Dyslexia-how old a child should be to be tested?

Question

My granddaughter is 5 years old and all of the sudden she is writing backwards. By age 4 she knew how to write all letters and numbers correctly, she even could write her name and last name. Now in kinder she is writing backwards. Teacher said we should wait until she is seven to be tested. I am concerned her progress in school. Does anyone knows?

Answer 1

I wouldn't be concerned about a child writing backwards until about the end of second grade. Around this time, a student has been in school long enough to know what the letters are and how they should be formed. Age 5 is way too early. When I taught kindergarten, I had several students that turned things around at the beginning of the school year, but were fine by the end. You will see a lot of turning around in first grade especially if a child didn't go to kindergarten or they didn't do a lot of writing in kindergarten. At the beginning of 2nd grade, I kept an eye on my backwards writers and made sure that they could tell that their letters were backwards. Whenever we had spelling tests, they should be able to check the alphabet strip and make sure the letters are facing the right way. If they couldn't do this, then there would be cause of concern.

Answer 2

A lot of children do this at this age and it is nothing to be concerned about. I would wait until she is atleast 6 or 7 before being concerned and tested. There is more criteria to meet before they say it is Dyslexia. My daughter writes letters backwards, but she also knows the proper way. She likes to either do it for fun or sometimes she will write an entire word backwards- mirror image. it is normal for this age.

Answer 3

I agree with the first poster for the most part. It is normal for kids at age 5 to reverse, and like someone said they do it for fun sometimes. I suggest watching your granddaughter's reading progress. Is she find learning to read easy, difficult, or in between? If she is finding it difficult then I would get her tested. If not, wait until a couple months into first grade and see how she does.

Answer 4

Children of this age often experiment with their writing. Plus one day they do things one way but two days later it could be totally different. I would follow what your teacher says.

Answer 5

I worked as a special education aide for 21 years -- that certainly doesn't make me an expert, however if she learned to recognize letters and numbers and was writing them correctly and now isn't doing that I would tend to think #1 she gets in too big a hurry to do it correctly or #2 she needs to have her eyes checked.  If it continues into first grade she'll have trouble learning to read, so then I'd talk to the diagnostician at her school and request that she be tested.

Answer 6

I agree with the teacher. Many children do this as they continue with the learning process. It takes until the age of 6.5-7 to begin testing. Some children will continue to make letters backwards on into third grade. I would start to be concerned if she only write backwards and is having a lot of trouble reading. Another thought is... If she already knew all of this before kindergarten, maybe she is just really smart and getting bored. Maybe she is testing herself,etc. I would wait at least until mid first grade and see if it is an ongoing continuous problem. Just my thought... hope it helps!