Can read a word on one page, but
won't recognize it on the next page

Slow, inaccurate reading of single words when
there are no pictures or storyline to provide clues

Often say a word that has the same first
and last letters, and the same shape,
such as form-from or trial-trail

Often insert or leave out letters,
such as could-cold or star-stair

May say a word that has the same letters,
but in a different sequence, such as who-how,
lots-lost, saw-was, or girl-grill

Directionality confusion with b-d, n-u or m-w

Substitute similar-looking words, even if it
changes the meaning of the sentence, such
as sunrise-surprise, house-horse, while-white,
wanting-walking

Have extreme difficulty with vowel
sounds and often leave them out

With enormous effort, might be able to "memorize" Monday's
spelling list long enough to pass Friday's spelling test, but can't
spell the same words later

Continually misspell high-frequency sight words such as they,
what, where, does and because, despite extensive practice

Misspell even when copying something
from the board or from a book

Written work shows signs of spelling uncertainty—
numerous erasures, cross-outs, etc.

Poor, nearly illegible handwriting (a.k.a. dysgraphia
or visual-motor integration disability)

Mixture of upper/lower case
letters or print/cursive letters

Irregular letter sizes and
shapes or unfinished letters

Unusual pencil grip, often with the thumb
on top of the fingers (“fist grip”)

Letters don’t "sit" on the horizontal lines

Slow, painful copying off the board—visually “grabbing” just one
or two letters at a time, often misspelling words and losing place

Chronic confusion about similarly formed cursive
letters such as f and b, m and n, w and u.

Notable difference between the ability to
tell people something and writing it down

Avoid writing whenever possible

Write everything as one very long sentence

Not understand that a sentence has to start with
a capital letter and end with punctuation

Misspell many words—even simple one-syllable words

Have nearly illegible handwriting

Use space poorly on the page , with odd spacing
between words, ignored margins, words widely
spaced or tightly pushed together

Directionality (left-right; numbers; up-down; word order; time;
sense of direction) never becomes rapid and automatic

Left-Right confusion with letters that point
in the opposite direction such as b-d

Number confusion: often start maths problems on
the wrong side or carry a number the wrong way

Up-Down confusion with letters
b-p, d-q, n-u and m-w

Word confusion with first-last, before-after,
next-previous, over-under

Time confusion with yesterday-tomorrow

Sense of direction confusion with north,
south, east, west: often get lost when
driving around; often have difficulty
reading or understanding maps

Learning any task that has a series of steps that must be completed
in a specific order can be difficult, such as tying shoelaces, printing
letters, doing long division or touch typing

Difficulty memorizing “non-meaningful” facts such as multiplication
tables, days of the week or months of the year (in order), science
statistics (e.g., water boils at 21º F) and historical dates, names, places

Trouble memorizing addition and subtraction
facts, plus multiplication tables

Unable to remember the sequence of steps in long division

Difficulty reading word problems

Often copy an answer incorrectly from one spot to a different spot

Often "see" math in their head, so sho wing work is almost impossible

Make errors doing math too rapidly

Often able to excel at higher levels of maths, such as
algebra, geometry and calculus—if they have a teacher who
understands how to work with this learning disability

Tendency to pile things rather than to
organize them and put them away

Often forget where an item is if not visible
(e.g. behind a door or in a drawer)

Often have extremely messy bedrooms, lockers,
desks, backpacks, purses, offices

When asked the time, may say something
like, "It's ten past quarter to."

Often can tell whole and half hours (5:00, 5:30, etc.)
but not smaller chunks of time (i. e., 5:12).

Can tell time on a digital clock, but if
told to be home in 15 minutes, can’t
figure out when that would be