, Peterborough, and the surrounding areas—contact us to learn more!
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