🌾 The Little Clues Before We Knew It Was Dyslexia

When I look back at my own children’s early years, I can see the signs so clearly now. But at the time, they just felt like quirks or personality and “they’ll grow out of it.”

Before we ever had the word dyslexia, we had moments. Small ones. Confusing ones. Sometimes funny. Sometimes frustrating. And sometimes heartbreaking.

If you are seeing similar things in your child, I want you to know: you are not imagining it. And you are not alone.

👟 Shoes on the Wrong Feet

Over and over again. Even when we practiced. Even when we labeled. Even when we joked about it. Right and left didn’t “stick.” It wasn’t defiance. It wasn’t carelessness. It was a genuine spatial confusion.

👕 Clothing Backwards (And Inside Out)

Shirts backwards. Pants twisted. Tags in the front. It wasn’t that they didn’t care. It was that their brains processed directionality differently. Front/back, right/left — those are orientation concepts, and for some kids, they are not intuitive.

🗣️ Making Up Their Own Words

This one used to make me smile — until I realized it was more than creativity.

They would substitute a word with something that sounded similar or invent a word entirely when they couldn’t retrieve the correct one. Word retrieval difficulty?Phonological processing weakness? It can be a very early indicator. At the time, I thought, “They’re imaginative.”

Now I understand: their brains were working hard to fill in gaps.

🕰️ Confusion About Time

“Was that yesterday?”“Is tomorrow after this?”“What comes before?” Before and after. Yesterday and tomorrow. Concepts of time felt slippery. They didn’t anchor.

Temporal sequencing is another skill that can be challenging for dyslexic learners — especially when language is involved.

📅 Trouble With Groupings & Sequences

Days of the week. Months of the year. Pennies, nickels, dimes. Anything that required ordered grouping? It didn’t stick. We would practice Monday–Sunday over and over. It felt memorized… until it wasn’t. It wasn’t laziness. It wasn’t lack of exposure. It was a sequencing and memory processing difference.

📖 Sight Words That Wouldn’t “Stick”

This one broke my heart the most. We would practice sight words daily. One day — mastered. The next day — gone. “How does she not remember ‘the’?” I would think, but what I know now is this:

Sight words rely heavily on the brain’s ability to connect sounds to letter patterns and store them efficiently. For dyslexic learners, this process is slower and requires explicit, structured instruction.

It wasn’t effort. It wasn’t intelligence. It wasn’t a lack of trying. It was dyslexia.

The journey with my kids has been long, sometimes sad, but mostly they have taught me so much about learning, support and LOVE.

None of these signs alone mean dyslexia.

But patterns matter.

When we see:

• Directionality confusion

• Time and sequencing challenges

• Persistent sight word struggles

• Word retrieval issues

• Difficulty with grouped information

…it’s worth looking closer, not to label, not to panic, but to understand. If you feel something isn't sticking the way it should, please reach out to My Learning Farm www.mylearningfarm.com