Second to 3rd Grade

In addition to the previous clues, we often see these difficulties in second and third grades:

• Very slow progress in acquiring reading skills
• Lack of a strategy to read new words; wild guesses or relies on context in story 
• Inability to read small function words such as "that", "an", "in", etc.
• Letter/sound confusions or reversals past the end of 2nd grade
• History of difficulty pronouncing words (i.e. busgetti for spaghetti, mawn lower for lawn mower)
• Stumbling on reading multisyllable words
• Fracturing words; omitting parts or vowels as if someone bit a hole in the middle of the word
• Difficulty spelling phonetically (by sound)
• Reads dysfluently (choppy and labored); terrific fear of reading out loud
• Oral reading that lacks voice and inflection
• Speech that is not fluent; pausing and hesitating, lots of "ums"
• Use of imprecise language; using "stuff" or "things" instead of the proper word
• Not being able to find the exact word; saying volcano instead of tornado, lotion instead of ocean, etc.
• Needs extra thinking time to summon an oral response
• Difficulty remembering rote pieces of information (rote memory), such as times tables