Nursery rhymes could help identify dyslexic children at much younger age

Key indicators your child may have dyslexia and how to help them cope with the condition

Failure to recite nursery rhymes could be an early indication of dyslexia. As Dyslexia Awareness Week approaches, education experts are highlighting the importance of recognising dyslexia early.

With 43% of schools in the UK struggling to understand dyslexic challenges, it’s more important than ever to identify signs early and provide appropriate support. Tutoring provider Explore Learning is stepping up to help parents identify early signs of dyslexia, whilst also offering expert advice on supporting dyslexic children.

Children may struggle to remember or recite simple rhymes like Humpty Dumpty because those with dyslexia may find it challenging to recognise rhyming words or break words into individual sounds.

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But there are also other early indicators of the condition.

• Slow speech development
• Difficulty learning to recite the alphabet
• Struggling to carry out more than one instruction
• Confusion with directional words
• Difficulty with short-term memory

Some dyslexic children might start speaking later than their peers or have trouble expressing themselves clearly.

Remembering the order of letters or associating letters with their sounds may be challenging for dyslexic children. This is related to difficulties in sequential memory and phoneme-grapheme correspondence, which are common in dyslexia.

Forgetting parts of instructions or mixing up the order of steps can be a sign of dyslexia in children. This can be due to challenges with working memory and sequencing.

Words like ‘left’ and ‘right’ or ‘up’ and ‘down’ may be consistently mixed up. This spatial and directional confusion is a common feature of dyslexia, often persisting into adulthood.

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Children may also struggle to remember information they’ve just been told, such as a friend’s name or simple instructions. This is because dyslexia can affect working memory, which is responsible for temporarily holding and processing information.

According to the British Dyslexia Association, eight in 10 dyslexic students are leaving school undiagnosed, potentially impacting their future academic and career prospects. But Explore Learning is reassuring parents that, with the right guidance, children with dyslexia can overcome challenges and thrive academically.

Charlotte Gater, Head of Education at Explore Learning, said: “It’s crucial to remember that dyslexia is not a reflection of intelligence. With the right support, children with dyslexia can achieve remarkable success. The key is to recognise each child’s unique learning needs, and ensure their educational strategies are adapted accordingly.”

Gater suggests combining visual, hearing, and hands-on activities, breaking tasks into smaller steps, allowing extra time for reading and writing, using helpful technology like interactive phonics apps or from text-to-speech software and focussing on identifying and nurturing areas where the child excels to build confidence and motivation.

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