: What are the warning signs for Dyslexia? What are the early indicators to help determine if a child should be evaluated for Dyslexia? At what age can the signs first be detected?

According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, persistent difficulties with reading, particularly coupled with frustration, are an initial indicator that you should be concerned.

More specifically, there are a variety of warning signs for each age group, and matching three or more of these signs should be cause for concern (emphasis on concern; always rely upon a qualified professional for actual diagnosis):

In Preschool

delayed speech
mixing up the sounds and syllables in long words
chronic ear infections
severe reactions to childhood illnesses
constant confusion of left versus right
late establishing a dominant hand
difficulty learning to tie shoes
trouble memorizing their address, phone number, or the alphabet
can't create words that rhyme
a close relative with dyslexia

In Elementary School

May be slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds.
Has difficulty decoding single words (reading single words in isolation).
Has difficulty spelling phonetically.
Makes consistent reading and spelling errors such as:

Letter reversals - "d" for "b" as in: "dog" for "bog"
Word reversals - "tip" for "pit"
Inversions - "m" for "w," "u" for "n"
Transpositions - "felt" for "left"
Substitutions - "house" for "home"

dysgraphia (slow, non-automatic handwriting that is difficult to read)
letter or number reversals continuing past the end of first grade
extreme difficulty learning cursive
slow, choppy, inaccurate reading:

guesses based on shape or context
skips or misreads prepositions (at, to, of)
ignores suffixes
can't sound out unknown words

terrible spelling
often can't remember sight words (they, were, does) or homonyms (their, they're, and there)
difficulty telling time with a clock with hands
trouble with math

memorizing multiplication tables
memorizing a sequence of steps
directionality

when speaking, difficulty finding the correct word

lots of “whatyamacallits” and “thingies”
common sayings come out slightly twisted

extremely messy bedroom, backpack, and desk
dreads going to school

complains of stomach aches or headaches
may have nightmares about school

In High School

All of the above symptoms plus:

limited vocabulary
extremely poor written expression

large discrepancy between verbal skills and written compositions

unable to master a foreign language
difficulty reading printed music
poor grades in many classes
may drop out of high school

In Adults

Education history similar to above, plus:

slow reader
may have to read a page 2 or 3 times to understand it
terrible speller
difficulty putting thoughts onto paper

dreads writing memos or letters

still has difficulty with right versus left
often gets lost, even in a familiar city
sometimes confuses b and d, especially when tired or sick

Some more resources are here and here and here.

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Dyslexia is more an auditory than a visual phenomenon it seems, and one of the early indicators is that kids that have a high chance of being dyslexic have trouble learning how to parse words into syllables, at age 5. But 'having trouble' means being worse than other, non-high-risk peers. I have no idea how good in absolute terms they should be, or how the game of parsing words into syllables is introduced though. But perhaps you can look it up more thoroughly based on this info. I heard it at a lecture on dyslexia, from a neuroscience expert.

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I hope you don't take offense, but isn't this a thing to ask your pediatrician? Mine is great, and continually getting updated training, so I look to her for the most current information about things like this.

More generally, I would be watching out for other language-processing problems that aren't developing as quickly as you expect.

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